Sigurnost djece u parku nam je važna.

to be

Breakdown of Sigurnost djece u parku nam je važna.

• u: in
• nam: us (dative short form)
• važan: important

Questions & Answers about Sigurnost djece u parku nam je važna.

What does nam mean here, and why is it in the middle of the sentence?

Nam means “to us / for us”. It is the dative form of mi (we).

Croatian has a group of short unstressed pronouns called clitics (like mi, ti, ga, joj, im, se, će, je, etc.). These almost always stand in the second position in the clause, which is why you see:

• Sigurnost djece u parku nam je važna.
  lit. “The safety of the children in the park to-us is important.”

You generally cannot put nam just anywhere.

Good:

• Nama je sigurnost djece u parku važna. (full form nama, stressed, can stand first)
• Važna nam je sigurnost djece u parku.

Wrong or very unnatural:

• Sigurnost djece u parku je nam važna. ✗ (clitic after je is not allowed like that)

Why is it djece, not djeca?