Questions & Answers about Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže.
Udaljen is an adjective meaning distant / far away / removed.
So Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže is literally Our hotel is distant from the beach.
In everyday English you’d normally say Our hotel is far from the beach, so udaljen here corresponds closely to far or far away, but grammatically it behaves like an adjective (distant), not like an adverb (far).
In Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže, udaljen is an adjective.
- je = is (the verb biti – to be)
- udaljen = distant / located away (adjective)
- Together je udaljen = is distant / is located away
So the structure is the same as in English Our hotel is distant from the beach, where is is the verb and distant is an adjective.
You need je because Croatian normally requires a form of “to be” in such sentences.
- Correct: Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže. = Our hotel is far from the beach.
- Incorrect / incomplete as a normal sentence: Naš hotel udaljen od plaže.
This sounds like a fragment, similar to saying Our hotel far from the beach in English.
You can drop je only in special, shortened styles (e.g. headlines, notes, poetic or very telegraphic language):
- Headline style: Naš hotel udaljen od plaže – might appear in an ad or headline.
In normal speech and writing, keep je.
The preposition od (from, of) always takes the genitive case.
The noun plaža (beach) declines like this (singular only):
- Nominative (dictionary form): plaža – beach
- Genitive: plaže – of the beach / from the beach
In od plaže, plaže is genitive singular, required by od.
- od plaže = from the beach
- od plaža would be from (the) beaches (genitive plural), which changes the meaning.
- od plaži is simply wrong; plaži is dative/locative singular but od never uses that case.
So od plaže is the only correct form here.
Plaže in od plaže is genitive singular.
Singular forms of plaža:
- Nominative: plaža – the beach (subject)
Plaža je pješčana. – The beach is sandy. - Genitive: plaže – of the beach / from the beach
Daleko je od plaže. – It is far from the beach. - Dative: plaži – to the beach / for the beach
Idem prema plaži. – I’m going towards the beach. - Accusative: plažu – (to) the beach (direct object / motion)
Vidim plažu. – I see the beach. - Vocative: plažo – (addressing the beach, rarely used)
- Locative: plaži – on the beach / at the beach (with certain prepositions)
Na plaži sam. – I am on the beach. - Instrumental: plažom – with/by means of the beach (rare in practice)
In our sentence, the preposition od forces the genitive singular, so we get od plaže.
Yes, you can, and this is very common.
- Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže.
- Naš hotel je daleko od plaže.
Both mean Our hotel is far from the beach.
Nuance:
- udaljen – literally distant / removed, sounds slightly more formal or descriptive of location.
- daleko – adverb far, very frequent and neutral in everyday speech.
If you’re unsure which to use, Naš hotel je daleko od plaže is perfectly natural and often more typical in casual conversation.
The possessive naš (our) must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies.
- hotel is masculine singular.
- The masculine singular nominative form of our is naš.
So:
- naš hotel – our hotel (masculine)
- naša kuća – our house (feminine)
- naše more – our sea (neuter)
Naša hotel or naše hotel are ungrammatical because naša and naše are used with feminine or neuter nouns, not with hotel.
Yes, you can say:
- Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže.
- Naš je hotel udaljen od plaže.
Both are grammatically correct and essentially mean the same: Our hotel is far from the beach.
What’s happening is the Croatian clitic je tends to appear in the so‑called second position (after the first stressed word or phrase). Both of these orders satisfy that rule:
- Naš hotel (phrase) + je
- Naš (word) + je
- hotel
The second version (Naš je hotel…) can put a tiny bit more emphasis on naš (our), but in most contexts the difference is very slight, and both are natural.
The word order in Croatian is fairly flexible, and all of these are possible:
- Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže. – neutral: Our hotel is far from the beach.
- Hotel je udaljen od plaže. – neutral too; just leaves out naš (our).
- Naš je hotel udaljen od plaže. – slightly emphasizes naš.
- Od plaže je udaljen naš hotel. – emphasizes od plaže (from the beach) or naš hotel as contrast to something else; sounds a bit more formal or stylistic.
Croatian uses word order to express focus and emphasis more than grammatical roles, because cases already show who does what.
For everyday learners, Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže is a safe, neutral pattern.
Two very natural options:
Naš hotel nije daleko od plaže.
– Literally: Our hotel is not far from the beach.
This is the most common, idiomatic way.Naš hotel nije udaljen od plaže.
– Literally: Our hotel is not distant from the beach.
Grammatically fine, but sounds a bit more formal or less common in casual speech.
Often, if you want to stress that it’s actually close, you can also say:
- Naš je hotel blizu plaže. – Our hotel is near the beach.
Approximate pronunciation:
udaljen: oo-DA-lyen
- IPA: /uˈdaʎen/
- u as in put,
- lj is one sound, similar to lli in million,
- stress on the second syllable: u-DA-ljen.
plaže: PLAH-zhe
- IPA: /ˈplaʒe/
- ž like the s in vision or measure,
- e like e in met,
- stress on the first syllable: PLA-že.
Full sentence roughly: Naš hotel je udaljen od plaže
≈ Nash HO-tel yeh oo-DA-lyen od PLAH-zhe.
Yes, udaljen is related to the verb udaljiti (se).
- udaljiti (se) = to move away / to distance (oneself) (perfective verb)
- udaljen = past passive participle / adjective meaning distanced, remote, far away
Compare:
Hotel je udaljen od plaže.
– The hotel is distant from the beach (describes its location, a state).Hotel se udaljio od plaže.
– The hotel moved away from the beach (describes an action, sounds odd literally, but works with moving things:
Brod se udaljio od plaže. – The boat moved away from the beach.)
So je udaljen is a static description (where something is), while se udaljio is a dynamic action (something went farther away).