Breakdown of On kaže da mu je sladoled najbolji desert, ali ja posebno volim povrće za večeru.
Questions & Answers about On kaže da mu je sladoled najbolji desert, ali ja posebno volim povrće za večeru.
In this sentence da is a conjunction that works almost exactly like English that in reported speech:
- On kaže da mu je sladoled najbolji desert.
= He says that ice cream is his best dessert.
You introduce a whole clause after kaže with da.
English can often drop that (He says ice cream is his best dessert), but Croatian must use da here; you can’t drop it.
Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but there are rules for small pronouns like mu (clitics).
- Mu is a short, unstressed pronoun and usually goes very early in the clause, after da and after the first stressed word.
- Da mu je sladoled najbolji desert is the most neutral, natural order.
Other orders are possible, but they change nuance or sound marked:
- da je njemu sladoled najbolji desert – more emphasis on njemu (to him in particular).
- da je sladoled njemu najbolji desert – also possible, with some emphasis/contrast on njemu.
The version with mu in its usual clitic position is what you’d hear most in everyday speech.
Mu is the short dative form of on (to him / for him). The phrase literally feels like:
- da mu je sladoled najbolji desert
≈ that to him ice cream is the best dessert
This is very common in Croatian: the dative pronoun shows whose opinion or whose point of view it is.
If you used njegov, it would sound different:
- njegov najbolji desert je sladoled
= his best/favourite dessert is ice cream
Both are possible, but:
- mu je sladoled najbolji desert → focuses on his subjective opinion (to him…).
- njegov najbolji desert je sladoled → more like a factual statement about him.
In everyday speech, the mu je X najbolji Y pattern is extremely common for likes/preferences.
They are both in the nominative singular:
- sladoled – nominative singular (ice cream)
- desert – nominative singular (dessert)
After the verb biti (je = is), the subject and the complement typically stand in the nominative:
- Sladoled je desert. – Ice cream is (a) dessert.
- Sladoled je najbolji desert. – Ice cream is the best dessert.
So there’s no extra ending here; the base dictionary forms are being used as the subject and its complement.
The verb je (from biti = to be) already appears before the phrase:
- da mu je sladoled najbolji desert
The structure is:
- da / mu / je / sladoled / najbolji desert
that / to him / is / ice cream / (the) best dessert
You wouldn’t add another je:
- ❌ da mu je sladoled najbolji desert je – wrong, double verb.
Think of it as: that (to him) ice cream is [the best dessert] – one verb is is enough.
In Croatian:
- desert = sweet course at the end of a meal (dessert in English).
- pustinja = dry, sandy place (desert in English).
So najbolji desert here clearly means the best dessert, not a sandy desert. The spelling matches English dessert, but the stress and pronunciation are different and there is no confusion with pustinja in Croatian.
Here posebno is an adverb meaning especially / particularly.
- Ja posebno volim povrće za večeru.
= I especially like vegetables for dinner.
It does not mean in a special way here; it’s about degree or preference, like particularly:
- posebno volim ≈ I particularly like / I’m especially fond of.
If you needed special as an adjective, you would use poseban / posebna / posebno depending on gender, not this adverbial use.
You can drop ja:
- Ali posebno volim povrće za večeru. – grammatically fine.
Subject pronouns are often omitted in Croatian because the verb ending (volim = I like) already shows the person.
Here ja is used for contrast with on:
- On kaže… ali ja posebno volim…
= He says… but I especially like…
So ja adds emphasis: he thinks that, but I like something else. Without ja, the sentence is still correct but has slightly less explicit contrast.
Povrće is a collective / mass noun in Croatian and is normally used in the singular to mean vegetables in general:
- Volim povrće. – I like vegetables. (general)
- Kupio sam povrće. – I bought vegetables.
If you need to talk about individual kinds / pieces of vegetables, you might use:
- povrće (general mass)
- vrste povrća – kinds of vegetables
- specific nouns: mrkva (carrot), krumpir (potato), etc.
So singular povrće corresponds to English plural vegetables in meaning.
Za is a preposition that often means for in the sense of intended for / for the purpose of.
- povrće za večeru – vegetables for dinner
After za, you use the accusative case. Večera (dinner) in accusative singular is večeru:
- nominative: večera – subject form (Dinner is ready.)
- accusative: večeru – after za (We’re having X for dinner.)
So the pattern is:
- za + accusative → za večeru, za ručak, za desert, etc.
Both can express liking, but they’re used differently:
voljeti = to love / to like
- Volim povrće. – I like vegetables. (also acceptable as I love vegetables.)
- Direct object in accusative.
sviđati se = to be pleasing to someone (literally to please someone)
- Povrće mi se sviđa. – I like vegetables. (literally: Vegetables are pleasing to me.)
- The person is in dative (mi), and the liked thing is subject.
In everyday speech, for general preferences, voljeti is very common and straightforward:
- Posebno volim povrće za večeru. – natural and clear.
Sviđati se is very common with first impressions, aesthetics, specific items:
- Sviđa mi se ova pjesma. – I like this song.
- Sviđa mi se ova haljina. – I like this dress.
Here, volim povrće is the more natural choice for a general food preference.
Yes, in standard Croatian you normally put a comma before ali when it joins two clauses:
- On kaže da mu je sladoled najbolji desert, ali ja posebno volim povrće za večeru.
This mirrors English:
- He says that ice cream is his best dessert, but I especially like vegetables for dinner.
So as a rule of thumb:
- …, ali … – with a comma before ali when it connects two (or more) clauses.