Breakdown of Poslije napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
Questions & Answers about Poslije napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
Because of the preposition poslije.
- Poslije (after) in Croatian is followed by the genitive case.
- The noun tjedan (week) in genitive singular is tjedna.
- The adjective naporan (tiring) must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, so it becomes napornog (masculine, singular, genitive).
So:
- Nominative (basic form): naporan tjedan – a tiring week
- Genitive (after poslije): poslije napornog tjedna – after a tiring week
Poslije normally takes the genitive case:
- poslije posla – after work
- poslije ručka – after lunch
- poslije napornog tjedna – after a tiring week
It can also be used on its own as an adverb, meaning later:
- Vidimo se poslije. – We’ll see each other later.
When it is followed by a noun, that noun phrase must be in the genitive.
Napornog is the adjective in genitive masculine singular.
- Base form (nominative masc. sg.): naporan (tiring)
- Genitive masc. sg.: napornog
You would use:
- naporan tjedan – nominative, “a tiring week” (subject)
- napornog tjedna – genitive, required by poslije
Naporno is usually:
- neuter singular (naporno dijete – a tiring child), or
- an adverb (raditi naporno – to work hard)
Naporni is:
- nominative masculine plural (naporni ljudi – annoying people).
So only napornog fits here grammatically.
In this sentence, dečko means boyfriend.
- Literally, dečko can mean boy / young man.
- In everyday speech, moj dečko almost always means my boyfriend.
- Moj is the masculine form of “my”, agreeing with dečko.
If you want to clearly say “boy” in a neutral way (not romantic), you could also use dječak for a child, but dečko is by far the most common for “boyfriend” in adult contexts.
Croatian normally uses the verb jesam (here je) only once when you have multiple adjectives joined with i (and).
- Moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan. – correct, natural
- Moj dečko je umoran i je malo nervozan. – grammatically possible but clumsy / rarely used; sounds like a special emphasis break.
So when the same “to be” verb applies to both adjectives, you say je once and then list the adjectives:
- je umoran i gladan – is tired and hungry
- je umorna i sretna – (she) is tired and happy
Here malo is an adverb meaning a little / a bit.
- malo nervozan = a bit nervous / a bit irritable
It is not describing a noun, so it’s not an adjective that would agree in gender, etc.; it’s modifying the adjective nervozan.
Compare:
- malo je nervozan – he is a bit nervous (adverb)
- mali dečko – a small boy (adjective mali agrees with dečko)
Similar expressions:
- pomalo nervozan – somewhat nervous
- mrvicu nervozan – a tiny bit nervous (colloquial)
Nervozan can cover both meanings, and context matters.
- anxious / on edge:
- Prije ispita sam jako nervozan. – I’m very nervous before the exam.
- irritable / cranky:
- Poslije napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan. – here it likely means he is tired and a bit irritable.
So nervozan is a broad “nervy / on edge” word, often translated depending on context as nervous, on edge, irritable, or cranky.
Tjedan (week) is masculine, and in the genitive singular it becomes tjedna.
A simplified singular declension:
- Nominative: tjedan – week (subject)
- Genitive: tjedna – of a week
- Dative: tjednu
- Accusative: tjedan
- Vocative: tjedne
- Locative: tjednu
- Instrumental: tjednom
Since poslije requires genitive, we get poslije napornog tjedna.
Yes, Croatian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatical:
- Poslije napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
– After a tiring week, my boyfriend is tired and a bit nervous. - Moj dečko je poslije napornog tjedna umoran i malo nervozan.
- Moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan poslije napornog tjedna.
Differences are mostly about emphasis and style:
- Starting with Poslije napornog tjedna emphasizes the time frame.
- Putting it at the end can sound a bit more colloquial, like an afterthought.
All are understandable and acceptable in everyday speech.
Yes, nakon is a very common synonym and also takes the genitive:
- Nakon napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
This is practically the same in meaning. Nuances:
- poslije – very common, slightly more conversational.
- nakon – also very common, can feel slightly more neutral or formal but is used in everyday speech too.
In some dialects / other standards (Serbian, Bosnian) you’ll also see posle, but in standard Croatian poslije is preferred.
Croatian has no articles (a, an, the), so you don’t see them in the sentence.
- naporan tjedan can mean a tiring week or the tiring week, depending only on context.
- poslije napornog tjedna could be understood as after a tiring week or after the tiring week.
If you really want to make it clearly specific, you would add more detail:
- poslije ovog napornog tjedna – after this tiring week
- poslije onog napornog tjedna – after that tiring week
In Croatian, a short initial adverbial phrase like this can appear with or without a comma, and both are seen:
- Poslije napornog tjedna, moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
- Poslije napornog tjedna moj dečko je umoran i malo nervozan.
In practice:
- Without a comma is very common in everyday writing and is fully acceptable.
- With a comma can be seen as slightly more formal or as giving a small pause.
Most learners can safely omit the comma in such short phrases; it won’t be considered wrong.