Breakdown of Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji, ali svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
Questions & Answers about Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji, ali svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
In Croatian, after verbs of saying, thinking, feeling, etc., you normally introduce the reported clause with da:
- Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji.
The coach says (that) the result is not the most important.
Unlike English, you cannot normally omit da in indirect speech:
- ✅ Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji.
- ✅ Trener kaže: "Rezultat nije najvažniji." (direct quote)
- ❌ Trener kaže rezultat nije najvažniji. (incorrect as indirect speech)
So you either use da + clause (indirect speech) or use punctuation and a quotation (direct speech).
The adjective must agree in gender, number and case with the noun it describes.
- rezultat is masculine singular (nominative).
- The matching form of najvažan (“most important”) is najvažniji (masc. sg. nom.)
Other forms would be:
- najvažnija – feminine singular (e.g. pobjeda je najvažnija)
- najvažnije – neuter singular (e.g. pravilo je najvažnije) or adverb (“most importantly”).
So rezultat nije najvažniji is correct because rezultat is masculine.
The base adjective is važan (“important”).
Degrees of comparison:
- Positive: važan – important
- Comparative: važniji – more important
- Superlative: najvažniji – the most important
The pattern is:
- comparative: usually -iji or -ji (depending on the adjective)
- superlative: naj-
- comparative form → najvažniji
They are both direct objects of the verb volimo (“we like / we love”), so they must be in the accusative case.
- pobjeda (victory) → accusative singular: pobjedu
- Volimo pobjedu. – We like victory.
- poraz (defeat) is masculine inanimate, and its nominative and accusative singular are the same: poraz
- Mrzimo poraz. – We hate defeat.
In the sentence:
- volimo pobjedu više nego poraz
both pobjedu and poraz are objects of volimo, so both are in the accusative (even though only pobjeda → pobjedu visibly changes).
Yes, that word order is possible and natural:
- Svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
- Svi više volimo pobjedu nego poraz.
The basic meaning is the same: We all prefer victory to defeat.
The difference is nuance/emphasis:
- Svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz. – neutral order, light emphasis on pobjedu vs poraz.
- Svi više volimo pobjedu nego poraz. – slightly stronger focus on više volimo (“we like more”) – the contrast in preference is highlighted.
Croatian word order is fairly flexible; moving više and svi around usually affects emphasis more than grammaticality.
Croatian has no articles (no words like the or a/an).
Definiteness (“the result”) vs indefiniteness (“a result”) is understood from:
- context
- word order
- pronouns or demonstratives (e.g. taj rezultat = that result / the result)
So:
- Rezultat nije najvažniji.
can mean The result is not the most important (thing), depending on context. There is no separate word for the.
Both are possible, but they are not identical:
kazati / reći → kaže
- to say (a specific thing), to state
- suggests a concrete statement or message
- Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji. – The coach says / states that…
govoriti → govori
- to speak, to talk, to be speaking (often more general or ongoing)
- can sound like “talks about / keeps saying”
- Trener govori da rezultat nije najvažniji. – The coach (often) says / talks about how the result is not the most important.
In this exact sentence, kaže is the most straightforward option if you mean a specific comment before or after a particular match.
In Croatian, personal subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, mi, vi, oni) are usually omitted, because the verb ending already shows the person and number.
- volimo → first person plural (“we like”)
So:
- Svi volimo pobjedu… – normal and natural
- Mi svi volimo pobjedu… – also correct, but mi adds emphasis: we all (as opposed to some other group) like victory…
You only add mi when you want to contrast or stress the subject.
više … nego … = more … than …
Structure in this sentence:
- volimo pobjedu – we like victory
- više nego poraz – more than (we like) defeat
The important point: the things compared (victory and defeat) must be in the same case, determined by the verb or preposition that governs them.
Here, both are objects of volimo → both are accusative:
- volimo pobjedu (acc.) više nego poraz (acc.)
The second verb volimo is simply omitted because it’s understood, just like in English:
- We like victory more than (we like) defeat.
You can, but the meaning shifts slightly.
Svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
– We all like victory (in general) more than defeat (generic, abstract singular).Svi volimo pobjede više nego poraze.
– We all like victories more than defeats (talking about multiple individual wins and losses).
Both are grammatically correct.
Using singular (pobjedu, poraz) for general ideas is very common and natural in Croatian.
Yes. In standard Croatian, when ali (“but”) connects two independent clauses, a comma is required:
- Trener kaže da rezultat nije najvažniji, ali svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
So:
- [Trener kaže…] , ali [svi volimo…].
You do not use a comma before i (“and”) in simple cases, but you do before ali, nego, no, međutim when they join full clauses.
Yes, but there are nuances:
ali – the most neutral and common “but”
- …, ali svi volimo pobjedu… – but we all like victory…
no – also “but”, often a bit more formal or stylistic
- …, no svi volimo pobjedu… – but / yet we all like victory…
međutim – “however”, usually starts a new clause and is often separated by a comma
- … Rezultat nije najvažniji. Međutim, svi volimo pobjedu više nego poraz.
In the original single-sentence structure, ali is the most natural choice.