Learn Hardcore Croatian: Vlasnik kaže da će stanarina biti veća ako iznajmimo i garažu. - The owner says that the rent will be higher if we also rent the garage.

In Croatian, verbs like reći / kazati / misliti / znati normally introduce a subordinate clause with da, which corresponds to English “that”:

Vlasnik kaže da će stanarina biti veća…
= The owner says (that) the rent will be higher…

You can drop “that” in English, but in standard Croatian you do not drop da here.
Vlasnik kaže stanarina će biti veća… sounds incorrect/very non‑standard.

Why is će in the middle: da će stanarina biti veća and not just da stanarina će biti veća?

Će is a clitic (an unstressed short word) and Croatian clitics obey a “second position” rule: they usually go after the first stressed word or phrase in the clause.

In the clause:

(da) će stanarina biti veća
da is a conjunction and doesn’t count as the “first stressed word”.
će therefore comes immediately after da.
The rest (stanarina biti veća) follows.

So:

Correct: da će stanarina biti veća
Wrong / unnatural: da stanarina će biti veća

The verb biti (“to be”) goes after će, giving the future: će biti = will be.

Why is stanarina in the form stanarina and not something like stanarinu or stanarine?

Stanarina is the subject of the verb biti (“to be”) in the clause stanarina će biti veća:

Stanarina – nominative singular, feminine
(će) biti veća – “(will) be higher”

In Croatian, the subject is in the nominative case, so we use stanarina (dictionary form).
The form stanarinu would be accusative (direct object), but here “the rent” is not an object; it’s the thing that “will be higher”, so nominative is required.

Why is garažu in the form garažu and not garaža?

Garažu is in the accusative singular:

Verb: iznajmimo – “(that) we (should) rent / if we rent”
Direct object: garažu – “the garage”

Direct objects of transitive verbs are normally in the accusative, so:

nominative: garaža (subject form)
accusative: garažu (object form)

Since we are renting the garage, it’s a direct object, so garažu is correct.

What does the i before garažu do? Is it the same as “also” or “too”?

Here i means “also” / “too” / “as well”, not “and” joining two equal things.

ako iznajmimo i garažu
= if we (also) rent the garage
(on top of renting the apartment/flat)

If you wanted the simple “and” (e.g., rent an apartment and a house), you would join two nouns of the same type:

iznajmimo stan i garažu – “we rent an apartment and a garage”

Here, i emphasizes that the garage is in addition to something already implied (e.g. the flat), so it’s best understood as “also” or “too”.

Why is it ako iznajmimo i garažu and not ako ćemo iznajmiti i garažu for “if we will rent the garage”?

With ako (“if”) referring to the future, Croatian generally uses the present tense (often of a perfective verb), not the future tense with će:

ako iznajmimo i garažu
Literally: “if we rent (perfective present) the garage”
Meaning: “if we (do) rent the garage (in the future)”

This is the normal pattern:

Ako dođeš sutra, bit ćemo doma.
If you come tomorrow, we will be home.

Using ako ćemo + infinitive (ako ćemo iznajmiti) is possible in some contexts but is less neutral; in standard usage present after ako is preferred for future conditions.

What tense is iznajmimo and why does it talk about the future?

Iznajmimo is formally present tense, 1st person plural of iznajmiti.

But iznajmiti is a perfective verb. Perfective verbs in the present usually refer to a single, completed future action, especially in subordinate clauses (with kad, ako, čim, etc.):

ako iznajmimo i garažu
= “if we (eventually) rent the garage”

So:

Form: present tense
Aspect: perfective
Typical time reference in this pattern: future (a one‑time future event)

Why doesn’t the sentence say mi iznajmimo to show “we”? Where is the subject “we”?

In Croatian, the person and number are already marked on the verb ending, so the subject pronoun is usually omitted unless you need emphasis or contrast.

iznajmimo
- -mo ending = we (1st person plural)
  So it already means “we rent”.

You would only say mi iznajmimo if you wanted to stress the subject, e.g.:

Ako mi iznajmimo i garažu, a ne oni…
If we rent the garage, and not them…

In the neutral sentence, just iznajmimo is standard.

How does the agreement work in stanarina … veća? Why veća and not veći or veće?

Veća is the comparative form of velika (“big, high”) and it agrees with stanarina:

stanarina – feminine, singular, nominative
Adjective has to match: veća – feminine, singular, nominative, comparative

If the noun were different, the adjective would change:

najam će biti veći – the rent (masculine) will be higher
plaćanje će biti veće – the payment (neuter) will be higher

So veća is required because stanarina is feminine singular.

What’s the difference between vlasnik and words like gazda or najmodavac? Why use vlasnik here?

vlasnik – neutral word for owner (of a flat, house, company, dog, etc.)
gazda – colloquial, often “the boss / landlord / person in charge”; a bit more informal
najmodavac – legal/technical term meaning lessor, landlord, the one who rents something out

In everyday speech, referring to “the owner (of the flat)”, vlasnik is the most neutral and common choice.
You could say:

Gazda kaže da će stanarina biti veća… – more colloquial.
Najmodavac kaže… – sounds legal/contractual.

Can da kaže ever mean “in order to say”, like English “to say”? Why not here?

In this sentence, kaže is the main verb, and da introduces a content clause:

Vlasnik kaže [da će stanarina biti veća…]
= The owner says [that the rent will be higher…]

So da here is “that”, not “in order to”.

Croatian normally uses da + present for purpose only with another suitable main verb, e.g.:

Došao sam da ti kažem nešto.
I came (in order) to tell you something.

Here:

došao sam – main verb
da kažem – purpose clause (in order that I say)

In your sentence, kaže itself is the main verb, so da cannot mean “in order to”.

Could we say Najmodavac kaže da najamnina će biti veća… instead? Is that grammatical?

You could replace words, but you must keep the same grammar pattern:

Najmodavac kaže da će najamnina biti veća ako iznajmimo i garažu.

Changes:

vlasnik → najmodavac (more like “landlord/lessor”)
stanarina → najamnina (another word for “rent”, a bit more formal/technical)

But you cannot move će after najamnina:

❌ da najamnina će biti veća – wrong word order for the clitic će

Correct clitic position must remain: da će najamnina biti veća.

Is there any difference in meaning between stanarina će biti veća and something like stanarina će se povećati?

Both talk about the rent going up, but the focus is slightly different:

stanarina će biti veća
- “the rent will be higher”
- focuses on the resulting state (higher level)
stanarina će se povećati
- “the rent will increase”
- focuses on the change / process of increasing

In everyday speech, biti veća is very common and sounds natural and neutral. Povećati se is also fine, just a bit more “event‑like” (there will be an increase).