Learn Hardcore Croatian: Osim muzeja, volim i kino. - Besides the museum, I also like the cinema.

So the basic idea of osim is “outside of something,” and the exact English translation (besides, apart from, except) depends on whether you’re adding something or excluding something.

Why is it muzeja and not muzej after osim?

osim requires the genitive case in Croatian.

The base noun is muzej (museum), masculine singular nominative.
The genitive singular of muzej is muzeja.

Because osim takes the genitive, you must say:

✅ osim muzeja
❌ osim muzej

This matches a general pattern: many prepositions (including od, do, bez, iz, nakon, ispred, oko, tijekom) take the genitive case.

How can I recognize that muzeja is genitive and not something else?

For the noun muzej (masculine, ending in a consonant), the important singular forms are:

Nominative: muzej (subject)
Accusative: muzej (object of most verbs)
Genitive: muzeja (used after many prepositions, or to mean “of the museum”)

So:

The ending -a here signals genitive singular for many masculine nouns (e.g. grad → grada, auto → auta, muzej → muzeja).

In the phrase osim muzeja, you can be sure it’s genitive because osim always triggers the genitive.

Why is there a comma after Osim muzeja?

The comma marks a short introductory phrase:

Osim muzeja, volim i kino.
Literally: Besides museums, I like the cinema too.

In Croatian, it’s normal (and stylistically preferred) to put a comma after an introductory prepositional phrase like:

Ujutro, pijem kavu. – In the morning, I drink coffee.
Nakon posla, idem kući. – After work, I go home.

You could sometimes see it without a comma in informal writing, but with the comma is standard and clearer.

What is the function of i in volim i kino? Isn’t i usually “and”?

Yes, i normally means “and”, but it also often means “also / too / even”, depending on position and context.

Here, i is best understood as “also”:

Osim muzeja, volim i kino.
= Besides museums, I also like the cinema.

Compare:

Volim muzeje i kino.
= I like museums and the cinema. (just listing)
Osim muzeja, volim i kino.
= Besides museums, I also like the cinema. (emphasizes addition)

So the i before kino highlights that kino is an additional item, on top of muzeji.

Could I omit i and just say Osim muzeja, volim kino?

Yes, you can:

Osim muzeja, volim kino.

This is grammatically correct and understandable. The nuance is:

With i (volim i kino): You emphasize that the cinema is an additional thing you like.
Without i (volim kino): Neutral statement; the “also” sense is mostly carried by osim (“besides”).

Both are fine, but volim i kino highlights the addition more strongly.

Can I change the word order, like Volim i kino, osim muzeja?

You can move parts around in Croatian, but not all options sound natural or convey the same nuance.

Osim muzeja, volim i kino.
= Most natural and standard.

Volim i kino, osim muzeja sounds odd, because osim normally introduces the thing you’re contrasting or adding to at the beginning or right before the phrase it modifies.

More natural variations (still emphasizing the same idea) would be:

Volim i kino, osim muzeja. – borderline acceptable but slightly clumsy.
Osim muzeja volim i kino. – same as original, just dropping the comma in informal style.

Best to keep osim + noun as a clear, early phrase: Osim muzeja, ...

Why is kino not changed at all? Shouldn’t there be a special accusative form?

kino is a neuter noun, and in Croatian:

Neuter singular nominative and accusative have the same form.

So:

Nominative: kino – Kino je blizu. (The cinema is nearby.)
Accusative: kino – Volim kino. (I like the cinema.)

This is normal for neuter nouns like:

dijete (child): Dijete spava. / Vidim dijete.
more (sea): More je hladno. / Vidim more.

So volim kino is correct accusative, even though it looks like nominative.

Does volim here mean “love” or “like”? How strong is it?

volim is literally “I love”, from the verb voljeti.

In everyday usage, voljeti covers both “to love” and “to (really) like”, depending on context:

Volim te. – I love you.
Volim čokoladu. – I (really) like chocolate.
Volim kino. – I like the cinema / I enjoy going to the cinema.

A softer alternative is sviđati se:

Sviđa mi se kino. – I like the cinema / It appeals to me.

But in sentences about hobbies or preferences, volim + accusative is very common and sounds natural.

Does Osim muzeja, volim i kino mean I like going to the cinema, or the cinema as a concept?

In context, it most naturally means “I like going to the cinema” / “I enjoy the cinema as an activity”, not just the building.

Croatian often uses a bare noun for activities:

Volim kino. – I like going to the cinema.
Volim nogomet. – I like football (playing / watching).
Volim kavu. – I like coffee (drinking it).

So volim kino is usually understood as liking the activity of going to the movies.

Is muzeja singular or plural here? Could it mean “museums” in general?

Formally, muzeja can be:

Genitive singular of muzej (one museum)
Genitive plural of muzej (museums)

In real usage, the sentence is understood as general:

Osim muzeja, volim i kino.
= Besides museums (in general), I also like the cinema.

Croatian often talks about things in general using singular with the right context. But it’s also possible to interpret it as “apart from the museum” (a specific one) depending on earlier context. Without context, English “museums” is a natural translation.

Is there a difference between osim muzeja, volim i kino and pored muzeja, volim i kino?

Both osim and pored can sometimes be translated as “besides / in addition to”, but they’re not interchangeable in every context.

In this sentence:

Osim muzeja, volim i kino. – Standard, very natural: Besides museums, I also like the cinema.

If you say:

Pored muzeja, volim i kino.

this is understandable but less common for expressing preferences. pored primarily means “next to / beside (spatially)”, and only secondarily can have a figurative “in addition to” meaning. Here, osim is clearly the better, more idiomatic choice for “besides / apart from” in the sense of listing hobbies or interests.