U blizini fakulteta stoji grupa koja puši cigarete i glasno razgovara.

U blizini literally means “in the vicinity (of)” / “near”.

It is treated like a fixed phrase, and it is followed by a noun in the genitive case.
So:

• Nominative: fakultet (faculty, college)
• Genitive: fakulteta

Because of u blizini, we must use genitive: u blizini fakulteta = near the faculty / near the college.

Yes, you can say blizu fakulteta, and it is very natural.

• u blizini fakulteta – a bit more neutral/formal, literally in the vicinity of the faculty
• blizu fakulteta – near the faculty, perhaps slightly more colloquial, but very common

Both require the genitive (fakulteta). In most everyday situations, they are interchangeable.

Croatian has cases, and the form of the noun changes depending on its grammatical role.

• fakultet is nominative singular (dictionary form: subject of a sentence, “the faculty”)
• After u blizini / blizu / kod (in this meaning), Croatian uses the genitive case to express “of X / near X”.

So:

• U blizini fakulteta – near the faculty (genitive)
• Kod fakulteta – by the faculty / at the faculty area (also genitive)

Fakultetu would be locative or dative, used after na, o, prema etc. (e.g. na fakultetu – at the faculty).

Both orders are grammatically correct:

• U blizini fakulteta stoji grupa…
• U blizini fakulteta grupa stoji…

The difference is about focus and style, not correctness.

• U blizini fakulteta stoji grupa…
  Emphasis slightly more on the existence/position: “Near the faculty there stands a group…”
• U blizini fakulteta grupa stoji…
  Emphasis a bit more on the group: “Near the faculty, the group is standing…”

Croatian word order is quite flexible. The original sentence sounds natural and slightly descriptive, like “there is a group standing near the faculty”.

Stoji is the 3rd person singular of stajati = to stand.

In this context, it can be translated as:

• A group is standing near the faculty
  or more loosely:
• There is a group near the faculty (standing there)

So stoji primarily means “stands / is standing”, not just a neutral “is”.
If you wanted a neutral “there is a group”, you could say:

• U blizini fakulteta je grupa… – There is a group near the faculty…

Yes, logically it’s a plural group of people, but Croatian grammar follows grammatical gender and number, not logical meaning, for agreement inside the clause.

• grupa is feminine singular (like “group” = one group)
• The relative pronoun koja agrees with grupa (feminine singular nominative)

• The verbs that belong to this relative clause also agree with grupa, so they are singular:

  • koja puši – which smokes
  • (koja) glasno razgovara – which talks loudly

Even though many individuals are smoking, grammatically we talk about one group, so the agreement is singular feminine.

If the subject were ljudi (people, masculine plural), you would say:

• Ljudi koji puše cigarete i glasno razgovaraju.

Here everything is plural: ljudi – koji – puše – razgovaraju.

Relative pronouns must match the noun they refer to in gender, number and case.

• Noun: grupa – feminine, singular, nominative
• Relative pronoun: koja – feminine, singular, nominative

So:

• grupa koja puši… – the group which smokes…

Examples of contrasts:

• muškarac koji puši – man (masc. sg.) who smokes
• djevojke koje puše – girls (fem. pl.) who smoke
• ljudi koji puše – people (masc. pl.) who smoke

Here we must use koja because of grupa (fem. sg.).

Cigarete here is accusative plural, because it is the direct object of the verb puši (smokes).

• Nominative singular: cigareta – a cigarette
• Accusative singular: cigaretu – a cigarette (object)
• Nominative plural: cigarete – cigarettes (as subject)
• Accusative plural: cigarete – cigarettes (as object; same form as nom. pl.)

In puši cigarete, cigarete answers “smokes what?” (direct object), so it is accusative plural.

Yes, you could say U blizini fakulteta stoji grupa koja puši i glasno razgovara.

Without cigarete, puši is understood as “smokes (cigarettes)” by default in everyday speech.
Adding cigarete makes it explicit and a bit more detailed, but it doesn’t change the basic meaning in most contexts.

Again, this is about agreement with grupa.

• Subject: grupa – feminine singular
• Verb: razgovara – 3rd person singular

So:

• grupa … glasno razgovara – the group is talking loudly

If the subject were plural, the verb would be plural:

• Ljudi glasno razgovaraju. – People are talking loudly.

Glasno is an adverb, derived from the adjective glasan = loud.

• glasan razgovor – loud conversation (adjective + noun)
• glasno razgovara – talks loudly (adverb + verb)

Adverbs in Croatian often end in -o, and they modify verbs, just like “loudly, quickly, slowly” in English.

Word order is flexible here too. You can also say:

• … koja razgovara glasno.

Both are correct; the emphasis is very similar.

All three can relate to “talk/speak”, but with different nuances:

• razgovarati – to talk, to have a conversation (two-way, interactive)

  • glasno razgovaraju – they are talking loudly (to each other)

• pričati – to tell, to narrate, to chat (often one person telling something)

  • priča priču – he/she is telling a story

• govoriti – to speak (a language), to speak more generally, to say

  • govori engleski – he/she speaks English
  • govori istinu – he/she speaks the truth

In the sentence, razgovara is best, because it’s about people in a group talking to each other.

Yes, you can.

• U blizini fakulteta stoji grupa… – literally: Near the faculty stands a group…
  Emphasizes that they are standing there, physically positioned.

• U blizini fakulteta je grupa… – There is a group near the faculty…
  More neutral, simply states their presence, not their posture.

Both are correct; stoji adds the nuance that they are standing, not sitting or moving around.