Learn Hardcore Croatian: On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu. - He does not like to park the car on the street, so he puts it in the small garage.

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.

He does not like to park the car on the street, so he puts it in the small garage.

Breakdown of On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.

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Questions & Answers about On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.

What does “On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.” mean in natural English?

It means: “He doesn’t like parking the car on the street, so he puts it in the small garage.”

On – he
ne voli – doesn’t like
parkirati auto na ulici – to park the car on the street
pa – so / and so
ga stavlja – he puts it
u malu garažu – into the small garage

Why is it “ne voli parkirati” and not something like “ne voli da parkira”?

In Croatian, verbs like voljeti (to like/love) are very often followed directly by an infinitive:

voli čitati – he likes to read
voli plivati – he likes to swim
ne voli parkirati – he doesn’t like to park

The structure “voljeti + infinitive” is the normal, simple way to say “to like doing something.”

You can use “da” with a finite verb (e.g. ne voli da parkira auto na ulici), but it’s less common and often sounds heavier or more colloquial. The infinitive version here is the most natural and neutral.

Why is it “auto” and not “automobil”? Are they the same?

Yes, they mean the same thing:

auto – car (very common, informal/neutral)
automobil – car (more formal or careful speech, also correct)

In everyday conversation, auto is extremely frequent. You could say:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici… (most natural)
On ne voli parkirati automobil na ulici… (also correct, just a bit more formal)

What does “na ulici” literally mean, and why isn’t it “na ulicu” here?

na ulici = on the street (location, “where?”) – locative case
na ulicu = onto the street (movement to a place, “where to?”) – accusative case

In this sentence, the idea is about the usual place where the car would be left (its location), not the movement towards it:

parkirati auto na ulici – to (habitually) park the car on the street

If we focused more on the motion towards the street, we might see na ulicu, e.g.:

On vozi auto na ulicu. – He is driving the car onto the street.

But for “parking on the street (as a place where it ends up and stays)”, na ulici is standard.

Why is it “u malu garažu” and not “u maloj garaži”?

Because here u expresses movement into something:

u malu garažu – into the small garage (direction, “where to?”) → accusative
u maloj garaži – in the small garage (static location, “where?”) → locative

The verb stavlja (he puts) indicates motion into the garage, so:

stavlja ga u malu garažu – he puts it into the small garage

If we described the final location only, we’d use locative:

Auto je u maloj garaži. – The car is in the small garage.

What is the role of “ga” in “pa ga stavlja u malu garažu”?

Ga is a clitic pronoun meaning “him/it”, masculine singular, in the accusative case.

Here it refers back to auto (which is masculine):

pa ga stavlja u malu garažu
– literally: so he it puts into the small garage
– more naturally: so he puts it in the small garage

Because the object auto has already been mentioned, Croatian replaces it with ga instead of repeating auto.

Why is the word order “pa ga stavlja” and not “pa stavlja ga”?

Clitic pronouns like ga, je, mi, ti normally go in second position in the clause in standard Croatian.

In the second clause:

pa = first word of the clause
the clitic ga needs to be second
the main verb stavlja follows

So: pa ga stavlja is the standard word order.

You could also start the clause with the verb:

Stavlja ga u malu garažu. – He puts it in the small garage.

Here, stavlja is first, so ga is second, which is still correct.

“pa stavlja ga…” is usually avoided in neutral standard speech because the clitic should be in second position (not third).

What does “pa” mean here, and how is it different from “zato” or “dakle”?

Pa is a conjunction that often means something like “and so / so / and then”, and is usually weaker and more conversational than zato or dakle.

In this sentence:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.
– He doesn’t like parking the car on the street, so he puts it in the small garage.

You could also say:

… zato ga stavlja u malu garažu. – therefore he puts it… (stronger causal link)
… dakle ga stavlja u malu garažu. – thus/so he puts it… (more formal, explanatory)

Pa is the most natural and conversational here; it just smoothly links cause and result.

What tense and aspect is “stavlja”, and why not “stavi”?

stavlja is present tense, 3rd person singular of stavljati (imperfective aspect).
stavi is present tense, 3rd person singular of staviti (perfective aspect in form, but used with present form to mark a future/completed action).

Using stavljati (stavlja) here suggests a habitual, repeated action:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.
– He regularly / usually doesn’t like to park on the street and instead puts it in the garage.

If you said:

… pa ga stavi u malu garažu.

it could sound more like a single, specific action or like instructions / narrative (“then he puts it…”), not a general habit. So stavlja is better for describing a general habit or preference.

Why is there no article like “the” or “a” before auto, ulici, or malu garažu?

Croatian has no articles (no “a/an/the”), so nouns appear without them:

auto – car / the car
ulici – street / the street
malu garažu – (a/the) small garage

The context tells you whether to understand it as “a” or “the”:

Here it’s natural in English to say “the car” (a specific car) and “the small garage” (a particular garage he uses).

Why is it “On ne voli…” and not just “Ne voli…”? Is “On” necessary?

In Croatian, the subject pronoun (on, ona, oni, etc.) is often omitted, because the verb ending already shows the person:

Ne voli parkirati auto na ulici… – (He/She) doesn’t like to park the car on the street…

Including On:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici…

adds a bit of clarity or emphasis on “he”, for example if you want to contrast him with someone else:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, ali ona voli.
– He doesn’t like parking the car on the street, but she does.

So “On” is not strictly necessary grammatically; it’s there for clarity or emphasis.

What does “ne voli” literally mean, and is it closer to “doesn’t love” or “doesn’t like”?

The verb voljeti literally means “to love”, but in everyday Croatian it often corresponds to English “like” when talking about activities, food, preferences, etc.:

Volim kavu. – I like coffee.
Volim plesati. – I like dancing.

So ne voli parkirati auto na ulici is most naturally translated as:

He doesn’t like parking the car on the street.

If you wanted the stronger “doesn’t love” in a more emotional sense, you’d show that through context or intensifiers, not the basic verb form itself.

Could you rewrite the sentence using a full noun instead of “ga”, and is that still correct?

Yes, you can repeat auto, and it’s still grammatically correct:

On ne voli parkirati auto na ulici, pa stavlja auto u malu garažu.

This sounds a bit more repetitive and less natural than using the pronoun ga, but it’s not wrong. Native speakers strongly prefer:

… pa ga stavlja u malu garažu.

Is the adjective “malu” agreeing with “garažu”? What are its base forms?

Yes. Croatian adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Noun: garaža – feminine, singular
Base adjective: mali – small

In accusative feminine singular, mali → malu:

mala garaža – a small garage (nominative)
u malu garažu – into a small garage (accusative after u with movement)

So malu is just the correctly inflected form of mali to match garažu.