Learn Hardcore Croatian: Šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka ovaj tjedan. - The boss wants to change the schedule of meetings this week.

In Croatian, verbs like željeti (to want), morati (must), htjeti (to want), voljeti (to like/love) are often followed directly by an infinitive:

Želim jesti. – I want to eat.
On mora raditi. – He has to work.

So "želi promijeniti" = wants to change.

No extra word like "to" or "da" is needed before the infinitive here.

What’s the difference between "promijeniti" and "mijenjati"?

They are aspectual pairs:

promijeniti – perfective (completed change, focus on the result)
mijenjati – imperfective (ongoing / repeated changing, focus on the process)

In this sentence:

Šef želi promijeniti raspored…
→ The boss wants to make a (one-off) change to the schedule, to end up with a different schedule.

If you said:

Šef voli mijenjati raspored sastanaka.
→ The boss likes changing the meeting schedule (repeatedly, as a habit).

For a specific planned change, promijeniti (perfective) is more natural.

Why is there no word for “the” in "raspored sastanaka" or anywhere in the sentence?

Croatian has no articles (a, an, the). Definiteness is understood from context, word order, and sometimes pronouns:

Šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka.
→ in context, this naturally means “the meeting schedule”, not “a meeting schedule”.

If you really need to stress which schedule, you’d usually add some phrase, not an article:

taj raspored sastanaka – that schedule of meetings
naš raspored sastanaka – our meeting schedule

What does "raspored sastanaka" literally mean, and what are the cases here?

Literally:

raspored – schedule, timetable (nominative singular)
sastanaka – of meetings (genitive plural of sastanak)

So "raspored sastanaka" = “schedule of meetings”.

Genitive is used for this “X of Y” relationship:

raspored sastanaka – schedule of meetings
raspored sati – timetable of hours (class schedule)
raspored predavanja – schedule of lectures

"Sastanak" declines like:

sg. nom: sastanak
sg. gen: sastanka
pl. nom: sastanci
pl. gen: sastanaka ← used in the sentence

Why is it "ovaj tjedan" and not just "tjedan"?

"Ovaj" is the demonstrative adjective “this”:

ovaj tjedan – this week
taj tjedan – that week
onaj tjedan – that (more distant) week

If you just say "tjedan", it means “a week” in general, not a specific one.

Here we need “this week”, so ovaj tjedan is used.

What case is "ovaj tjedan" in, and why?

"Ovaj tjedan" is in the accusative singular, masculine:

nominative: ovaj tjedan (this week – as subject)
accusative: ovaj tjedan (this week – as object / time expression)

Time expressions like “this week, next year, last month” usually appear in the accusative:

Ovaj tjedan radim puno. – I’m working a lot this week.
Sljedeći mjesec putujem. – I’m travelling next month.

So here it’s an accusative time expression: “this week”.

Is the present tense "želi" here talking about now or the future?

Formally it’s present tense, but as in English, present can refer to near future when combined with a time phrase:

Šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka ovaj tjedan.
→ The boss now has the wish/plan to change the schedule this week (near future action).

Similar to English: “He’s changing the schedule this week” or “He wants to change it this week.”

How flexible is the word order? Can I move "ovaj tjedan" or other parts?

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

Šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka ovaj tjedan.
(neutral: what does the boss want to do this week?)
Ovaj tjedan šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka.
(emphasis on this week in contrast to other weeks)
Šef ovaj tjedan želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka.
(emphasis that this week he wants to change it; maybe other weeks he doesn’t)

Meaning stays the same; only the focus changes.

Could I say "Šef želi da promijeni raspored sastanaka" instead?

Native speakers do say structures with da + present, but in this exact sentence with the same subject, the infinitive is more natural:

Šef želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka. ✅ (standard, neutral)

"Šef želi da promijeni raspored sastanaka" is:

stylistically more colloquial / regional, and
usually used when the subject of da‑clause can be different:
- Šef želi da sekretarica promijeni raspored.
  The boss wants the secretary to change the schedule.

So for “the boss wants to change…” (same subject), use the infinitive: želi promijeniti.

What’s the nuance of "šef"? Is it always “boss”?

"Šef" is an informal to neutral word for boss / manager / supervisor. It can sound:

friendly / informal within a team, or
neutral when used about someone’s superior.

More formal alternatives:

nadređeni – superior
rukovoditelj – manager (more bureaucratic/official)
direktor – director, CEO (specific position)

But in everyday speech, šef is very common and natural for “the boss”.

If the boss is a woman, should I say "šefica" instead of "šef"?

Both are used:

šef – grammatically masculine, can refer to a male boss; in some contexts used generically.
šefica – feminine form; very common for a female boss.

For a clearly female boss, people usually say:

Šefica želi promijeniti raspored sastanaka ovaj tjedan.

Using šef for a woman is possible in some workplaces (especially when “šef” is treated like a job title), but šefica is the straightforward feminine form.

How do you pronounce the tricky parts like "želi" and "tjedan"?

Basic pronunciation tips:

ž – like s in “measure”, vision.
- želi – roughly “zhe-lee”, stress on že.
tj – pronounced close to “ty” in British “tune” / “Tuesday” (a soft t)
- tjedan – roughly “tyeh-dahn”, stress on tje.
raspored – “RAH-spo-red”, stress usually on the first syllable: RA.

Croatian stress patterns vary by dialect, but those are good approximations for learners.

Does "promijeniti raspored sastanaka" mean changing the times, the order, or something else?

It can cover all of these, depending on context:

changing the times of meetings
changing the order of meetings
adding/removing meetings from the schedule

In general it means: “to alter the current meeting schedule so that it becomes different.” Context would specify exactly how.