Learn Hardcore Croatian: Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno jer je ulica mokra. - The tram driver is driving carefully today because the street is wet.

vozač tramvaja – literally “driver of the tram”. Very common, neutral.
tramvajski vozač – “tramway driver”, using an adjective tramvajski “tram-related”.

Differences are small and often stylistic:

vozač tramvaja is probably the most natural everyday choice.
tramvajski vozač may sound a bit more like a job title or more formal/technical, but it is also fine in normal speech.

In your sentence, either could work:

Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno…
Tramvajski vozač danas vozi oprezno…

Why is it “vozi” and not “vozi se”? What is the difference between “voziti” and “voziti se”?

voziti (nekoga/nešto) = to drive (someone/something)
voziti se (nečim) = to ride, to be a passenger (in/on something)

So:

Vozač vozi tramvaj. – The driver drives the tram.
Putnici se voze tramvajem. – The passengers ride the tram.

In your sentence, the driver is acting as the person in control of the tram, so we use “vozi” (non‑reflexive), not “vozi se”.

Does “vozi” mean “is driving” or “drives”? How do you express the English continuous (“is driving”) in Croatian?

Croatian does not have a separate continuous tense like English.

“Vozi” can mean:

“(he) drives” (habitually):
- Vozač tramvaja uvijek vozi oprezno. – The tram driver always drives carefully.
“(he) is driving” (right now / today):
- Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno. – The tram driver is driving carefully today.

The exact meaning (habitual vs right now) is inferred from context and time expressions like danas (today), sad (now), uvijek (always), etc. There is no separate “is driving” form.

What is the role of “danas” here? Where can it go in the sentence?

“danas” = today, an adverb of time.

In your sentence it comes after the subject:
Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno…

Croatian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Danas vozač tramvaja vozi oprezno… (emphasis on today)
Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno… (very neutral)
Vozač tramvaja vozi danas oprezno… (less common, slight emphasis on today)

All still mean “The tram driver is driving carefully today…”. The most neutral choices are usually placing danas near the beginning or after the subject.

Why is it “oprezno” and not “oprezan” or “oprezna”?

oprezan / oprezna / oprezno are adjective forms (careful) that agree with a noun:
- oprezan vozač – a careful (male) driver
- oprezna vozačica – a careful (female) driver
oprezno (ending in -o) here is an adverb, meaning “carefully”.

In English you say: “The driver drives carefully.”
In Croatian that’s: Vozač vozi oprezno.

So:

oprezan vozač – a careful driver (adjective + noun)
vozi oprezno – drives carefully (verb + adverb)

How are adverbs like “oprezno” formed from adjectives in Croatian?

A common pattern:

Take the masculine singular adjective form:
- oprezan (careful)
- spor (slow)
- tih (quiet)
Form the adverb, often ending in -o or -e:
- oprezan → oprezno – carefully
- spor → sporo – slowly
- tih → tiho – quietly

So:
On je oprezan. – He is careful.
On vozi oprezno. – He drives carefully.

What does “jer” mean, and can I use “zato što” instead?

“jer” means “because”.

Your sentence:

…jer je ulica mokra. – …because the street is wet.

You can also say:

…zato što je ulica mokra.

Differences:

jer is very common, short, neutral.
zato što is also common; it can sound a bit more explicit/emphatic (“for the reason that…”).

Both are perfectly fine here:

Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno jer je ulica mokra.
Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno zato što je ulica mokra.

Why is it “jer je ulica mokra” and not “jer ulica je mokra”?

This is about clitic word order. The verb “je” (“is”) here is a clitic, and Croatian clitics usually go in second position in the clause.

Clause: jer je ulica mokra

Word-by-word:

jer – because
je – is (clitic, must be in second position)
ulica – the street
mokra – wet

So:

jer je ulica mokra – correct and natural
jer ulica je mokra – sounds wrong/unnatural in standard Croatian because je is not in second position.

