Breakdown of Profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
Questions & Answers about Profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
Croatian has no articles (no equivalents of “the” or “a/an”).
- Profesor can mean “a professor” or “the professor”, depending on context.
- stručnjak can mean “an expert” or “the expert”.
Definiteness is understood from context, word order, or previous mention, not from a separate word.
Both profesor and stručnjak are in the nominative singular (the “dictionary” form), because:
- Profesor is the subject.
- stručnjak is the predicate noun (a noun that comes after “to be” and describes the subject).
In Croatian, after the verb biti (je = “is”), the predicate noun stays in the nominative:
- Profesor je stručnjak. – “The professor is an expert.”
- not: Profesor je stručnjaka. (that would be wrong here)
This is similar to English: He is a doctor (not He is a doctor’s).
je is the 3rd‑person singular present form of biti = “to be”.
- on/ona/ono je = “he/she/it is”
In standard, full sentences like this, you keep je:
- Profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
It can be omitted mainly in headlines, notes, or very informal, telegraphic style:
- Profesor stručnjak za hrvatski jezik (e.g. in a newspaper headline or on a sign)
For normal spoken and written Croatian, always include je.
The preposition za with the accusative is the usual way to express someone’s field of expertise, responsibility, or specialization:
- stručnjak za X – “expert in X”
- liječnik za djecu – “doctor for children” (pediatrician)
- učbenik za hrvatski jezik – “textbook for Croatian (language)”
Alternatives have different meanings:
- od hrvatskog jezika – literally “of the Croatian language”; sounds odd here and usually expresses origin, separation, or partitive meaning, not specialization.
- u hrvatskom jeziku – “in the Croatian language”; used more for location/manner:
- Piše u hrvatskom jeziku. – “He writes in Croatian.”
So for “expert in X” in Croatian, you say stručnjak za X.
It’s in the accusative singular because of the preposition za, which always takes the accusative.
- za + accusative → za hrvatski jezik
With many masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative:
- Nominative: hrvatski jezik
- Accusative: hrvatski jezik (same form)
You know it’s accusative here because:
- It follows za, and
- za always governs the accusative, regardless of meaning.
hrvatski is an adjective meaning “Croatian”, and it must agree with jezik in:
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- case: accusative (because of za)
For masculine singular jezik, the adjective ending is ‑i in both nominative and accusative:
- Nominative: hrvatski jezik – “the Croatian language”
- Accusative: za hrvatski jezik – “for / in Croatian (language)”
So the form hrvatski is exactly what we expect: masculine, singular, accusative, agreeing with jezik.
Yes, very often jezik is omitted when it’s clear we’re talking about language:
- On je stručnjak za hrvatski.
– “He is an expert in Croatian.”
This is natural and common in context (for example, among language teachers or linguists).
If you need to be very clear (e.g. distinguishing Croatian language from Croatian culture, politics, history), you keep jezik:
- stručnjak za hrvatski jezik – specifically language
- stručnjak za hrvatsku povijest – expert in Croatian history
- stručnjak za hrvatsku politiku – expert in Croatian politics
No. In Croatian, je is a clitic (an unstressed short word) and it normally goes in second position in the clause (after the first stressed word or phrase).
That’s why:
- ✅ Profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
- ✅ Ovaj profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
- ❌ Profesor stručnjak za hrvatski jezik je. (sounds wrong)
You can move other parts of the sentence around for emphasis, but je will still seek that early “second position” spot.
Yes, that is grammatically correct, but the emphasis changes.
Profesor je stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
- Neutral: you’re telling us something about the professor (what he is).
Stručnjak za hrvatski jezik je profesor.
- More like: “The expert in Croatian is a professor.”
- You’re starting from the expertness and then specifying who that expert is.
Croatian word order is flexible, but shifting elements changes what is presented as “known” vs “new” information and what is emphasized.
Both the noun profesor and the noun stručnjak have common feminine forms:
- profesorica – female professor
- stručnjakinja – female expert
So you’d usually say:
- Profesorica je stručnjakinja za hrvatski jezik.
Changes:
- profesor → profesorica (feminine form of the profession)
- stručnjak → stručnjakinja (feminine noun for “expert”)
The rest of the phrase za hrvatski jezik stays the same.
Both can translate as “teacher”, but they are used differently:
profesor
- Typically: secondary school teacher or university professor
- Also a formal title (Prof. Ivo Horvat)
učitelj
- Typically: primary/elementary school teacher
- Focuses more on teaching younger children
In this sentence, profesor suggests someone working at a higher education level (or at least a more “specialist” context), which fits well with stručnjak za hrvatski jezik.
stručnjak is pronounced roughly like:
- STRUCH-nyak (in one word, no extra vowel between “č” and “nj”)
Key sounds:
- č – like “ch” in “chocolate”, but a bit sharper.
- nj – a single sound, like “ny” in “canyon” or Spanish ñ.
So you get something close to:
- stručnjak → [struch-nyak]
Other words in the sentence:
- hrvatski – hr-VAHT-skee
- jezik – YEH-zik
Croatian pronunciation is very regular: each letter (or digraph like nj) usually has one consistent sound.