Learn Hardcore Croatian: Naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna, iako je to samo mali dio večeri. - Our new tenant thinks that the music is too loud, although that is only a small part of the evening.

In Croatian, the short form of the verb biti (to be) – forms like je, sam, si, smo, ste, su – behaves as a clitic, which means it tends to go in the second position in the clause.

Compare:

Main clause: Glazba je previše glasna. – The music is too loud.
Here Glazba is the first element, and je comes second.

Inside a da-clause (a clause introduced by da, meaning that), da is treated as the first element, so the clitic je comes immediately after da:

Naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna.
Literally: Our new tenant thinks that is the music too loud.

Putting je after glazba (… misli da glazba je previše glasna) would sound wrong to native speakers because it breaks this clitic-second rule.

Why is it previše glasna and not previše glasno or previše glasan?

Because glasna is an adjective that must agree with the noun glazba in gender, number, and case.

glazba is feminine, singular, nominative.
The predicate adjective has to match:
- masculine: glasan
- feminine: glasna
- neuter: glasno

So:

Glazba je previše glasna. – The music is too loud. (feminine subject)
Televizor je previše glasan. – The TV is too loud. (masculine subject)
Svjetlo je previše jako. – The light is too bright. (neuter subject)

Glasno in this position would usually be understood as an adverb (too loudly), and it would not agree with glazba, so here glasna is the correct form.

What case are naš, novi, and stanar in, and how do they agree with each other?

They are all in the nominative singular masculine, because they form the subject of the sentence:

Naš – possessive adjective, masc. nom. sg. (our)
novi – descriptive adjective, masc. nom. sg. (new)
stanar – noun, masc. nom. sg. (tenant)

They must agree in:

gender (masculine)
number (singular)
case (nominative – subject form)

If you change the grammatical role, all of them change form together. For example, if you say:

Vidimo našeg novog stanara. – We see our new tenant.
- našeg – masc. acc. sg.
- novog – masc. acc. sg.
- stanara – masc. acc. sg.

This agreement pattern is consistent across Croatian.

Why isn’t there a word for he (like on) before misli? In English we’d say He thinks…

Croatian is a pro‑drop language, meaning that subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni…) are usually omitted when the subject is clear from context or from the verb ending.

Here, the subject is clearly expressed by the noun phrase naš novi stanar, so you do not add on:

✔ Naš novi stanar misli da…
✘ Naš novi stanar on misli da… (sounds like a clumsy double subject)

You would use a pronoun like on only when you need contrast or emphasis:

Naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna, ali on je jedini koji tako misli.
Our new tenant thinks the music is too loud, but he is the only one who thinks that.

What exactly does stanar mean? Is it like neighbor or roommate?

Stanar means a tenant, lodger, or occupant of an apartment or house – someone who lives in a flat/house, typically paying rent.

Some related words:

stanar – tenant, resident of a flat/house
susjed – neighbor (someone living next door or nearby)
cimer – roommate/flatmate (someone who shares your room/flat)
podstanar – subtenant / someone renting a room or part of a flat from another tenant or owner

So in this sentence, naš novi stanar is the person who has newly moved into a place you own or manage, or possibly into your building.

What does iako mean, and can the iako‑clause go at the beginning of the sentence?

Iako means although or even though. It introduces a concessive clause, which expresses something that contrasts with or weakens the main statement.

In the sentence:

Naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna, iako je to samo mali dio večeri.
Our new tenant thinks the music is too loud, although it is only a small part of the evening.

You can absolutely move the iako‑clause to the front, just like in English:

Iako je to samo mali dio večeri, naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna.

The meaning remains the same; the difference is only in emphasis and flow, not in grammar.

Why is there a comma before iako?

In Croatian, subordinate clauses introduced by words like iako (although), jer (because), kad (when), ako (if), etc. are normally separated by a comma from the main clause.

So we write:

Naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna, iako je to samo mali dio večeri.

And if you put the iako‑clause first, you also use a comma:

Iako je to samo mali dio večeri, naš novi stanar misli da je glazba previše glasna.

This is similar to English, where we also write:

Although it is only a small part of the evening, our new tenant thinks the music is too loud.

What is the purpose of to in iako je to samo mali dio večeri? Could we just say iako je samo mali dio večeri?

Here to is a demonstrative pronoun, roughly that or it. The phrase literally is:

iako je to samo mali dio večeri – although that is only a small part of the evening

It refers back to the situation being talked about (the loud music / that noisy period).

You could say:

iako je samo mali dio večeri

and most speakers would still understand you. However, adding to is more natural and typical in Croatian when you are referring to a situation or fact in a general way. Croatian often uses to where English might simply say it or even omit the pronoun entirely.

Why is it dio večeri and not dio večer? What case is večeri?

Dio večeri is a partitive construction: a part of the evening.

In Croatian, when you say “part of X”, X is normally in the genitive case:

dio knjige – part of the book
dio grada – part of the city
dio dana – part of the day
dio večeri – part of the evening

So večeri is the genitive singular of večer (evening).

Rough pattern:

nominative: večer – evening
genitive: večeri – of the evening

Thus dio večeri literally means part of (the) evening.

What nuance does previše add in previše glasna? How is it different from just glasna or jako glasna?

Previše means too, in the sense of more than is acceptable or desirable.

glasna – loud
jako glasna / vrlo glasna – very loud
previše glasna – too loud (excessively loud, more than it should be)

So:

Glazba je glasna. – The music is loud. (neutral description)
Glazba je jako glasna. – The music is very loud. (stronger, but not necessarily a complaint)
Glazba je previše glasna. – The music is too loud. (it’s a problem / complaint)

In the sentence, previše emphasizes that for the tenant, the volume crosses the acceptable limit.

Can you use muzika instead of glazba in this sentence?

You could say:

Naš novi stanar misli da je muzika previše glasna…

and people will understand you without any problem.

However, there is a register and regional difference:

In standard Croatian, especially in Croatia, glazba is the preferred, more formal/standard word for music (used in schools, media, official contexts).
Muzika is very common in everyday speech, and also standard in Serbian and Bosnian. In Croatian, many people use it colloquially, but in school or in formal writing, teachers may correct it to glazba.

So in a textbook-style sentence, glazba is the more “officially Croatian” choice.