Learn Hardcore Croatian: Kad je sunce jako, stavim šešir na glavu i rukavice ostaju kod kuće. - When the sun is strong, I put a hat on my head and the gloves stay at home.

Both are grammatically correct.
Kad is a bit more colloquial / shorter, and kada can sound a bit more formal or emphatic, but in everyday speech people use them interchangeably.

So yes, you can say Kada je sunce jako, stavim šešir na glavu i rukavice ostaju kod kuće.

Why is it “Kad je sunce jako” and not something like “Kad sunce je jako” or “Kad je jako sunce”?

The usual neutral word order in Croatian here is:

Kad je sunce jako
when – is – sun – strong

The verb “je” (is) normally comes right after kad.
The typical order is kad + verb + subject + adjective.

Other variants are possible, but they sound less neutral and more marked:

Kad sunce je jako – sounds awkward or poetic.
Kad je jako sunce – possible in some contexts, but it slightly emphasizes jako sunce as a phrase (“when it’s strong sun”), rather than “when the sun is strong”.

For standard, everyday Croatian, Kad je sunce jako is the natural choice.

Why is the verb “stavim” used? In English we’d say “I put on a hat” or “I wear a hat.” Why not “nosim šešir” or “stavljam šešir”?

The verb stavim comes from staviti (perfective), meaning “to put (something) somewhere / onto something.”

Here it describes the action at the moment when the sun is strong:

stavim šešir na glavu
I put a hat on (my head).

Alternatives:

nosim šešir – from nositi (imperfective) = “I wear a hat.”
This focuses on the ongoing state, not the moment you put it on.
Example: Kad je sunce jako, nosim šešir. = When the sun is strong, I (generally) wear a hat.
stavljam šešir – from stavljati (imperfective of “staviti”) = “I am putting / I keep putting.”
This focuses on a repeated or ongoing putting-on action, and is less natural with a single trigger like “when the sun is strong.”

Using stavim after kad is very common for a single, triggered action:
“Whenever this condition happens, I (then) put on a hat.”

Is it okay to use the perfective present stavim for a habitual action? I thought perfective present is usually future in meaning.

In Croatian, perfective present (here: stavim) often has a future-like meaning:

Sutra stavim šešir. – I’ll put on a hat tomorrow.

However, in general conditional / temporal clauses with kad, kad god, ako, a perfective present can also express a habitual reaction:

Kad je sunce jako, stavim šešir.
= Whenever the sun is strong, I (then) put a hat on.

So here, stavim does work as a habitual response to a repeated condition, not just as a plain future. It sounds very natural in this structure.

Why is there no “my” in “stavim šešir na glavu”? Shouldn’t it be “on my head”? Like na moju glavu or na svoju glavu?

In Croatian, with body parts and clothing, it’s very common not to use a possessive pronoun when it’s obvious whose body we’re talking about:

Stavim šešir na glavu. – literally “I put a hat on (the) head,” but understood as “on my head.”
Perem ruke. – “I wash (the) hands” = I wash my hands.

You can say:

stavim šešir na svoju glavu – grammatically correct, but sounds unusually emphatic (“on my own head”).
stavim šešir na moju glavu – also possible, but feels over-specified in normal speech.

So the natural, everyday form is simply na glavu without “my.”

Why is it “na glavu” and not “na glavi”? What’s the difference?

The preposition na can take:

Accusative (movement onto something)
Locative (location on something)

Here we have na glavu (accusative), because the hat moves onto the head:

stavim šešir na glavu – I put a hat onto (my) head. (movement → accusative)

If you describe a static location, you’d use na glavi (locative):

Šešir je na glavi. – The hat is on (my) head. (no movement → locative)

So:

na glavu = onto the head (change of position)
na glavi = on the head (already there)

Why is sunce neuter? How should I think about its gender?

In Croatian, sunce (the sun) is:

Neuter, singular
Nominative: sunce
Example: Sunce je jako. – The sun is strong.

