Learn Hardcore Croatian: Za mene plaća nije jedini cilj; važna mi je i sigurnost posla. - For me, salary is not the only goal; job security is also important to me.

Croatian allows more flexible word order than English. Elements like za mene, važna, mi, i can move around to change emphasis without changing the basic meaning.

Why is it za mene and not just ja or meni?

Za mene is a prepositional phrase meaning “for me” in the sense of “as far as I’m concerned / in my view”.

za always takes the accusative case
the accusative of ja is mene
so za + mene → za mene

You cannot say za ja or za mi; the pronoun must be in the correct case after the preposition.

You could instead say:

Meni plaća nije jedini cilj. – For me, salary is not the only goal.
Here meni is dative, and it’s used without a preposition.

Za mene sounds a bit more like “from my point of view / as for me…”, while meni is more like “to me, personally…”, but in many contexts they overlap and both sound natural.

What case is mene in, and which other forms go with za?

Mene is accusative singular of the pronoun ja.

The preposition za almost always requires the accusative case. With personal pronouns:

za mene – for me
za tebe – for you (singular)
za njega / nju – for him / for her
za nas – for us
za vas – for you (plural / formal)
za njih – for them

So the pattern is: za + accusative.

Why is it plaća? Is that the normal word for “salary”? Is it feminine?

Yes, plaća is the standard and very common word for “salary” / “pay”.

It is feminine.
Basic forms:
- nominative singular: plaća
- accusative singular: plaću
- genitive singular: plaće
- nominative plural: plaće

In some regions and neighboring countries, you may also hear plata, but in standard Croatian plaća is more typical.

In this sentence it’s in the nominative because it is the subject of the clause:
plaća nije jedini cilj – salary is not the only goal.

Why nije jedini cilj and not something like nije samo cilj?

Jedini cilj literally means “the only goal”.

nije jedini cilj → is not the only goal
This implies: there are other goals as well (for example, job security).

If you said:

nije samo cilj – is not just a goal

that would be odd here, because plaća definitely is a goal; the point is that it is not the only one. Jedini is the right adjective to express “only, sole”.

Grammar‑wise:

jedini is masculine singular nominative, agreeing with cilj (a masculine noun).
- cilj – goal (masc.)
- jedini cilj – the only goal

Why is there a semicolon (;) instead of i (“and”) or just a comma?

The semicolon separates two closely related but independent clauses:

Za mene plaća nije jedini cilj
važna mi je i sigurnost posla

A semicolon here works very similarly to English: it’s stronger than a comma, weaker than a full stop.

You could also write:

Za mene plaća nije jedini cilj, važna mi je i sigurnost posla.
(comma – perfectly acceptable in everyday writing)

Or join them with i:

Za mene plaća nije jedini cilj i važna mi je i sigurnost posla.

But the semicolon nicely emphasizes that we have two separate statements which support the same general idea.

What exactly is happening in važna mi je? Why not je važna mi or meni je važna?

Važna mi je literally means “important to me is”.

The pieces:

važna – important (feminine singular, agreeing with sigurnost)
mi – to me (dative clitic pronoun of meni)
je – is (3rd singular of biti, “to be”)

In neutral word order, you often see:

Sigurnost posla mi je važna.
Sigurnost posla je meni važna.

In this sentence, the adjective važna is moved to the front for emphasis, and the clitic mi comes right after the first stressed word (važna), together with je:

važna mi je i sigurnost posla

You cannot say važna je mi – Croatian has a fairly strict clitic order. In multi‑clitic clusters, short pronouns like mi, ti, mu must come before the auxiliary je, sam, si, etc.:

correct: mi je
incorrect: je mi (except in very special, marked contexts)

Meni je važna i sigurnost posla is also fine; meni (full form) is a bit more emphasized than mi (clitic).

So you have several natural options:

Važna mi je i sigurnost posla.
Meni je važna i sigurnost posla.
Sigurnost posla mi je važna.
I sigurnost posla mi je važna.

What case is mi here, and how is it different from mene in za mene?

Both mi and mene translate as “me”, but they are:

different cases
different types of pronouns

mene
- accusative (object of za)
- full (stressed) form of the pronoun
Used after prepositions like za, kroz, protiv, etc.:
- za mene, kroz mene, protiv mene
mi
- dative (indirect object: “to me / for me”)
- short, unstressed clitic form of meni
Used with verbs/adjectives that take a dative:
- Važna mi je sigurnost. – Security is important to me.
- Rekao mi je. – He told me.

So:

za mene – for me (preposition + accusative)
važna mi je – is important to me (dative, no preposition)

What does sigurnost posla literally mean, and what case is posla?

Sigurnost posla is literally “security of (the) job”, i.e. job security.

sigurnost – security (feminine noun, nominative singular)
posla – genitive singular of posao (job, work)

This noun + noun (in genitive) pattern is very common in Croatian to express “X of Y”:

vrata kuće – the door of the house
naslov knjige – the title of the book
sigurnost posla – the security of the job

You could also express a similar idea with an adjective:

siguran posao – a secure/stable job

However, sigurnost posla focuses more abstractly on the concept of job security, while siguran posao sounds more like “a particular job that is secure”.

What does i mean in važna mi je i sigurnost posla, and why is it before sigurnost?

Here i means “also / too / as well”, not just simple “and”.

The idea is:

Job security is also important to me (in addition to salary).

The i is placed immediately before the element it emphasizes as “also”:

važna mi je i sigurnost posla – also job security is important to me
i meni je važna sigurnost posla – it is important also to me (not just to others)

So moving i around slightly changes what is being added:

i sigurnost posla – also job security
i meni – also to me

In this sentence, i in front of sigurnost posla says: besides salary, job security is also important.