Learn Hardcore Croatian: Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je bila zelena. - Her new dress is red, and the old one was green.

ona = she (subject pronoun)
- Ona je lijepa. – She is beautiful.
njena = her (possessive adjective)
- Njena haljina je crvena. – Her dress is red.

So njena nova haljina literally means her new dress.

In Croatian you may also see njezina instead of njena; both mean her, and speakers understand both. Textbooks that focus strictly on “standard Croatian” often prefer njezina, but njena is very common in real life.

Why do njena, nova, and haljina all end in -a?

All three words agree in gender, number, and case:

haljina – dress
- feminine, singular, nominative
nova – new
- feminine, singular, nominative (agreeing with haljina)
njena – her (possessive adjective)
- feminine, singular, nominative (also agreeing with haljina)

In Croatian, adjectives and possessive adjectives must match the noun they describe:

novi auto – new car (masc. sg. nom.)
nova haljina – new dress (fem. sg. nom.)
njezino dijete – her child (neuter sg. nom.)

So njena nova haljina is a fully “matched” phrase: all feminine singular nominative, because haljina is feminine.

Why do we need je in haljina je crvena? Could we say Njena nova haljina crvena?

Je is the present tense of biti (to be), used as the linking verb (copula):

Njena nova haljina je crvena. – Her new dress is red.

In standard Croatian, a normal full sentence like this should include je.
If you say Njena nova haljina crvena, it sounds:

like a headline, note, or telegraphic style, or
somewhat colloquial / incomplete in normal speech.

So for regular sentences, keep je:

Haljina je crvena.
Kuća je velika.
On je umoran.

What exactly does the conjunction a mean here, and why not i or ali?

In this sentence:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je bila zelena.

a links two clauses with a contrast or comparison, often translated as and or whereas:

Her new dress is red, whereas the old one was green.

Rough differences:

i = and (simply adds things, no contrast)
- Njena nova haljina je crvena i skupa. – Her new dress is red and expensive.
a = and / whereas (mild contrast, often between two different subjects or states)
- On je visok, a ona je niska. – He is tall, whereas she is short.
ali = but (stronger opposition)
- Htio je doći, ali nije mogao. – He wanted to come, but he couldn’t.

Here a nicely highlights the difference between the new and the old dress.
I would be possible but less contrastive. Ali would sound too strong for this context.

Why do we say just stara and not stara haljina in the second part?

The noun haljina is understood from context and is left out to avoid repetition:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je bila zelena.
Literally: Her new dress is red, and (the) old [one] was green.

This is the same as English the old one.

Because haljina is feminine singular, the adjective still appears in feminine singular form:

stara (feminine) = (the) old one (implied: dress)
If the noun were masculine, you’d say stari:
- Novi auto je crn, a stari je bio bijel. – The new car is black, and the old one was white.

Why is it je bila zelena (was green) and not je zelena (is green)?

The tense changes to talk about the past state of the old dress:

je crvena – present tense: is red (current state of the new dress)
je bila zelena – past tense (perfect): was green (past state of the old dress)

So the sentence means:

Her new dress is red, and the old one *was green (before).*

If you said:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je zelena.

then you would mean:

Her new dress is red, and the old one *is green (now).*
(She still has both dresses.)

So je bila is chosen to show that the green color belongs to the past.

Why are the color words crvena and zelena feminine? Do colors always change like that?

Color adjectives in Croatian agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, just like other adjectives.

Here:

haljina – feminine singular nominative
therefore:
- crvena (fem. sg. nom.)
- zelena (fem. sg. nom.)

Other examples:

Masculine:
- Auto je crven. – The car is red.
- Stari kaput je zelen. – The old coat is green.
Neuter:
- More je plavo. – The sea is blue.
Plural:
- Haljine su crvene. – The dresses are red.
- Auti su zeleni. – The cars are green.

So the form of the color word tells you something about the gender and number of the noun it refers to.

Can we change the word order in this sentence? For example, could we say Crvena je njena nova haljina?

Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English, though not everything sounds equally natural in every context.

Neutral version:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je bila zelena.

Possible variations:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a zelena je bila stara.
Emphasises the colors first in the second clause.
Crvena je njena nova haljina, a zelena je bila stara.
Emphasises crvena (the fact that it is red).

All of these are grammatically correct. The changes mainly affect emphasis and style, not the basic meaning. For beginners, it’s safest to keep to the more English-like order:

subject + je
- description
  Njena nova haljina je crvena.

Why is there a comma before a in …, a stara je bila zelena?

Because a here connects two independent clauses, each with its own verb:

Njena nova haljina je crvena.
Stara je bila zelena.

In Croatian punctuation:

When a, ali, nego, etc. join two clauses, you normally put a comma before them:
- On je došao, a ona je ostala doma.
- Htio je otići, ali je zakasnio.
When they connect just two words or phrases, often there is no comma:
- Crvena i plava haljina
- Novi a jeftini modeli

Here, a clearly introduces a second clause, so the comma is required.

Can we drop the second je or bila, e.g. Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara bila zelena?

In standard Croatian, you should keep the auxiliary je in the second clause:

Njena nova haljina je crvena, a stara je bila zelena. ✅

Variations:

…, a stara je bila zelena. – standard, normal
…, a stara bila zelena. – sounds colloquial / dialectal / incomplete
…, a stara je zelena. – also correct, but now it’s present tense (the old one is green [now])

So:

If you want the past meaning (was green), keep je bila.
If you want both dresses to be currently different colors, use je crvena … je zelena.
Avoid dropping je or bila in normal written Croatian unless you are copying very casual speech.

Why is it njena and not svoja? Could we say Svoja nova haljina je crvena?

In this sentence, njena refers to some woman mentioned in the wider context, but the subject of the sentence is haljina (the dress), not that woman:

Subject: Njena nova haljina
Verb: je
Predicate: crvena

The reflexive possessive svoj / svoja / svoje is used when:

The possessor is the same as the subject, and
You want to say it’s their own thing.

Example where svoja is correct:

Ona nosi svoju novu haljinu. – She is wearing her (own) new dress.

Here the subject is ona (she), so svoju matches her.

In our original sentence, there is no subject pronoun like ona; the subject is the dress. So we must use a normal third-person possessive (njena / njezina) to show whose dress it is:

Njena (njezina) nova haljina je crvena. – Her new dress is red. ✅
Svoja nova haljina je crvena. – ungrammatical here, because svoja would refer back to the subject, which is the dress, not the woman.