Breakdown of Zid prema podrumu je debeo, pa se kroz njega ništa ne čuje, čak ni kad djeca glasno pričaju.
Questions & Answers about Zid prema podrumu je debeo, pa se kroz njega ništa ne čuje, čak ni kad djeca glasno pričaju.
Prema is a preposition that usually means towards / facing / in the direction of.
- podrum = basement
- prema podrumu = literally towards the basement or facing the basement
Prema always takes the dative case, so podrum (nominative) becomes podrumu (dative).
In this sentence Zid prema podrumu is like saying the wall (that is) facing/towards the basement.
Adjectives in Croatian agree with the gender, number and case of the noun they describe.
- zid = wall
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- case: nominative (subject of the sentence)
So debeo (thick) has to be:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
Hence: Zid … je debeo.
If the noun were feminine singular (e.g. kuća), you’d say Kuća je debela, and for a neuter noun (e.g. staklo) Staklo je debelo.
Pa is a very flexible conjunction. In this sentence it roughly means so or and so:
- …je debeo, pa se kroz njega ništa ne čuje…
→ …is thick, so nothing can be heard through it…
Compared to other options:
- i = and (just adds information, weaker causal feeling)
- zato / zato što = therefore / because (more explicit cause–effect)
- pa = often combines “and” + a light sense of consequence
So pa here is like a conversational way of saying: It’s thick, and because of that nothing is heard through it.
Here se makes the verb čuti (to hear) into an impersonal / passive-like construction:
- čuti = to hear
- čuti se = to be heard
So:
- Ništa se ne čuje. = Nothing is heard. / You can’t hear anything.
There is no explicit person doing the hearing; the focus is on whether sounds can be heard. This is very common in Croatian to talk about general states or possibilities (similar to English “you/one can hear”, “it can be heard”).
The preposition kroz (through) always takes the accusative case.
The pronoun on (he/it – masculine) has these relevant forms:
- Nominative: on (he / it)
- Accusative: njega (him / it)
- Dative/Locative: njemu (to him / on him)
- Instrumental: njim (with him / by him)
Since kroz needs accusative, we must use njega:
- kroz njega = through it / through him
kroz njemu or kroz njim would be ungrammatical.
Yes, it is a double negative from an English point of view, but in Croatian the double negative is standard and required.
- ništa = nothing / anything
- ne = not
In negative sentences with ništa, nitko, nikad, nigdje etc., you must also use ne with the verb:
- Ništa ne čujem. = I don’t hear anything / I hear nothing.
- Nitko me ne zove. = Nobody is calling me.
Leaving out ne (Ništa čujem) would be wrong.
čak ni corresponds to English “not even”.
- čak = even
- ni = (negative) even / nor
In a negative sentence, čak ni emphasizes that not even in that extreme or special case does something happen:
- Ništa se ne čuje, čak ni kad djeca glasno pričaju.
= Nothing can be heard, not even when the children are talking loudly.
It strengthens the idea that the wall blocks sound very well.
Kad and kada have the same meaning: when.
- kad is shorter and more colloquial / everyday
- kada sounds a bit more formal or careful, but is also very common
In most cases they are fully interchangeable:
- Čak ni kad djeca glasno pričaju.
- Čak ni kada djeca glasno pričaju.
Both are correct; kad is just the more casual, natural choice in spoken-style sentences like this.
Djeca (children) is a special noun:
- grammatically: neuter plural
- meaning: a group of people (kids)
With djeca, the verb is always in 3rd person plural, even though the word itself doesn’t end in a typical plural ending:
- Djeca su vani. = The children are outside.
- Djeca glasno pričaju. = The children are talking loudly.
So djeca pričaju, djeca trče, djeca spavaju, etc. — always plural verb forms.
Both pričati and govoriti can relate to “speaking”, but their typical uses differ:
pričati
- to talk, chat
- to tell a story
- more informal, conversational
→ Djeca pričaju. = The children are talking / chatting.
govoriti
- to speak (a language)
- to talk in a more formal or serious way
→ Djeca govore hrvatski. = The children speak Croatian.
In this sentence, pričati is perfect, because it’s about kids talking loudly (chatting, making noise), not about what language they speak or giving a speech. Djeca glasno govore would sound more like “the children are speaking loudly” (slightly more formal or neutral).
Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and you could say:
- Kad djeca glasno pričaju (neutral)
- Kad glasno pričaju djeca (slight emphasis on glasno pričaju)
The basic meaning remains the same: when the children talk loudly.
The original order djeca glasno pričaju is the most neutral and most common in this context, but other orders are possible, mainly to shift emphasis or fit a specific rhythm.
Se with čuti is used in two main ways:
Impersonal / passive-like (as in our sentence)
- Ništa se ne čuje. = Nothing is heard / You can’t hear anything.
Reflexive: hearing oneself is usually expressed more explicitly, e.g.:
- Čujem se u slušalicama. = I can hear myself in the headphones.
You normally don’t say “čujem se” alone to mean “I hear myself”; you add more context (in what, where, how). In the example sentence, se is clearly the impersonal/passive type: can be heard.
Both are possible, but se čuje is shorter and more natural in everyday speech.
- kroz njega se ništa ne čuje
→ literally: through it nothing is heard
→ functionally: you can’t hear anything through it
If you say:
- kroz njega se ništa ne može čuti
→ nothing can be heard through it
you are slightly more explicit about possibility/ability (can), but the difference in meaning is minimal. The simpler se čuje is very common for general statements like this.