Learn Hardcore Croatian: Zimi su mi važne tople rukavice, ali šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim. - In winter warm gloves are important to me, but I almost never wear a hat then.

You can say u zimi, but it sounds more formal or unusual in everyday speech and often suggests a specific winter or a more “heavy” phrase like “during the winter period”. Zimi is the natural, idiomatic choice here.

Why is the word order Zimi su mi važne tople rukavice and not something like Tople rukavice su mi važne zimi?

Both sentences are grammatically correct; the difference is mainly in emphasis and style.

Zimi su mi važne tople rukavice
- Starts with Zimi: sets the time as the topic (“As for winter…”).
- The rest is a comment about that time.
- Clitics su and mi naturally appear in the “second position” (after the first stressed word: Zimi su mi…), which is a core feature of Croatian word order.
Tople rukavice su mi važne zimi
- Starts with Tople rukavice: focuses first on what is important (warm gloves).
- zimi then adds when.
- Still perfectly fine, just a slightly different information flow.

In the original sentence, starting with Zimi prepares the contrast with the second clause: …ali šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim (“in winter gloves matter to me, but (a) hat I almost never wear then”).

What does mi mean here, and why is it used instead of za mene (“for me”)?

Mi is the unstressed dative form of ja (“I”). Here it means “to me” and marks the person who experiences the importance:

Važne su mi tople rukavice.
= “Warm gloves are important to me.”

In Croatian, adjectives like važan (“important”) often take a person in the dative instead of using a phrase like za mene:

Važno mi je zdravlje. – Health is important to me.
Draga mi je ta knjiga. – That book is dear to me.

You can say važne su za mene tople rukavice, but it sounds heavier and less natural than simply using the dative mi.

Also, mi is a clitic (an unstressed short form), so it tends to appear in the second position in the clause: Zimi su mi važne…. The full stressed form is meni (e.g. meni su važne… for emphasis).

Why is it važne and not važna?

Važne is the feminine plural nominative form of the adjective važan / važna / važno (“important”).

It has to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it describes:

rukavice – “gloves”: feminine plural nominative
therefore the adjective must also be: feminine plural nominative → važne

Compare:

važan kaput – important coat (masculine singular)
važna jakna – important jacket (feminine singular)
važno odijelo – important suit (neuter singular)
važne rukavice – important gloves (feminine plural)

Why is rukavice plural? Could you say rukavica?

Rukavice is the plural form (“gloves”). In both English and Croatian, gloves are almost always spoken about in the plural, because you typically wear a pair:

jedne rukavice – one pair of gloves
nove rukavice – new gloves

Rukavica (singular) is possible, but it usually refers to one single glove (e.g. “I lost one glove” – izgubio sam jednu rukavicu), or in specific contexts like kitchen gloves, boxing gloves, etc., where you might talk about a single item.

In your sentence, you clearly mean “warm gloves” in the usual sense (a pair), so tople rukavice is the normal form.

Why is there a comma before ali?

The comma is there because ali (“but”) introduces a new main clause that contrasts with the first one. You effectively have two independent clauses:

Zimi su mi važne tople rukavice,
ali šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim.

In standard Croatian punctuation, you put a comma before coordinating conjunctions like ali when they join two full clauses. This is similar to English punctuation in “..., but I almost never wear a hat then.”

Why is it ali and not nego or a?

All three can sometimes correspond to English “but”, but they are used differently.

ali – the most general word for “but”, introducing a simple contrast:
- Zimi su mi važne tople rukavice, ali šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim.
nego – used mostly after a negation, meaning “but rather / instead (of)”:
- Ne nosim kapu, nego šešir. – I don’t wear a cap, but (rather) a hat.
a – more like “and / while / whereas”, often for a milder contrast or just new information:
- Volim zimu, a moj brat voli ljeto. – I like winter, whereas my brother likes summer.

Here, we have a clear “X, but Y” contrast (“gloves are important to me, but I almost never wear a hat”), so ali is the natural choice.

In šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim, why is the object šešir at the beginning? Could it also be Tada skoro nikad ne nosim šešir?

Yes, both word orders are possible and correct:

Šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim.
- Fronts the object šešir (“hat”) for emphasis: “A hat I almost never wear then.”
- This fits the contrast with tople rukavice in the first clause: gloves vs. hat.
Tada skoro nikad ne nosim šešir.
- More neutral, closer to English word order: “Then I almost never wear a hat.”

Croatian has relatively flexible word order, and moving elements (like šešir) to the front often signals focus or contrast. In this sentence, putting šešir first nicely highlights the contrast with the gloves.

What does skoro nikad mean, and why do we still have ne before nosim? Isn’t that double negation?

Skoro nikad means “almost never”:

nikad (nikada) – never
skoro nikad – almost never

In Croatian, negative words normally combine with the negative particle ne on the verb. This is not considered “wrong” double negation; it is the standard way to form negatives:

Nikad ne nosim šešir. – I never wear a hat.
Skoro nikad ne nosim šešir. – I almost never wear a hat.
Nikad ništa ne radim. – I never do anything.

So skoro nikad ne nosim is exactly how you say “I almost never wear”. Leaving out ne (skoro nikad nosim) would be ungrammatical.

What is the verb nosim, and why is this verb used for wearing a hat?

Nosim is the 1st person singular present of nositi, an imperfective verb that often means “to wear (clothes, accessories)” or “to carry”:

nosim šešir – I wear a hat / I am wearing a hat
nosim torbu – I carry a bag
nosim naočale – I wear glasses

Croatian distinguishes between putting something on and wearing it in general:

staviti / stavljaš šešir – to put on a hat (literally “place a hat”)
nositi šešir – to wear a hat (habit, general state)

In your sentence, the speaker is talking about a habitual action (how often they wear a hat), so the imperfective nosim is the right choice.

Why is there no ja (“I”) in šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim? Can I say ja šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim?

Croatian usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person:

nosim clearly marks 1st person singular (“I wear”), so ja is not needed.

You can use ja for emphasis or strong contrast:

Ja šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim, ali ona uvijek nosi kapu.
– I almost never wear a hat then, but she always wears a cap.

So ja šešir tada skoro nikad ne nosim is grammatically correct but feels more marked; in the original neutral sentence, dropping ja is more natural.

What case is šešir in, and why does it look like the dictionary form?

Šešir is in the accusative singular case here, because it is the direct object of the verb nosim (“I wear”):

(Ja) nosim što? – šešir → accusative

For many masculine inanimate nouns like šešir, the nominative and accusative singular forms are identical:

nominative: šešir je crn – the hat is black
accusative: nosim šešir – I wear a hat

That’s why šešir looks like the dictionary form even though it’s grammatically an object in the accusative.