Learn Hardcore Croatian: Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je rođakinja jako uredna. - My cousin male is messy, but my cousin female is very tidy.

Croatian routinely has separate masculine and feminine forms of many nouns referring to people (professions, relatives, etc.). So you must choose the correct form depending on the person’s gender.

Why is je repeated: “…je neuredan, ali je rođakinja…”? Is the second je necessary?

In careful, standard Croatian, it is very natural (and common) to repeat je:

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je rođakinja jako uredna.

You can also omit the second je in colloquial speech:

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali rođakinja jako uredna.

Both are grammatical. Repeating je sounds a bit clearer and slightly more formal or explicit. Omitting it is more conversational and relies on the reader/listener to “carry over” the verb from the first clause.

Why are the adjectives neuredan and uredna after je, not before the nouns? Can I say neuredan rođak?

Here neuredan and uredna are predicative adjectives: they are part of what is being said about the noun via the verb je (to be).

Moj rođak je neuredan.
Literally: My cousin is messy.
Structure: subject (moj rođak) + verb (je) + adjective (neuredan).

If you put the adjective before the noun, you get an attributive adjective, which is more like a label:

neuredan rođak = a messy cousin (as a description of the noun itself)
uredna rođakinja = a tidy cousin

Both positions are correct, but they serve different roles:

predicative (after je): giving information about the subject.
attributive (before the noun): building a descriptive noun phrase.

So you could also say:

Moj neuredan rođak je simpatičan. – My messy cousin is nice.
Moja uredna rođakinja je stroga. – My tidy cousin is strict.

Why is it neuredan but uredna? Why do the endings change?

Both neuredan and uredna come from the same base adjective uredan (tidy, orderly), but they must agree with the gender of the noun they describe:

rođak is masculine singular, so the adjective is neuredan (masculine singular form).
rođakinja is feminine singular, so the adjective is uredna (feminine singular form).

Croatian adjectives always agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:

masculine nominative singular: uredan / neuredan
feminine nominative singular: uredna / neuredna

So you get:

Moj rođak je neuredan.
(Moja) rođakinja je uredna.

Is neuredan literally just uredan with a ne- prefix meaning “not tidy”?

Yes, structurally:

uredan = tidy, orderly
ne
- uredan → neuredan = not tidy, messy, untidy

The prefix ne- is a very common way to form opposites or negatives in Croatian:

sretan (happy) → nesretan (unhappy)
prijateljski (friendly) → neprijateljski (unfriendly, hostile)

However, in natural usage neuredan doesn’t always mean just “not tidy”; it typically implies messy, sloppy, or disorganized rather than merely “not perfectly neat.”

Why is there a comma before ali? Is that always required?

In Croatian spelling rules, you normally put a comma before “ali” when it introduces a clause:

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je rođakinja jako uredna.

This is similar to English “..., but ...”.

You do not put a comma before i (and) in most simple cases, but you do put one before ali because it introduces a contrast. So yes, here the comma is correct and expected.

Why does the second clause not say moja rođakinja? Is it wrong to add moja?

The second clause “ali je rođakinja jako uredna” omits moja because it is understood from context and would be somewhat repetitive:

Literally: My cousin is messy, but the (female) cousin is very tidy.
→ Both are clearly “my” cousins from the first half.

You can say:

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je moja rođakinja jako uredna.

This is also correct and grammatically fine. Adding moja makes the parallelism more explicit:

Moj rođak … moja rođakinja …

In everyday speech, Croatian speakers often drop repeated possessives when the reference is obvious.

What does jako add to the sentence? Can I just say rođakinja je uredna?

Jako is an adverb meaning very, really, strongly:

uredna = tidy
jako uredna = very tidy / extremely tidy

You can absolutely say:

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je rođakinja uredna.

This would simply be a weaker contrast. With jako, you emphasize that the female cousin is especially tidy, which strengthens the contrast with neuredan.

Do we need any subject pronouns like on or ona (“he/she”) here?

No. Croatian is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns are usually omitted when the subject is clear from the verb form or context.

Moj rođak je neuredan, ali je rođakinja jako uredna.

Here, moj rođak and rođakinja are explicit subjects, so adding on or ona would sound unusual or emphatic:

On, moj rođak, je neuredan, ali ona, rođakinja, je jako uredna.
→ Possible, but marked and more like “…HE, my cousin, is messy, but SHE, the cousin, is very tidy.”

In normal statements, you just use the nouns and skip the pronouns.