Što znači ta priča?

Word by word, it is roughly:

• Što – what
• znači – (it) means (3rd person singular of značiti – to mean)
• ta – that (feminine, singular)
• priča – story

A very literal translation would be “What means that story?”, but in natural English you say “What does that story mean?”. Croatian doesn’t need an auxiliary verb like does to form this kind of question; English does.

Both Što znači ta priča? and Što ta priča znači? are grammatically correct.

• Što znači ta priča? is the most neutral and common word order.
• Što ta priča znači? is also used, but can sound a bit more emphatic or expressive, like stressing ta priča (that story in particular).

Croatian has relatively free word order compared to English. The basic “feel” here is:

• Verb early in the sentence (znači) often sounds more neutral.
• Moving ta priča earlier can shift the emphasis onto that story.

• znači is 3rd person singular, present tense.
• The infinitive is značiti – to mean.

Very roughly:

• značiti – to mean
• znači – (it) means

Example:

• Riječ "kuća" znači "house". – The word *kuća means “house”.*

No, they are two different (but related) verbs:

• znati – to know

  • znam – I know
  • znaš – you know
  • zna – he/she/it knows

• značiti – to mean

  • značim – I mean
  • značiš – you mean
  • znači – he/she/it means

So in Što znači ta priča?, the verb is from značiti (to mean), not znati (to know).

ta priča means that story.

Grammatically:

• ta – demonstrative adjective, feminine, singular, nominative
• priča – noun, feminine, singular, nominative

So ta priča is the subject of the sentence, like that story in English:

• Što znači ta priča? – What does that story mean?

Croatian doesn’t use a separate definite article (the), so ta is literally that, not just the.

All three are demonstratives, similar to English this/that distinctions, but a bit richer:

• ova priča – this story (near the speaker)
• ta priča – that story (often neutral “that”, sometimes a bit closer to the listener or already mentioned)
• ona priča – that story (over there / that one we both clearly know about)

Very roughly:

• ova = this
• ta = that
• ona = that (more distant / specific)

In Što znači ta priča?, ta usually refers to a story that has just been mentioned in the conversation or is otherwise clear from context.

Croatian does not use an auxiliary do/does to form questions the way English does. Instead:

• Word order and the question word (Što) signal the question.
• The main verb (znači) stays in its normal present form.

So:

• Ta priča znači nešto. – That story means something.
• Što znači ta priča? – What does that story mean?

The only difference is adding Što and a question intonation / question mark, not adding a separate auxiliary verb.

Yes.

• At the beginning of a sentence, it’s capitalized: Što.
• In the middle of a sentence, it’s lowercase: što.

It’s exactly the same word; Croatian only capitalizes the first word of the sentence (and names), just like English.

Both što and šta mean what.

• što – the standard form used in most formal writing and in much of Croatia
• šta – very common in speech in many regions (especially the south and some neighboring countries), more dialectal/colloquial

In a textbook or exam you’ll usually see:

• Što znači ta priča?

In everyday speech you might hear:

• Šta znači ta priča?

Both are widely understood; use što if you want to stick to standard Croatian.

priča is in the nominative singular.

Reason:

• It’s the subject of the sentence (the thing that “means” something).
• In Croatian, the subject is in the nominative case.

Structure:

• Što – what (question word, not declined here for case)
• znači – means (verb)
• ta priča – that story (nominative, subject)

So the pattern is: What means [subject]? → Što znači ta priča?

These are two different questions in Croatian:

• Što znači ta priča? – What does that story mean? (you’re asking about its meaning, maybe symbolic or metaphorical)

To ask what it is about (its topic or content), you would say:

• O čemu je ta priča? – What is that story about?

So:

• Što znači ta priča? – meaning, interpretation
• O čemu je ta priča? – subject matter, what happens in it

• Š is pronounced like English “sh” in “shoe” or “ship”.
• Što sounds like “shto” (one syllable).
• priča sounds roughly like “pree-cha”:
  • pri – like pree
  • ča – like cha in “chalk” (but shorter)

So the whole sentence is pronounced approximately:

• Što znači ta priča? → Shto znah-chee ta pree-cha?

(That’s only an approximation using English spelling, but close enough to get you understood.)