Learn Hardcore Croatian: Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji. - When the table is wet, we drink water in the kitchen.

kad is just a shorter, more colloquial form of kada.
In most everyday contexts, they are interchangeable:
- Kad je stol mokar…
- Kada je stol mokar…

Both are correct; kada can sound a bit more formal or careful, but in speech you’ll hear kad very often.

Why is there a comma in “Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji.”?

Croatian normally uses a comma between:

a subordinate clause (the “when”-clause) and
the main clause.

Here:

Kad je stol mokar = subordinate time clause (“when the table is wet”)
pijemo vodu u kuhinji = main clause (“we drink water in the kitchen”)

So the comma separates the time clause from the main clause, just like in English:

When the table is wet, we drink water in the kitchen.

Why is it stol and not some changed form like stola or stolu?

Stol is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the clause.

The basic dictionary form is stol (table) – nominative singular.
In Kad je stol mokar:
- stol = subject
- je = “is”
- mokar = “wet” (adjective describing the subject)

Subjects in Croatian normally appear in the nominative case, so we use stol, not stola or stolu (those are other cases: genitive/dative etc.).

Why is the adjective mokar and not mokra or mokro?

Adjectives in Croatian agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Here:

stol is masculine, singular, nominative.
The base masculine form of the adjective is mokar.
So we say:
- stol je mokar – the table (m.) is wet
- If it were a feminine noun: stolica je mokra – the chair (f.) is wet
- Neuter: mlijeko je mokro (a bit odd semantically, but grammatically correct)

In a sentence like this, the adjective after “je” is in the same form as if it were directly in front of the noun:

mokar stol / stol je mokar.

Why is it pijemo vodu and not pijemo voda?

Vodu is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb pijemo (“we drink”).

Dictionary form: voda (nominative singular: “water”)
After a transitive verb like piti (“to drink”), the thing being drunk goes into the accusative:
- Pijemo vodu. – We drink water.
- Pijem kavu. – I drink coffee.
- Pije sok. – He/She drinks juice.

So voda → vodu in the accusative singular.

Why do we say u kuhinji and not u kuhinju?

The preposition u can take either:

locative (for location: in, inside, at), or
accusative (for direction: into).

Here we are talking about a location (“in the kitchen”), not movement into the kitchen, so we use locative:

u kuhinji (locative) = in the kitchen
u kuhinju (accusative) = into the kitchen (movement towards)

Examples:

Mi smo u kuhinji. – We are in the kitchen. (locative)
Idem u kuhinju. – I’m going into the kitchen. (accusative)

How do we know it means “the table” and “the kitchen” if Croatian has no articles?

Croatian doesn’t use words like English “the” or “a”. Whether you translate as “the” or “a” in English depends on:

context
what’s already known in the conversation
how specific the speaker is being

In Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji:

In normal context, listeners will assume you’re talking about a specific, familiar table and kitchen (for example, in your home), so we translate as:
- When the table is wet, we drink water in the kitchen.

If you needed to emphasize “some table or other” or “some kitchen or other”, Croatian would still just say stol / kuhinja, and you’d clarify with extra words if necessary (e.g. neki stol = some table).

Is pijemo more like English “we drink” or “we are drinking”?

Croatian only has one present tense form for piti: pijemo.

It can correspond to English:

“we drink” (habitual, general)
“we are drinking” (right now)

The exact meaning comes from context:

Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji.
→ sounds like a habit/rule: Whenever the table is wet, we (normally) drink water in the kitchen.

If you wanted to stress “right now” you’d add a time expression:

Sada pijemo vodu u kuhinji. – We are drinking water in the kitchen now.

Why is je in the position “Kad je stol mokar” and not “Kad stol je mokar”?

Je is a clitic (a short, unstressed word) and Croatian clitics obey the “second position” rule in a clause.

In practice:

Clitics like je, sam, si, se, ga, mi etc. usually go in second place in the clause.
In Kad je stol mokar:
- Kad = first element
- je = clitic, so it moves to the second position
- then stol mokar

Kad stol je mokar is ungrammatical; the verb je cannot stand there. You must place je in the second position of the clause:

Stol je mokar.
Kad je stol mokar…

Can we leave out mi (“we”) before pijemo vodu u kuhinji?

Yes, and that’s exactly what happens in the sentence.

The full form would be Mi pijemo vodu u kuhinji.
But Croatian usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person:
- pijem – I drink
- piješ – you drink (sing.)
- pije – he/she/it drinks
- pijemo – we drink
- etc.

So pijemo already tells us “we”, and saying mi is only needed for emphasis or contrast, e.g.:

Mi pijemo vodu u kuhinji, a oni piju u dnevnoj sobi.
– We drink water in the kitchen, but they drink in the living room.

Can we change the word order, like “Pijemo vodu u kuhinji kad je stol mokar”?

Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible. You can say:

Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji.
Pijemo vodu u kuhinji kad je stol mokar.

Both are grammatical and mean basically the same thing: “When the table is wet, we drink water in the kitchen.”

Differences:

Putting Kad je stol mokar first slightly emphasizes the condition/time.
Putting it at the end sounds a bit more neutral in speech, focusing more on what we do and where, then adding when as extra info.

The comma is usually written when the subordinate clause is first; when it’s last, it may be omitted or used depending on style, but you will often see:

Pijemo vodu u kuhinji kad je stol mokar. (no comma)

Does “Kad je stol mokar, pijemo vodu u kuhinji” talk about the present only, or can it also refer to the future?

Grammatically it’s in the present tense, but in Croatian a present tense in a “kad” (when) clause can express:

general habits/rules (timeless)
repeated situations, including those that will continue into the future

Here it’s best understood as a general rule:

Whenever the table is wet (whenever that happens), we drink water in the kitchen.

If you wanted to talk specifically about one future situation, you could make it more explicitly future, e.g.:

Kad bude stol mokar, pit ćemo vodu u kuhinji.
– When the table gets/is (will be) wet, we will drink water in the kitchen.