Questions & Answers about Zdraviji ručak nam je važan.
The sentence is a simple “A is B” structure:
Subject: zdraviji ručak = a healthier lunch
- ručak = lunch (noun, masculine, singular, nominative)
- zdraviji = healthier (adjective, masculine, singular, nominative, comparative)
Verb: je = is (3rd person singular of biti – to be)
Indirect object (dative pronoun): nam = to us / for us
- Short, unstressed form of nama
Predicate adjective: važan = important (adjective agreeing with ručak: masculine, singular, nominative)
So literally: “Healthier lunch to-us is important.” → A healthier lunch is important to us.
Because zdraviji is the comparative form of zdrav (healthy), meaning healthier, not just healthy.
- zdrav = healthy
- zdraviji = healthier (more healthy)
You would use:
- zdravi ručak = a healthy lunch
- zdraviji ručak = a healthier lunch (compared to some other lunch or to how it used to be)
Grammatically, zdraviji is:
- Masculine
- Singular
- Nominative
- Comparative degree
It agrees with ručak, which is also masculine singular nominative as the subject.
The base adjective is zdrav (healthy). The comparative is formed by adding -iji:
- zdrav → zdraviji (masculine, sg.) = healthier
Other gender/number forms of the comparative:
- Masculine sg.: zdraviji (zdraviji ručak – a healthier lunch)
- Feminine sg.: zdravija (zdravija prehrana – a healthier diet)
- Neuter sg.: zdravije (zdravije jelo – a healthier dish)
- Plural masculine: zdraviji
- Plural feminine: zdravije
- Plural neuter: zdravija
Superlative (the healthiest) is usually formed with naj-:
- najzdraviji = the healthiest (masculine sg.)
- najzdravija, najzdravije, etc. for other genders/numbers
Ručak is in the nominative singular:
- Case: nominative → used for the subject of the sentence
- Number: singular
- Gender: masculine
Because ručak (lunch) is the thing we are talking about and it is the subject of je važan (is important), it must be in nominative.
You would only change the case of ručak if it stopped being the subject, for example:
- Vidim ručak. – I see the lunch. (accusative, same form here)
- O ručku razgovaramo. – We are talking about lunch. (locative)
Zdraviji is an adjective modifying ručak, so:
Position: In Croatian, adjectives normally come before the noun they describe:
- zdraviji ručak = healthier lunch
- dobar ručak = good lunch
- veliki ručak = big lunch
Agreement: Adjectives must agree with the noun in:
- Gender: masculine (like ručak)
- Number: singular
- Case: nominative (because ručak is subject)
So zdraviji must match ručak:
masculine + singular + nominative + comparative.
Nam is the short, unstressed (clitic) dative form of the pronoun mi (we):
- mi = we
- nama = to us (stressed, full form, dative)
- nam = to us (unstressed, clitic form, dative)
In sentences, the short form nam behaves as a clitic, which means:
- It is normally placed in second position in the clause.
- It cannot be stressed.
- It tends to come directly after the first stressed word.
That’s why we get:
- Zdraviji ručak nam je važan.
(The first stressed word is Zdraviji, then the clitic nam.)
You can also say:
- Nama je važan zdraviji ručak.
Here nama is stressed and placed at the beginning for emphasis on us (It is important to us), so the full form is used.
Je is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb biti (to be):
- ja sam – I am
- ti si – you are
- on/ona/ono je – he/she/it is
- mi smo – we are
- vi ste – you (pl) are
- oni/one/ona su – they are
In standard Croatian, you must include je in this kind of sentence:
- ✅ Zdraviji ručak nam je važan.
- ❌ Zdraviji ručak nam važan. (incorrect in standard language)
Spoken, very colloquial speech sometimes drops forms of biti, but that’s not standard and not recommended for learners.
Važan is a predicate adjective, and in Croatian, predicate adjectives agree with the subject in gender, number, and case.
- Subject: zdraviji ručak
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
Therefore, the adjective important must also be:
- masculine, singular, nominative → važan
Other forms would be used with different subjects:
važna (feminine) – e.g. Zdravija prehrana nam je važna.
(A healthier diet is important to us.)važno (neuter) – e.g. Zdravije jelo nam je važno.
(A healthier dish is important to us.)
Yes, these are both correct and very natural. They all mean roughly A healthier lunch is important to us, but the emphasis and information structure change slightly.
Zdraviji ručak nam je važan.
- Neutral-ish; slight emphasis on zdraviji ručak as topic.
Važan nam je zdraviji ručak.
- Emphasis shifts more to važan → the importance is being highlighted.
- Sounds a bit like: What is important to us? A healthier lunch.
Nama je važan zdraviji ručak.
- Nama at the beginning emphasizes us.
- Implies contrast like: For us, a healthier lunch is important (maybe for others it isn’t).
All are grammatically correct; the differences are mainly in focus and style.
Yes, you can say:
- Zdraviji ručak je važan za nas.
Both versions are correct but have a nuance difference:
nam je važan (dative pronoun):
- Very natural and common.
- Feels slightly more neutral and integrated into the sentence.
- Literally: A healthier lunch is important *to us.*
važan za nas (preposition za
- accusative nas):
- Often has a bit more emphasis or a sense of for our benefit / in our interest.
- Literally: A healthier lunch is important *for us.*
In many everyday contexts, they’re interchangeable, but nam je važan sounds more idiomatic and compact.
In normal pronunciation of Zdraviji ručak nam je važan, the main stress usually falls on the first content word, here Zdràviji (stress on the first syllable: ZDRÀ-).
Because nam is a clitic:
- It is unstressed.
- It attaches phonologically to the preceding stressed word.
- That’s why it comes right after Zdraviji, not later in the sentence.
So in speech, it flows like one unit:
Zdràviji-nam je važan…
You wouldn’t stress nam unless you changed the structure and used the full form nama, for example:
Náma je važan zdraviji ručak.