Learn Hardcore Croatian: Učimo hrvatski svaki dan kako bismo bolje razumjeli recepte i priče iz časopisa. - We study Croatian every day so that we can better understand recipes and stories from magazines.

Učimo is simply present tense, 1st person plural of učiti (to learn, to study).
The same form učimo can cover:
- we learn (habitual)
- we are learning (right now or around now)
- we study (regular activity)

Context tells you whether it’s a one‑time action, a habit, or an ongoing process.
So Učimo hrvatski svaki dan can naturally be understood as “We study/are learning Croatian every day.”

In učimo hrvatski, what is hrvatski exactly? Is it an adjective or a noun, and what case is it in?

In učimo hrvatski, the word hrvatski is:

originally an adjective meaning Croatian
but here it is used as a noun meaning the Croatian language (short for hrvatski jezik).

Grammatically:

It’s masculine singular accusative, because it’s the direct object of učimo.
For inanimate masculine nouns/adjectives, nominative and accusative singular look the same:
- nominative: hrvatski (jezik) – Croatian (language)
- accusative: učimo hrvatski (jezik) – we learn Croatian (language)

Croatian often drops jezik, so hrvatski on its own is understood as “the Croatian language.”

Why is there no article like “the” or “a” before hrvatski? Shouldn’t it be “the Croatian (language)”?

Croatian doesn’t have articles like a / an / the at all.

Učimo hrvatski can correspond to:
- We learn Croatian
- We are learning Croatian
- We study the Croatian language

Whether English uses a / the / no article is decided when translating; Croatian itself just uses hrvatski without an article.
Definiteness (the Croatian language) is inferred from context, not from a specific word form.

What does svaki dan mean literally, and is it the only correct form? I’ve also seen svakog dana.

Both are correct, with a small nuance.

svaki dan
- literally “every day”
- svaki = “every” (masc. sg. nominative/accusative)
- dan = “day” (masc. sg. accusative here, expressing time)
- Very common in everyday speech.
svakog dana
- literally “of every day”
- svakog = genitive of svaki
- dana = genitive of dan
- Slightly more formal / literary, but also very common.

In Učimo hrvatski svaki dan, both svaki dan and svakog dana would be acceptable and natural. The meaning is effectively the same: “every day.”

What exactly does kako bismo mean, and how is it different from da bismo?

In this sentence, kako bismo introduces a purpose clause:

kako bismo bolje razumjeli…
≈ “so that we would understand … better” / “in order that we would better understand …”

Details:

kako usually means “how”, but in constructions like this it can mean “so that / in order that”.
bismo is the 1st person plural conditional auxiliary (we would).

You could also say:

da bismo bolje razumjeli recepte i priče iz časopisa.

kako bismo and da bismo are both correct here; da is a bit more neutral/everyday, kako can sound slightly more formal or stylistic, but the difference is small in this kind of sentence.

Is bismo bolje razumjeli a past tense? Why is the verb razumjeli and not razumijemo?

bismo bolje razumjeli is not past tense; it’s the conditional mood.

Formation of the conditional in Croatian:

auxiliary in conditional (bih, bi, bismo, biste, bi)
- L‑participle (also used for past tense)
Here:
- bismo = we would
- razumjeli = L‑participle of razumjeti (to understand)

So kako bismo bolje razumjeli… = “so that we would understand … better”, not “so that we understood … better (in the past).”

Using present tense instead:

kako bismo bolje razumijeli – sounds odd; conditional normally uses the participle (razumjeli), not the present.
da bolje razumijemo – grammatically OK and also used, but slightly different:
- more like “so that we (actually) understand better” (less hypothetical than the conditional).

Why is it razumjeli and not a form like razumjele or something else? How does gender agreement work here?

The form razumjeli is:

L‑participle, masculine plural (or “mixed” plural)
agreeing with the subject mi (we).

