Learn Hardcore Croatian: Često jedemo ručak u menzi. - We often eat lunch in the cafeteria.

Često is an adverb meaning often. Its basic position is right before the verb: Često jedemo ručak u menzi.
Croatian word order is flexible, so you can sometimes move it for emphasis:

Mi često jedemo ručak u menzi. – neutral, just adds an explicit mi.
Jedemo često ručak u menzi. – puts a bit more focus on how often you do it.

The most natural, neutral version is the one you have: Često jedemo ručak u menzi.

Why is there no word for we in the Croatian sentence?

Croatian usually drops subject pronouns (it’s a “pro‑drop” language).
The ending of the verb -emo in jedemo already tells you the subject is we (1st person plural).

So:

Jedemo ručak. = Mi jedemo ručak. = We eat lunch.

You only add mi when you want to emphasize we (as opposed to someone else):
Mi često jedemo ručak u menzi, a oni jedu kod kuće.

Why is the verb form jedemo and not jesti or jedem?

Jesti is the infinitive form: to eat.
Jedemo is the present tense, 1st person plural: we eat / we are eating.

Present tense of jesti looks like this:

ja jedem – I eat
ti jedeš – you eat (sg.)
on/ona/ono jede – he/she/it eats
mi jedemo – we eat
vi jedete – you eat (pl./formal)
oni/one/ona jedu – they eat

Because the subject is we, you need jedemo in this sentence.

Is there a difference between jesti ručak and ručati?

Both can describe having lunch, but there is a small nuance:

jesti ručak – literally to eat lunch
- Često jedemo ručak u menzi. – We often eat lunch in the cafeteria.
ručati – to have lunch (a single verb that already includes the idea of “lunch”)
- Često ručamo u menzi. – We often have lunch in the cafeteria.

In everyday speech, both are common and both sound natural. Ručati is just a bit more compact and is very typical for talking about meals.

Why does ručak stay the same form even though it’s the object of the verb?

Ručak is a masculine inanimate noun.
In Croatian, for masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative (object case) is identical to the nominative (dictionary form).

So:

Nominative (subject): Ručak je ukusan. – The lunch is tasty.
Accusative (object): Jedemo ručak. – We eat lunch.

The form looks the same (ručak), but the function in the sentence is different.

Does ručak always mean “lunch”? Could it also mean “dinner”?

Literally, ručak is the main midday meal, usually translated as lunch.
In Croatian daily life:

ručak – main meal around midday or early afternoon
večera – evening meal, usually translated as dinner/supper

In some contexts, if the midday meal is the main “big” meal, ručak can feel closer to “dinner” in importance, but in translation it is almost always lunch.

Why is it u menzi and not u menzu?

The preposition u can take two cases:

u
- locative = in / at (location, where something happens)
u
- accusative = into (movement towards, where you’re going)

In your sentence, the action happens in the cafeteria, so you use locative:

Jedemo ručak u menzi. – We eat lunch in the cafeteria. (locative)

If you talk about going into the cafeteria, you’d use accusative:

Idemo u menzu. – We’re going into the cafeteria. (accusative)

What exactly is a menza? Is it the same as a “restaurant”?

Menza is usually a canteen / cafeteria, especially a student cafeteria or a workplace canteen. It typically implies:

self‑service or counter service
simpler, cheaper meals
institutional setting (faculty, dorm, company, etc.)

A restaurant in general is restoran.
So u menzi is closer to in the cafeteria than to a full‑service restaurant.

Can I change the word order, for example Mi često jedemo ručak u menzi or Često u menzi jedemo ručak?

Yes, Croatian word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:

Često jedemo ručak u menzi. – neutral, default.
Mi često jedemo ručak u menzi. – same meaning, with extra emphasis on we.
Često u menzi jedemo ručak. – highlights u menzi (as opposed to somewhere else).
Ručak često jedemo u menzi. – puts some focus on ručak, as in “As for lunch, we often eat it in the cafeteria.”

Changes in word order usually affect emphasis and information structure, not basic meaning.

How would I say “We often have lunch in the cafeteria” versus “We are often eating lunch in the cafeteria” in Croatian?

Croatian doesn’t have a separate continuous (‑ing) tense like English.
Both of your English sentences are normally translated the same way:

Često jedemo ručak u menzi.
or
Često ručamo u menzi.

Context tells you whether it corresponds more to a general habit (we often have lunch) or to a more “ongoing” situation (we are often eating lunch).

How do you pronounce Često jedemo ručak u menzi?

A simple IPA approximation is:

Često jedemo ručak u menzi → [ˈtʃɛstɔ ˈjɛdɛmɔ ˈrutʃak u ˈmɛnzi]

Key points:

č = [tʃ], like ch in chocolate → često = CHES-to
j = [j], like y in yes → jedemo = YE-deh-mo
u = [u], like oo in food → u = oo
Stress is usually on the first syllable of each word: ČE-sto JE-de-mo RU-čak U MEN-zi.

Why is there no word for “a / the” before ručak and menzi?

Croatian has no articles like English a / an / the.
Nouns appear without an article, and definiteness is understood from context, word order, and sometimes other words (like demonstratives: taj ručak – that lunch).

So:

Jedemo ručak u menzi. can be understood as
- We eat (the) lunch in (the) cafeteria.
- We eat lunch in a cafeteria.

The exact English choice (a vs the) depends on the situation, not on an explicit word in Croatian.