Learn Hardcore Croatian: Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu. - My sister works out at the gym two days a week.

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.

My sister works out at the gym two days a week.

Breakdown of Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.

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Questions & Answers about Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.

Why is it Moja sestra and not Moj sestra?

In Croatian, possessive adjectives (moj, tvoj, njegov, njezin…) agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify.

Sestra (sister) is feminine, singular, nominative.
The correct matching form of moj for feminine singular nominative is moja.

So:

moja sestra = my sister
moj brat = my brother
moje dijete = my child

Moj sestra is ungrammatical because moj is masculine, but sestra is feminine.

Why is it trenira and not something like treninra or another form?

Trenira is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb trenirati (to train, to work out).

The pattern is:

(ja) treniram – I train
(ti) treniraš – you train
(on/ona/ono) trenira – he/she/it trains
(mi) treniramo – we train
(vi) trenirate – you (pl) train
(oni/one/ona) treniraju – they train

We use the present tense here to express a habitual action (something done regularly), just like in English:

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.
= My sister works out at the gym two days a week.

Why is it u teretani and not u teretanu?

The preposition u can take either the locative or the accusative case, depending on the meaning:

u + locative → location (where?)
- u teretani = in the gym
u + accusative → direction (where to?)
- u teretanu = to the gym

In the sentence Moja sestra trenira u teretani, we are talking about where she trains (location), so we use locative:

teretana (gym – nominative)
u teretani (in the gym – locative)

If you said:

Moja sestra ide u teretanu. = My sister is going to the gym.
Here it’s motion towards a place, so accusative.

Why is it dva dana and not dva dan?

This is about how Croatian handles numbers + nouns.

The noun dan (day) is masculine:

Nominative singular: dan
Genitive singular: dana
Genitive plural: dana

After the numbers 2, 3, and 4 (for masculine and neuter nouns), Croatian normally uses the genitive singular form of the noun. That form for dan happens to look the same as the genitive plural:

dva dana – two days
tri dana – three days
četiri dana – four days

So dva dan is wrong; it must be dva dana.

From 5 upwards, you use genitive plural:

pet dana, šest dana, etc.
(Again, the form happens to be the same: dana.)

Why is it u tjednu and not simply tjedno?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different flavors:

dva dana u tjednu – literally two days in (the) week
- Structure: u + locative (tjedan → u tjednu)
- Feels a bit more literal, similar to English two days in a week.
dva dana tjedno – two days per week / two days a week
- tjedno is an adverb meaning weekly / per week.

In everyday speech, dva dana tjedno is more common and more natural.
But dva dana u tjednu is also correct and understandable.

What case is u tjednu, and why do we use that case?

U tjednu uses the locative case.

Nominative: tjedan (week)
Locative singular: u tjednu (in the week)

We use u + locative to express:

location in space (u kući – in the house)
and also location in time, which is what we have here (u tjednu – in the week).

So dva dana u tjednu is literally two days in the week, i.e. two days in a given week.

Can the word order in this sentence change?

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, especially compared to English. All of these are grammatically correct, but they can sound slightly different in emphasis:

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu. (neutral)
Moja sestra dva dana u tjednu trenira u teretani.
U teretani moja sestra trenira dva dana u tjednu.
Dva dana u tjednu moja sestra trenira u teretani.

The core rules:

The verb doesn’t have to be in the middle.
Elements can be moved for focus or emphasis.
You cannot break words apart inside a phrase in unnatural ways (e.g. u teretani must stay together).

For a learner, the original sentence is a good, clear default word order.

What cases appear in this sentence, and which words are in which case?

The sentence: Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.

Cases:

Nominative (subject):
- Moja sestra
  - moja – nominative feminine singular (possessive adjective)
  - sestra – nominative feminine singular (noun)
Locative (location – where? and time – when?):
- u teretani – in the gym
  - teretani – locative feminine singular
- u tjednu – in (the) week
  - tjednu – locative masculine singular
Genitive (after the number 2, expressing quantity):
- dva dana – two days
  - dana – genitive masculine singular (after dva)

So the sentence nicely shows nominative (subject), locative (place/time), and genitive (quantity).

How would the sentence change if I say My sisters train… instead?

You need to change both the possessive and the verb to match plural.

Moja sestra trenira… – My sister trains… (singular)
Moje sestre treniraju… – My sisters train… (plural)

Complete sentence:

Moje sestre treniraju u teretani dva dana u tjednu.

Changes:

moja → moje (feminine nominative plural)
sestra → sestre (feminine nominative plural)
trenira → treniraju (3rd person plural of trenirati)

Everything else stays the same.

Is trenirati here more like “to coach” or “to work out”?

In this context, trenirati u teretani most commonly means to work out / to exercise at the gym.

Trenirati can mean:

to train / to work out (for yourself)
- Treniram u teretani. – I work out at the gym.
to coach / to train someone (when used with a direct object)
- On trenira djecu. – He trains/coaches children.

Because there is no direct object in the sentence (trenira u teretani…), it naturally means she is working out herself.

Could I say Moja sestra ide u teretanu dva dana u tjednu instead? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, and the meaning is very close, but there’s a small nuance:

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva dana u tjednu.
= My sister works out in the gym two days a week.
Focus on exercising.
Moja sestra ide u teretanu dva dana u tjednu.
= My sister goes to the gym two days a week.
Focus on going there; it implies she works out, but doesn’t say it directly.

Both are natural; the original sentence is more explicit about her actually exercising.

How do I say “twice a week” instead of “two days a week”?

The most natural way is:

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dva puta tjedno.
= My sister works out at the gym twice a week.

Changes:

dva dana u tjednu → dva puta tjedno
- dva puta = two times
- tjedno = per week / weekly

You could also say:

Moja sestra trenira u teretani dvaput tjedno.
(dvaput = contracted form of dva puta; very common in speech.)

How would I say “My sister is training in the gym today” – does the same form trenira work?

Yes. Croatian often uses the simple present where English might use the present continuous.

Moja sestra danas trenira u teretani.
= My sister is training / working out at the gym today.

So:

trenira can express both:
- habitual action: She trains two days a week.
- current action (with a time word like danas): She is training today.

Context and time expressions (danas, sada, večeras) show whether it’s usually or right now.