You mostly just have to memorize the gender with each noun. Often, nouns ending in -e (like sunce) are neuter, but there are many exceptions. Gender affects:

Adjective agreement: jako sunce (neuter)
Pronouns and past tense forms that refer to it.

For this sentence, you mainly see it in the adjective:
sunce je jako (neuter: jako), not jak (masc) or jaka (fem).

What does “jako” mean here? Is it “strong” or “very”?

Jako can function as:

An adverb meaning “very”:
- Jako je vruće. – It’s very hot.
An adverb derived from “jak” (strong), effectively meaning “strongly / intensely.”

In Kad je sunce jako, it’s best understood as “when the sun is strong” or “when the sun is very strong”.
In everyday speech, people use jako both as “strong(ly)” and “very,” so there is some overlap in meaning.

Why is it “rukavice”? Is that plural? What’s the singular?

Yes, rukavice is plural:

jedna rukavica – one glove (singular)
dvije rukavice – two gloves
rukavice (in general) – gloves

In the sentence:

rukavice ostaju kod kuće

rukavice is the subject (nominative plural):
“the gloves stay at home.”

English also typically uses a plural (gloves), so here Croatian and English behave similarly.

Why is the verb “ostaju” used instead of something like “ostanu”?

Both verbs come from related pairs:

ostajati (imperfective) → ostaju (they stay / are staying)
ostati (perfective) → ostanu (they will stay / they end up staying)

In rukavice ostaju kod kuće:

ostaju (imperfective present) expresses a habitual situation:
- “The gloves (generally) stay at home” whenever this condition happens.

If you said:

rukavice ostanu kod kuće,

it would sound more like a single, completed outcome or a more specific “end result” (‘they (end up) stay(ing) at home’). For describing a regular habit, ostaju is the natural choice.

What does “kod kuće” literally mean, and how is it different from “u kući”?

Kod kuće is a very common fixed expression that means “at home.”

kod = at / by / near (often used with people’s places: kod prijatelja – at a friend’s place)
kuće = genitive singular of kuća (house, home)

So kod kuće is literally something like “at (the) house/home,” but idiomatically it means “at home”.

Difference:

kod kuće – “at home” in the general sense (where you live / your base).
- Rukavice ostaju kod kuće. – The gloves stay at home.
u kući – literally “in the house” (inside the building), more physical location.
- Mačka je u kući. – The cat is in the house (not outside).

Here, kod kuće is exactly what you want.

Could the word order be “stavim na glavu šešir” instead of “stavim šešir na glavu”?

Grammatically, both orders are possible:

stavim šešir na glavu – most neutral and natural.
stavim na glavu šešir – emphasizes where you put it (on the head), or sounds a bit more stylistic.

In everyday speech, people usually say stavim šešir na glavu. The other order is not wrong, just less common in this simple context.

Do I need the comma before “stavim”: Kad je sunce jako, stavim šešir…?

Yes. In Croatian, subordinate clauses (introduced by words like kad, ako, dok, jer) are normally separated from the main clause by a comma:

Kad je sunce jako, stavim šešir na glavu.
Stavim šešir na glavu kad je sunce jako.

If the kad-clause comes first, you must put the comma before the main clause.
If the main clause comes first, you usually don’t put a comma before the following kad-clause.

Can I reverse the order: “Stavim šešir na glavu kad je sunce jako i rukavice ostaju kod kuće”?

Yes, that is also correct:

Stavim šešir na glavu kad je sunce jako i rukavice ostaju kod kuće.

Meaning stays the same: when the sun is strong, you put on a hat and the gloves stay at home.

Differences:

Original: Kad je sunce jako, stavim šešir na glavu…
– starts with the condition, which is very natural in this type of sentence.
Reordered: Stavim šešir na glavu kad je sunce jako…
– starts with the action, then gives the condition.

Both are fine; the original version with Kad je sunce jako… sounds slightly more typical.