Learn Hardcore Croatian: Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata, ali danas se još nije pojavio. - The postman rings at the door every day, but today he still hasn’t shown up.

Croatian has no articles like the or a/an. The noun poštar simply means postman / mailman, and whether it is understood as the postman or a postman depends on context.

In this sentence, because we’re talking about a specific, familiar postman who comes every day, poštar is naturally understood as the postman in English:

Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata… → The postman rings the doorbell every day…

What exactly does svaki dan mean, and how is it different from svakog dana?

Both are very common and both usually mean every day.

svaki dan – literally every day
- svaki = every (masc. sg., “day” is masculine)
- dan = day (nominative/accusative singular)
svakog dana – also every day, slightly more “formal/standard” in some styles
- svakog = of every (genitive)
- dana = of day (genitive singular)

In everyday speech they’re practically interchangeable in this meaning:

Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata.
Poštar svakog dana zvoni na vrata.

Both sound natural as The postman rings (the doorbell) every day.

Why is zvoni (present tense) used, instead of something like a special “habitual” tense?

Croatian uses the simple present tense to express habitual actions, just like English does:

Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata.
Literally: The postman every day rings on the door, meaning
→ The postman rings the doorbell every day.

This is the same present tense form you’d use for:

Sada zvoni na vrata. – He is ringing the doorbell now.

Context (and adverbs like svaki dan) tell you whether it’s a habit (“every day”) or something happening right now. There is no separate “habitual” tense.

Why is it na vrata and not na vratima? What’s going on with vrata?

Vrata means door, but grammatically it’s neuter plural (it looks plural even when it’s one door).

na vrata – here na is followed by accusative, showing the target of the ringing (what you ring on). This is part of an idiomatic expression:
- zvoni na vrata – literally “rings on the door”, idiomatically “rings the doorbell”.
na vratima – na
- locative, which would emphasize location: on/at the door as a place.

Compare:

Netko zvoni na vrata. – Someone is ringing the doorbell.
Stoji na vratima. – He is standing at the door.

So zvoni na vrata is the normal idiom for “ring the doorbell”. You wouldn’t normally say zvoni na vratima here.

How flexible is the word order in Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata?

Croatian word order is relatively flexible, though there are preferred patterns. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata.
Neutral: subject (Poštar) first, then svaki dan, then the verb.
Svaki dan poštar zvoni na vrata.
Emphasizes every day a bit more.
Poštar zvoni na vrata svaki dan.
Puts focus at the end on svaki dan.

The meaning stays essentially the same: the postman rings the doorbell every day. What moves are mostly adverbials like svaki dan and na vrata. The subject–verb relation and the clitic positions (like se, je, ga, etc. in other sentences) are more restricted.

What does ali mean here, and when would you use ali versus nego or no?

In this sentence, ali means but and introduces a contrast:

Poštar svaki dan zvoni na vrata, ali danas se još nije pojavio.
→ The postman rings the doorbell every day, but today he still hasn’t shown up.

Rough comparison:

ali – general but, the most common contrastive conjunction.
nego – usually but rather / but instead, used mainly after a negation to correct or replace something.
- Ne zvoni danas, nego sutra. – Not today, but rather tomorrow.
no – also but, often sounds a bit more formal or literary, similar to however / yet in some uses.

In your sentence, ali is the natural choice.

Can you break down the structure of danas se još nije pojavio?

Yes:

danas – today (adverb of time)
se – reflexive clitic (part of the verb pojaviti se = to appear / to show up)
još – still / yet
nije – ni + je, i.e. is not / has not (3rd sg. of biti – to be, negated)
pojavio – masculine singular past participle of pojaviti (se)

Together:

danas se još nije pojavio
literally: today he still has not appeared
→ today he still hasn’t shown up / today he hasn’t shown up yet

This is the perfect tense in Croatian: auxiliary je (here negated to nije) + past participle pojavio, with se as part of the reflexive verb.

What is the role of se in pojavio se, and can you just say pojavio?

Pojaviti se is a reflexive verb meaning to appear / to turn up / to show up. The se is obligatory; it’s part of the verb.

pojavio se – he appeared / he showed up
nije se pojavio – he did not appear / he didn’t show up

Without se, pojavio by itself is not used with this meaning in standard Croatian:

danas još nije pojavio – ungrammatical in this sense.

So you must keep se:

danas se još nije pojavio – correct
danas još nije se pojavio – wrong word order
danas još se nije pojavio – possible, but se još nije is more natural; see clitic placement next.

Why is the order se još nije and not još se nije or nije se još? How does clitic placement work here?

Croatian has a group of short unstressed words called clitics (like se, je, nije, ga, mi, ti, ću, bih, etc.) that tend to go in the second position in a clause, in a fairly fixed internal order.

In Danas se još nije pojavio:

Danas is the first word.
Then comes a “clitic cluster”: se još nije
Here se and nije are clitics; još is not a clitic, but it often sits together with them.

Very natural options include:

Danas se još nije pojavio. – common and smooth.
Danas još se nije pojavio. – possible, but much less usual; the se nije cluster tends to stay together.
Danas još nije se pojavio. – sounds wrong; se does not usually go last in that little group.

As a learner, the safest is to memorize patterns like:

još se nije + past participle
se još nije + past participle

Both exist, but se još nije pojavio is extremely common and feels very natural.

Does još mean still or yet here?

Još can correspond to still or yet in English, depending on the sentence and how you translate it.

In danas se još nije pojavio:

literally: today he still has not appeared
idiomatic English: today he hasn’t shown up yet

So both ideas (still not and not yet) are present. Croatian just uses još with negation:

još nije došao – he still hasn’t come / he hasn’t come yet
još radi – he is still working

Which English word you choose (still or yet) is a matter of natural English phrasing, not a grammatical difference in Croatian.

Could you say danas se još nije došao instead of danas se još nije pojavio? What’s the difference between doći and pojaviti se?

You cannot say danas se još nije došao. The verb doći (to come) is not reflexive in this sense, so se does not go with it.

Correct forms:

danas još nije došao – he still hasn’t come / he hasn’t come yet
danas se još nije pojavio – he still hasn’t appeared / he hasn’t shown up yet

Difference in nuance:

doći focuses on the act of coming / arriving at a place.
pojaviti se focuses more on appearing / showing up (becoming visible/present), often in contexts like someone was expected, but they haven’t shown up yet.

In your sentence, pojavio se fits very well because it emphasizes that his usual appearance (he normally comes every day) has not happened today. Both nije došao and nije se pojavio would be understood, but pojavio se matches the “hasn’t shown up” nuance closely.