Learn Hardcore Croatian: Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno. - A tourist from Germany is surprised at how quiet the promenade by the lake is.

Turist iz Njemačke = “A/The tourist from Germany”
Compare: iz grada (from the town), iz kuće (from the house), iz Zagreba (from Zagreb).

What grammatical form is iznenađen, and how would it change for female or plural?

Iznenađen is the past passive participle of the verb iznenaditi (“to surprise”), used adjectivally with biti (“to be”).

So:

(On) je iznenađen. – “He is surprised.”
- iznenađen = masculine singular
For a woman:
- (Ona) je iznenađena. – “She is surprised.”
For a neuter noun:
- Dijete je iznenađeno. – “The child is surprised.”
For plural (mixed group or all-male):
- Oni su iznenađeni. – “They are surprised.”
For all-female group:
- One su iznenađene.

In the sentence:

Turist is grammatically masculine singular, so we must say
Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen...

If we explicitly talk about a female tourist, we normally change the noun and the participle:

Turistkinja / Turistica iz Njemačke je iznenađena koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno.
(“The (female) tourist from Germany is surprised how quiet the promenade by the lake is.”)

For several tourists:

Turisti iz Njemačke su iznenađeni koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno.
(“The tourists from Germany are surprised how quiet the promenade by the lake is.”)

What exactly does koliko mean in this sentence?

Here koliko means “how (very)” / “to what extent”, not “how many / how much”.

kol’ko je šetalište uz jezero mirno
≈ “how quiet the lakeside promenade is” / “just how quiet…”

So it’s about the degree of the quality “quiet”:

Ne mogu vjerovati koliko je visok. – “I can’t believe how tall he is.”
Zanimljivo je koliko je grad prazan. – “It’s interesting how empty the city is.”

When koliko is followed by an adjective or an entire clause, it functions like English “how” in exclamatory or embedded questions.

Why is the verb je in second position, both in Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen and in koliko je šetalište…?

The short form of biti (“to be”) – je, sam, si, smo, ste, su – is a clitic in Croatian.
Clitics normally occupy the second position in their clause.

Main clause:
- Words: Turist | iz Njemačke | je | iznenađen…
- The first “slot” is Turist iz Njemačke (often treated as one unit), and je comes right after that.
Subordinate koliko-clause:
- Words: koliko | je | šetalište uz jezero mirno
- koliko is first, so je comes immediately after it.

You cannot normally put je at the very end, e.g.
✗ Turist iz Njemačke iznenađen je koliko šetalište uz jezero mirno je – this sounds wrong because the clitic je is too far out of second position.

Word order in Croatian is flexible, but clitics like je are strongly restricted to that early position in the clause.

Can I leave out the second je and just say “koliko šetalište uz jezero mirno”?

No. You need a finite verb in the subordinate clause.

koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno – correct
✗ koliko šetalište uz jezero mirno – incorrect as a normal clause

Unlike in some casual English expressions (“How nice this lake!”), Croatian must keep je (or another finite verb form) in a full clause like this, especially in standard language.

Why is it mirno and not something like mirna or mirni?

Mirno is an adjective in the neuter singular nominative, agreeing with šetalište:

šetalište – neuter singular noun (subject)
mirno – neuter singular adjective

So:

šetalište je mirno – “the promenade is quiet”
jezero je mirno – “the lake is calm/quiet”
dijete je mirno – “the child is quiet / well-behaved”

If the subject were masculine or feminine, the adjective would change:

grad je miran – “the town is quiet” (masc.)
ulica je mirna – “the street is quiet” (fem.)

Why is šetalište in this form, and what case is it?

Šetalište is in the nominative singular neuter. In the clause:

koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno

Šetalište is the subject of the verb je (“is”), so it must be in the nominative.

Also, –ište is a common neuter noun ending that often indicates a place for doing something:

šetati – to walk
šetalište – a place for walking → promenade / walkway

So literally: “how quiet the walkway-along-the-lake is”.

What case is jezero in, and why is it jezero rather than something like jezera?

Jezero here is in the accusative singular, governed by the preposition uz.

Preposition uz (“by, along, next to”) normally takes the accusative.
The noun jezero (lake) is neuter; its nominative and accusative singular forms are identical:
- Nominative: jezero
- Accusative: jezero

So uz jezero = “by the lake / along the lake”.

Compare other nouns:

uz cestu – along the road (fem. acc. sing.)
uz rijeku – by the river (fem. acc. sing.)
uz zid – against the wall (masc. acc. sing.)

Is uz jezero the only way to say “by the lake”? How does it differ from pored jezera or na obali jezera?

There are several options, each with a slightly different nuance:

uz jezero
Literally “along / by the lake”; suggests something stretching alongside the lake, very close to it. Fits perfectly with šetalište (a promenade running along the lake).
pored jezera
“Beside / next to the lake”; more neutral proximity, not necessarily extended along its length.
na obali jezera
“On the shore of the lake”; emphasizes being on the shore itself.

All three are possible in general, but in this sentence uz jezero captures the idea of a walkway/building running along the lakeshore.

Could I change the order inside the koliko‑clause to “koliko je mirno šetalište uz jezero”? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, this is possible and grammatical:

koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno
koliko je mirno šetalište uz jezero

Both mean essentially the same: “how quiet the lakeside promenade is”.

The difference is slight emphasis:

koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno
– a bit more neutral; the whole phrase “the promenade by the lake” behaves as one block before mirno.
koliko je mirno šetalište uz jezero
– puts a bit more focus on mirno (“how quiet the promenade by the lake is”).

What you normally don’t do is:

✗ koliko mirno je šetalište uz jezero – this tends to sound awkward.

Why is there no comma before koliko?

In Croatian, when a subordinate clause functions as a direct object (or close complement) of the main predicate and starts with koliko, što, kako, da, etc., it is usually not preceded by a comma.

So:

Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno. – standard
✗ Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen, koliko je šetalište uz jezero mirno. – this comma is not normally used.

This is similar to:

Znam da je došao. – “I know that he came.”
Pitam se kako je uspio. – “I wonder how he succeeded.”

No comma before da / kako / koliko in these roles.

Why are there no words for “the” in front of turist or šetalište?

Croatian has no articles (no direct equivalents of English “a / an / the”).

Definiteness and specificity are expressed through:

Context
- Here it’s clear we’re talking about a particular tourist and a specific promenade.
Word order
Demonstratives if needed (like “this / that”):
- Ovaj turist iz Njemačke… – “This tourist from Germany…”
- Ono šetalište uz jezero… – “That promenade by the lake…”

So Turist iz Njemačke je iznenađen… can translate as either:

“A tourist from Germany is surprised…” or
“The tourist from Germany is surprised…”

depending on context, even though the Croatian sentence itself does not mark this difference with an article.