In a main clause (without jer), the normal order is:

Ulica je mokra. – The street is wet.
Here, ulica is first, je is second – again respecting the “second position” rule.

Why is it “ulica mokra” and not “ulica mokro” or “ulica mokri”?

This is adjective agreement.

ulica is a feminine singular noun (nominative).
The adjective mokar (wet) must match the noun in gender, number, and case:

Adjective forms (nominative singular):

masculine: mokar – mokar zid (a wet wall)
feminine: mokra – mokra ulica (a wet street)
neuter: mokro – mokro polje (a wet field)

In your sentence:

ulica (feminine, singular, nominative)
so the adjective must be mokra:

…jer je ulica mokra. – because the street is wet.

Is “ulica” the subject of “je mokra”? What case is it in?

Yes, in the clause “je ulica mokra”, the subject is ulica.

ulica is in the nominative singular (dictionary form).
mokra is a predicate adjective, also in the nominative, agreeing with ulica.

So structurally:

subject: ulica
verb: je
predicate adjective: mokra

Just like English: “The street is wet.”

Why doesn’t Croatian use an article like “the” before “vozač” or “ulica”?

Croatian has no articles (no “a/an” or “the”).

Meaning like “the driver” or “the street” is understood from context, word order, and what is already known in the conversation.

So:

Vozač tramvaja… can mean “a tram driver” or “the tram driver”, depending on context.
ulica can be “a street” or “the street”.

In your sentence, English naturally uses “the”:

The tram driver is driving carefully today because the street is wet.
Croatian expresses the same idea without any articles.

Could I use “cesta” instead of “ulica”? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but they’re not identical:

ulica = a street, usually in a town or city, often with buildings along it.
cesta = a road, can be inside or outside towns, often for longer‑distance traffic.

So:

jer je ulica mokra – because the street is wet
jer je cesta mokra – because the road is wet

Both are grammatically correct; you choose based on whether you imagine a city street (ulica) or more of a road (cesta).

How would I say “female tram driver” in Croatian? Is “vozač” always male?

vozač is a masculine noun and usually refers to a male driver, but it can sometimes be used generically.

For an explicitly female driver, Croatian has a feminine form:

vozačica – (female) driver
vozačica tramvaja – female tram driver

So you could say:

Vozačica tramvaja danas vozi oprezno jer je ulica mokra. – The (female) tram driver is driving carefully today because the street is wet.

Could “danas” be left out? How would the meaning change?

If you drop danas, you get:

Vozač tramvaja vozi oprezno jer je ulica mokra.

This can mean:

“The tram driver drives carefully because the street is wet.”
(could be habitual or right now, depending on context)

With danas:

Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno… clearly anchors the situation to today (or to this specific day/occasion).

So danas adds a time frame and often implies we’re talking about what’s happening today, not always.

Can “danas” mean “these days” / “nowadays”, or only “today”?

Primarily, danas means “today”.

However, in more informal or conversational speech, it can sometimes be used loosely to mean “these days”, “nowadays”, especially when you are speaking about a broader present time:

Danas ljudi puno rade. – People work a lot these days.

In your specific sentence:

Vozač tramvaja danas vozi oprezno…
Most naturally means “today the tram driver is driving carefully…” (on this particular day), especially with a concrete reason like “jer je ulica mokra”.

Is “voziti” perfective or imperfective here? Does aspect matter in this sentence?

voziti is basically an imperfective verb in Croatian. It describes an ongoing or repeated action (“to drive”).

Perfective meanings like “to take someone somewhere (once, completed)” are usually expressed with other verbs (e.g. odvesti, dovesti, prevesti), not with voziti.

In your sentence:

vozi (from voziti) – imperfective, present tense
It fits well because we are talking about how the driver is driving (an ongoing process) today.

Aspect here simply tells us it’s an ongoing manner of driving, not a one‑time completed event, which is exactly what we want.