Learn Hardcore Croatian: Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer. - Our park is greener today than yesterday.

park is a masculine, singular noun in the nominative case.
So its possessive must also be masculine singular nominative: naš park = our park.

Other forms of naš:

naša kuća – our house (feminine singular)
naše dijete – our child (neuter singular)
naši parkovi – our parks (masculine plural)

So you say Naš park (not Naša park or Naše park) because park is masculine.

Why is there no word for “the” in Naš park? How do you say “the park”?

Croatian has no articles (no the, no a/an).

park can mean park, a park, or the park, depending only on context.
naš park simply means our park / the park of ours, again with definiteness understood from context.

So there is no separate word for the. You just say park or naš park, and the situation tells you whether it is “a park” or “the park” in English terms.

What is je doing in this sentence? Is it the verb “to be”?

Yes. je is the 3rd person singular present of biti = to be.

Full present tense of biti:

ja sam – I am
ti si – you are (singular)
on/ona/ono je – he/she/it is
mi smo – we are
vi ste – you are (plural / formal)
oni/one/ona su – they are

So in Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer, je = is:

Naš park je… = Our park is…

In normal Croatian sentences you must include this je; dropping it sounds like a headline or very informal/elliptical style.

Why is je placed after Naš park, not before like in English (e.g. “is our park”)?

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, and je is a clitic (an unstressed short word) that usually goes in second position in the sentence.

In this sentence:

First stressed phrase: Naš park
Second position (right after it): je

So: Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer.

You can say Naš je park danas zeleniji nego jučer, but that puts extra emphasis on naš (“our park is greener today than yesterday”), often contrasting it with someone else’s park. The neutral, default version is the one you were given.

Why is park in its basic form? Doesn’t Croatian change nouns with cases?

Yes, Croatian uses cases, and nouns normally change endings. But:

The subject of a sentence stands in the nominative case.
The dictionary/basic form of a noun is also the nominative singular.

Here, Naš park is the subject, so park stays in its basic, nominative form.

Other cases of park:

Vidim park. – I see the park. (accusative; looks the same for this noun)
Idem u park. – I’m going to the park. (accusative after u)
Šetam po parku. – I’m walking in the park. (locative: parku)
Nema parka. – There is no park. (genitive: parka)

What exactly does zeleniji mean, and how is it formed from zelen?

zelen = green (adjective)
zeleniji = greener (comparative degree)

Croatian adjectives have three degrees:

zelen – green (positive)
zeleniji – greener (comparative)
najzeleniji – greenest (superlative)

For zelen, the comparative is formed by adding -iji:

zelen → zeleniji

More examples:

mlad (young) → mlađi (younger)
pametan (smart) → pametniji (smarter)
brz (fast) → brži (faster)

Some are irregular:

dobar (good) → bolji (better)
velik (big) → veći (bigger)
mali (small) → manji (smaller)

Could I say više zelen instead of zeleniji, like “more green”?

In normal, idiomatic Croatian you don’t say više zelen. You use the comparative form of the adjective:

✅ Naš park je danas zeleniji. – Our park is greener today.
❌ Naš park je danas više zelen. – sounds wrong/foreign.

više + adjective is sometimes used in special contexts (e.g. više svjestan = more aware), but for basic, simple comparisons like greener, older, bigger, you almost always use the single comparative form:

stariji – older (not više star)
veći – bigger (not više velik)
ljepši – prettier (not više lijep)

What does nego mean here, and why not od (zeleniji od jučer)?

Both nego and od can introduce a comparison and often both are possible, but there are preferences and nuances.

In this sentence:

zeleniji nego jučer – greener than yesterday
zeleniji od jučer – grammatically possible, but sounds more like “greener since yesterday” in everyday speech (because od jučer often means from yesterday onward).

So:

nego jučer clearly means than yesterday (a direct comparison of today vs. yesterday).
od jučer is usually understood as since yesterday in many contexts.

General notes:

With simple nouns: stariji od brata / stariji nego brat (both heard; od is very common).
With whole clauses or adverbs of time/manner, nego is especially common:
- Bolje je nego prije. – It’s better than before.
- Radi više nego ikad. – He works more than ever.

In your specific sentence, nego jučer is the most natural everyday choice.

What is jučer, and why doesn’t it change form?

jučer means yesterday and it’s an adverb of time.

Adverbs in Croatian (like jučer, danas today, sutra tomorrow):

do not change for case
do not agree in gender or number

So jučer always stays jučer, regardless of its position in the sentence.

You may also hear the form juče in some regions and in Serbian, but jučer is the standard Croatian form.

Can I move words around? For example, is Danas je naš park zeleniji nego jučer also correct?

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

Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer. – neutral, common.
Danas je naš park zeleniji nego jučer. – emphasizes today.
Naš je park danas zeleniji nego jučer. – highlights naš (our).
Danas je zeleniji naš park nego jučer. – unusual, strongly emphasizing our park vs some other park.

Changing the word order usually changes the focus/emphasis, not the core meaning. The original version is the most neutral and common.

Why is danas just stuck in the middle like that? Does its position matter?

danas means today, another adverb of time. It’s flexible in position:

Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer.
Danas je naš park zeleniji nego jučer.
Naš park je zeleniji danas nego jučer.

All are correct. Subtle differences:

At the beginning (Danas…) – strong focus on today (contrast with other days).
Before the adjective (je danas zeleniji) – very natural, neutral placement.
At the end – gives a bit more contrast between danas and jučer.

But in everyday speech, all three would be easily understood with almost the same meaning.

How do you pronounce the special letters š and č in Naš and jučer?

š – like “sh” in English “shoe” or “she”.
- naš → roughly nash
č – like “ch” in “chair” or “church”, but usually a bit crisper.
- jučer → roughly yoo-cher

Full rough pronunciation:

Naš park je danas zeleniji nego jučer.
≈ Nash park yeh dah-nahs zeh-leh-nee-yee neh-goh yoo-cher (approximate English-style).

Does Naš always stay the same, or does it change in other cases?

It changes to agree with the case of the noun. Some examples with park (masculine):

Nominative (subject):
- Naš park je lijep. – Our park is beautiful.
Accusative (direct object):
- Vidim naš park. – I see our park.
Genitive:
- Nema našeg parka. – There is no our park. / Our park is gone.
Dative:
- Približavamo se našem parku. – We are approaching our park.
Locative:
- Razgovaramo o našem parku. – We are talking about our park.
Instrumental:
- Idemo s našim parkom u natječaj. – We’re entering the competition with our park.

So naš becomes našeg, našem, našim, etc., depending on the case. In your sentence, it is nominative (subject), so the form is just naš.