In Croatian:

With past tense and conditional, the L‑participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:
- Mi smo razumjeli. – we (at least one male, or mixed group) understood
- Mi smo razumjele. – we (all female) understood
In the conditional:
- Mi bismo razumjeli. – we (mixed/masc.) would understand
- Mi bismo razumjele. – we (all female) would understand

In mixed groups or when gender is not specified, Croatian usually defaults to the masculine plural, which is why razumjeli is the “default” form in a textbook example.
If the group were explicitly all women, kako bismo bolje razumjele… would be more precise.

Why is it bolje razumjeli and not bolji razumjeli? What is bolje here?

Bolje here is an adverb, meaning “better” (in the sense of “in a better way”).

dobro = well (adverb) → bolje = better (adverb)
dobar = good (adjective) → bolji = better (adjective)

You modify a verb with an adverb, not with an adjective:

bolje razumjeti = to understand better (understand how? – better)
bolji čovjek = a better person (person what kind of? – better)

So kako bismo bolje razumjeli… literally means “so that we would better understand …”, with bolje correctly modifying the verb razumjeli.

What cases are recepte and priče in, and why? How would the singular forms look?

Both recepte and priče are direct objects of razumjeli, so they are in the accusative plural.

recept (recipe) – masculine noun
- nominative singular: recept
- accusative singular: recept
- nominative plural: recepti
- accusative plural: recepte ← used here
priča (story, tale) – feminine noun
- nominative singular: priča
- accusative singular: priču
- nominative plural: priče
- accusative plural: priče ← used here (for many feminine nouns, nominative plural = accusative plural)

So:

razumjeti recepte i priče = “to understand recipes and stories.”

Why is it iz časopisa and not something like od časopisa or časopis in another case? What case is časopisa?

The preposition iz (out of, from) requires the genitive case.

časopis = magazine/journal
časopisa = genitive (both singular and plural have the form časopisa)

So:

iz časopisa = “from (the) magazine” or “from magazines”
(singular vs plural is decided by context, because the form is the same)

You wouldn’t normally say od časopisa in this meaning; od is more “from (a person/source/origin)”, whereas iz is “from/out of (a place/container/source text)”.

Thus recepte i priče iz časopisa means “recipes and stories from (a/the) magazine(s).”

How flexible is the word order in this sentence? Could I say Svaki dan učimo hrvatski… or move bolje somewhere else?

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and your suggested changes are possible, with slight shifts in emphasis.

Some natural variants:

Svaki dan učimo hrvatski kako bismo bolje razumjeli recepte i priče iz časopisa.
– perfectly fine; starting with svaki dan emphasizes how often.
Učimo hrvatski svaki dan da bismo bolje razumjeli recepte i priče iz časopisa.
– using da bismo instead of kako bismo; also fine.
Učimo hrvatski svaki dan kako bismo razumjeli recepte i priče iz časopisa bolje.
– grammatically OK, but putting bolje at the end sounds a bit marked/less neutral;
usual position is before the verb: bolje razumjeli.

Core constraints:

The clitic bismo tends to appear in second position within its clause (here after kako).
The direct objects recepte i priče iz časopisa normally stay after the verb razumjeli (unless you want a strong emphasis by fronting them).

The original sentence is the most neutral, but the word order is not rigid.

Could I also say učimo se hrvatski instead of učimo hrvatski? Is there a difference?

You will hear both, but they’re not quite the same.

učiti hrvatski (without se)
- most common and standard way to say “to learn/study Croatian (the language)”.
- učiti + accusative = to learn something.
učiti se hrvatski / učiti se hrvatski jezik
- is used in some dialects or casually in speech,
- but in standard language, učiti se usually means “to study / to be taught / to learn (in general)” and is followed by čemu or kako (dative or “how”):
  - Učimo se hrvatskom jeziku.
  - Učimo se kako se to radi.

For a clear, neutral sentence like the one you gave, Učimo hrvatski svaki dan… is the best and most standard choice.