Breakdown of Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama.
Questions & Answers about Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama.
Učiteljica means (female) teacher.
- The base noun is učitelj = teacher (male or unspecified, but grammatically masculine).
- The ending -ica is a common feminine suffix in Croatian. It usually creates a specifically female version of a profession or role:
- učitelj → učiteljica (teacher)
- glumac → glumica (actor → actress)
So učiteljica is both grammatically feminine and refers to a female person.
Croatian doesn’t have a separate continuous tense like English is explaining. The present tense covers both:
- Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama.
→ The teacher explains this difficult task to us.
→ The teacher is explaining this difficult task to us.
Context decides whether it’s a general, repeated action (explains) or something happening right now (is explaining). The form objašnjava works for both.
These are two aspects of the verb:
objašnjavati – imperfective aspect
- Focus on the process, duration, repetition.
- Present form: objašnjava = is explaining / explains.
objasniti – perfective aspect
- Focus on the completed result.
- Usually used in the past or future:
- Učiteljica je objasnila zadatak. – The teacher explained the task. (completed)
- Učiteljica će objasniti zadatak. – The teacher will explain the task. (once, to completion)
You normally don’t use objasniti in the simple present for an ongoing action, because perfective present typically refers to future time.
Ovaj težak zadatak is in the accusative singular masculine (direct object).
For masculine inanimate nouns (like zadatak = task), the accusative form is identical to the nominative:
- Nominative: ovaj težak zadatak – this difficult task (as subject)
- Accusative: ovaj težak zadatak – this difficult task (as object)
This is why they look like nominative, but in this sentence they function as accusative: they are what is being explained.
Both forms exist, but they have different meanings/cases:
ovaj težak zadatak – accusative (same as nominative)
- Direct object, inanimate noun
- Means this difficult task (whole object of the verb).
ovog teškog zadatka – genitive
- Could mean of this difficult task or be used as the object with certain verbs that require genitive.
- With objašnjavati, you normally use accusative, not genitive.
So in this sentence the correct form is ovaj težak zadatak because the task is a direct object of objašnjava.
Težak is an adjective that must agree with the noun in:
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- case: accusative (but same as nominative here)
The noun zadatak is masculine singular. So:
- masculine singular nominative/accusative: težak zadatak
- masculine plural nominative: teški zadaci
- feminine singular nominative: teška knjiga (difficult book)
- neuter singular nominative: teško pitanje (difficult question)
So težak is the correct matching form for zadatak here.
Težak can mean both heavy (in weight) and difficult, depending on context:
- težak kofer – a heavy suitcase
- težak zadatak – a difficult task
In the sentence Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama, it clearly means difficult, not physically heavy.
Croatian pronouns change form according to case.
- mi is nominative plural = subject form we
- nama is dative or locative plural = to us / for us / at us
In this sentence, we are not the subject (the teacher is), we are the indirect object: the teacher explains to us. So you must use the dative form nama:
- Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama.
= The teacher explains this difficult task to us.
Croatian usually expresses to with case endings rather than a separate word.
- nama is in the dative case, which already means to us / for us.
- There is no extra preposition to in Croatian; it is built into the form nama.
So:
- English: explains this task to us
- Croatian: objašnjava ovaj zadatak nama
– the idea of to is inside the dative case of nama.
Yes, that is very natural Croatian:
- Učiteljica nam objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak.
Here nam is the dative clitic (short unstressed form) of nama.
Difference:
- nama – full stressed form
- Often used when you want emphasis: nama (to us, as opposed to someone else).
- nam – short form
- Typically used in the middle of the sentence, near the verb, less emphasis.
Both mean to us. The version with nam usually sounds more neutral and common in everyday speech:
- Učiteljica nam objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak. – very natural.
- Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama. – also correct, with slight emphasis on us.
Word order in Croatian is flexible, and you can move parts to change emphasis or style, while the meaning stays almost the same. For example:
- Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama.
- Učiteljica nama objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak.
- Nama učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak.
- Ovaj težak zadatak učiteljica objašnjava nama.
They all basically mean the same, but:
- Putting nama first (Nama učiteljica…) strongly emphasizes to us.
- Putting ovaj težak zadatak first emphasizes this difficult task in contrast to others.
Because Croatian has cases, word endings show who does what to whom, so order is more about nuance than about basic meaning.
Croatian has no articles (a/an/the). The noun učiteljica on its own can be translated as either a teacher or the teacher, depending on context:
- Introducing someone:
- Ona je učiteljica. – She is a teacher.
- Talking about a specific known person:
- Učiteljica objašnjava zadatak. – The teacher is explaining the task.
In your sentence, Učiteljica objašnjava ovaj težak zadatak nama, English will usually use the teacher because it sounds like we’re talking about a particular, known teacher (for example, the one in our class).
Učiteljica is pronounced roughly: oo-chee-tell-yee-tsa.
Letter by letter:
- U – like oo in food.
- č – like ch in church, but a bit harder.
- lj – a single sound; similar to lli in million (in many accents).
- j – like y in yes.
- c – like ts in cats.
So: u-či-te-lji-ca with the stress normally on či: UČI-teljica (in most standard pronunciations).