Djeca rastu brzo.

Children grow fast.

Breakdown of Djeca rastu brzo.

• dijete: child
• brzo: fast
• rasti: to rise

Questions & Answers about Djeca rastu brzo.

Is djeca singular or plural, and what case is it?

Djeca is plural, and it is in the nominative case.

• Nominative is used mainly for the subject of the sentence.
• Here, djeca is the subject of rastu (grow).

So the basic structure is:
Djeca (nominative plural subject) rastu (3rd person plural verb) brzo (adverb).

Why does the plural djeca not look like a regular plural of dijete?

Because dijete (child) is highly irregular in Croatian. Its plural is djeca (children), not something predictable like dijeti or dijeta.

Here is its basic pattern:

• Singular:
  • Nominative: dijete – child
• Plural:
  • Nominative: djeca – children

Other cases of the plural use a different stem:

• Genitive plural (of children): djece
  
  • e.g. puno djece – many children

So:

• dijete → one child
• djeca → children (subject form, nominative)
• djece → of children (genitive)

What gender is djeca, and how does agreement work with it?

Grammatically, djeca is treated as neuter plural.

• Adjectives and past participles that agree with djeca use neuter plural forms, which typically end in -a:
  • malo dijete – a small child (neuter singular)
  • mala djeca – small children (neuter plural)
  • Djeca su brzo narasla. – The children grew quickly. (narasla = neuter plural)

In everyday speech you may sometimes hear masculine plural agreement, but the standard is neuter plural.

What is the infinitive of rastu, and how is it conjugated?

The infinitive is rasti – to grow.

Present tense conjugation:

• ja rastem – I grow
• ti rasteš – you grow
• on/ona/ono raste – he/she/it grows
• mi rastemo – we grow
• vi rastete – you (pl/formal) grow
• oni/one/ona rastu – they grow

In Djeca rastu brzo, rastu is 3rd person plural, matching the plural subject djeca.

Why is it brzo and not brzi or brze?

Because brzo is an adverb (how they grow), not an adjective (what kind of children).

• brz – fast (adjective, masculine)
  
  • brz auto – a fast car
• brza – fast (adjective, feminine sg. / masc.–fem. pl.)
  
  • brza djeca – fast children (describing the children)
• brzo – quickly / fast (adverb)
  
  • Djeca rastu brzo. – Children grow quickly / fast. (describes how they grow)

So in this sentence brzo modifies the verb, not the noun.

Can I change the word order? For example, Djeca brzo rastu or Brzo djeca rastu?

Yes, Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct, but the focus shifts slightly:

• Djeca rastu brzo.
  Neutral; very typical. Mild emphasis on brzo at the end.

• Djeca brzo rastu.
  Also very natural. Slightly more focus on the process of growing; you hear brzo earlier.

• Brzo djeca rastu.
  Sounds more expressive/emotional, as if you are exclaiming How quickly children grow! This is less neutral and more like a comment or lament.

For everyday neutral statements, Djeca rastu brzo or Djeca brzo rastu are most common.

Why is there no word for the in front of djeca?

Croatian has no articles like English the or a/an.

• djeca can mean:
  • children
  • the children
  • sometimes even kids in general

Context decides whether you should translate it as children or the children in English. Croatian does not mark this difference with a separate word.

Is rastu talking about right now, or about a general truth?

The Croatian present tense here works like the English present simple:

• It can describe a general truth / typical fact:

  • Djeca rastu brzo. – Children (in general) grow fast.

• It can also describe something that is happening in a broader ongoing period, not just this second:

  • Djeca ti stvarno brzo rastu ovih godina. – Your children are really growing fast these years.

So in this sentence, the most natural reading is a general statement, not a momentary action.

How do I say Children don’t grow fast in Croatian?

You negate the verb with ne, placed directly before the conjugated verb:

• Djeca ne rastu brzo. – Children do not grow fast.

Position:

• subject: Djeca
• negation + verb: ne rastu
• adverb: brzo

How would I say The children grew quickly (past tense)?

For a completed action in the past, you usually use a perfective verb like narasti (to grow up / to have grown) or porasti and the past tense:

• Djeca su brzo narasla. – The children grew quickly.
• Djeca su brzo porasla. – The children grew quickly.

Structure:

• Djeca – subject
• su – auxiliary (3rd person plural of biti, to be)
• narasla / porasla – past participle (neuter plural, agreeing with djeca)
• brzo – adverb

How do you pronounce djeca and rastu?

Approximate pronunciation (in English-like terms):

• djeca – roughly DYET-sa

  • dj is like d
    • y (as in during
      • yes) merged.
  • e like e in bet.
  • c is ts, like in cats.

• rastu – roughly RAHS-too

  • r is rolled or tapped.
  • a like a in father.
  • st as in English stand.
  • u like oo in food.

Putting it together: DJET-sa RAHST-oo BRZ-oh (with brzo approximated as BRZ-oh, where r is rolled and o is like o in more, but shorter).