Breakdown of Učiteljica svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici.
Questions & Answers about Učiteljica svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici.
Učiteljica means (female) teacher.
In Croatian:
- učitelj = male teacher (or grammatically masculine form)
- učiteljica = female teacher
The ending -ica is a common feminine ending (e.g. student → studentica, pjevač → pjevačica).
English teacher is gender-neutral, but in Croatian you normally choose the masculine or feminine form depending on the actual person’s gender.
The base verb is otvarati (imperfective, “to open / to be opening / to open repeatedly”).
Otvara is:
- present tense
- 3rd person singular (he/she/it)
So učiteljica otvara = the teacher (she) opens / is opening.
It’s used here because:
- The action is habitual (every day), and
- Croatian uses the imperfective aspect for repeated, ongoing actions.
Otvori comes from otvoriti (perfective, “to open once, to finish opening”).
- otvori can be 3rd person singular future (in the future compound form) or imperative (“open!”), but you would not use it for a general daily habit.
Prozor = window.
In this sentence it is the direct object of the verb otvara (what does she open? → the window).
That means prozor is in the accusative singular.
For inanimate masculine nouns like prozor, the nominative and accusative singular look the same:
- Nominative: prozor (subject: Prozor je otvoren. – The window is open.)
- Accusative: prozor (object: Otvara prozor. – She opens the window.)
So it looks like the dictionary form, but grammatically it’s accusative.
The base noun is učionica = classroom.
U učionici uses:
- Preposition u = in / inside
- Case: locative singular (učionica → učionici)
Croatian u can take:
- Locative for location: u učionici = in the classroom
- Accusative for direction/motion: u učionicu = into the classroom
Here, the meaning is the teacher opens the window in the classroom (location), so u učionici (locative) is correct, not u učionicu.
Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatical and natural:
- Učiteljica svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici.
- Svaki dan učiteljica otvara prozor u učionici.
- Učiteljica otvara prozor u učionici svaki dan.
The basic meaning stays the same: The teacher opens the window in the classroom every day.
Differences are mostly in emphasis:
- Putting svaki dan at the beginning (Svaki dan učiteljica…) emphasizes “every day”.
- Placing svaki dan at the end can sound like an afterthought or highlight it: …u učionici svaki dan.
For a beginner, the original order is perfectly fine and natural.
Both are correct:
svaki dan = every day (literally “each day”)
- svaki = masculine nominative/accusative singular
- dan = masculine nominative/accusative singular
svakog dana = every day (literally “of each day”)
- svakog = masculine genitive singular
- dana = masculine genitive singular
They mean practically the same in this sentence. Svaki dan is slightly more neutral and very common in everyday speech.
So you can say:
- Učiteljica svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici.
- Učiteljica svakog dana otvara prozor u učionici.
Both are natural.
Croatian does not use articles (a/an, the).
Prozor by itself can be translated as either:
- a window
- the window
The choice in English depends on context, not on a word in Croatian:
- In a classroom with only one relevant window, English will usually say “the window”.
- If you just mean any one window out of many, you might say “a window”.
So both “The teacher opens the window in the classroom every day” and “The teacher opens a window in the classroom every day” can be valid translations.
In the present tense, Croatian verbs do not change for gender.
Otvara is just:
- present tense
- 3rd person singular
It works for:
- on otvara – he opens
- ona otvara – she opens
- ono otvara – it opens
The gender comes from the noun učiteljica (feminine form).
If you had učitelj instead, you would still say Učitelj svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici., with exactly the same verb form otvara.
Svaki is an adjective meaning every/each. Adjectives in Croatian agree with the noun in:
- gender
- number
- case
Dan (day) is:
- masculine
- singular
So the correct form is:
- svaki dan (masculine singular)
Examples:
- svaka noć – every night (noć is feminine)
- svako jutro – every morning (jutro is neuter)
Here svaki matches dan in gender (masc.), number (sing.) and case (accusative/nominative form).
Base (present):
- Učiteljica svaki dan otvara prozor u učionici.
The teacher opens / is opening the window in the classroom every day.
Past (perfect) – “The teacher opened / used to open…”:
- Učiteljica je svaki dan otvarala prozor u učionici.
Here:
- je = auxiliary (3rd sg of biti, “to be”)
- otvarala = past participle, feminine singular (agrees with učiteljica)
Future (future I) – “The teacher will open…”:
- Učiteljica će svaki dan otvarati prozor u učionici.
Here:
- će = future auxiliary
- otvarati = infinitive
Both keep the idea of repeated action (every day).
You add ne in front of the verb in the present (and it merges with the present of biti in some tenses, but not here).
Present negative:
- Učiteljica svaki dan ne otvara prozor u učionici.
= The teacher does not open the window in the classroom every day.
More natural is to move svaki dan for clarity:
- Učiteljica ne otvara prozor u učionici svaki dan.
= She doesn’t open the window every day (maybe only sometimes).
Past negative:
- Učiteljica nije svaki dan otvarala prozor u učionici.
Future negative:
- Učiteljica neće svaki dan otvarati prozor u učionici.
The key pattern: ne + verb (or ne + auxiliary in compound tenses).