Learn Hardcore Croatian: Roditelji govore da je važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan. - Parents say that it is important to study Croatian every day.

In Croatian, when you report what someone says or thinks (similar to English “say that…”, “think that…”), you normally introduce the clause with da.

Roditelji govore da je važno učiti…
= “The parents say that it is important to learn…”

You cannot say:

✗ Roditelji govore je važno učiti…

After verbs like reći, govoriti, misliti, znati, čuti, vidjeti etc., you almost always need da (“that”) to introduce the following clause.

Why is the word order da je važno and not da važno je or da je važno vs. da je važno? What’s special about je?

The verb je (is) is a clitic — a short, unstressed word that normally goes in the second position in the clause.

In the clause da je važno učiti…:

da is the first word in the clause,
je moves to the second position,
then comes važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan.

Natural:

✅ da je važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan

Unnatural / wrong:

✗ da važno je učiti hrvatski svaki dan (clitic je is not in second position)

So the order da je važno is there because je must appear right after the first element (da) in the clause.

Why is it važno (neuter) and not važan or važna?

Važno is the neuter form of the adjective važan, važna, važno (“important”).
It’s neuter here because:

We are talking about something general and abstract: “it is important to learn Croatian every day”.
In Croatian, when the subject is an infinitive (“to do something”) or an entire clause (“that something is true”), the predicate adjective is usually neuter singular.

Compare:

Učiti hrvatski svaki dan je važno.
(“Learning Croatian every day is important.”) — važno neuter, agreeing with that whole idea.

You would use važan / važna when the subject is a specific masculine / feminine noun:

Ovaj zadatak je važan. – This task is important. (masc.)
Ova lekcija je važna. – This lesson is important. (fem.)

Why is it učiti (infinitive) and not uči?

Učiti is the infinitive form (“to learn / to study”).
After expressions like je važno (“it is important”), Croatian normally uses the infinitive:

Važno je učiti. – It is important to study.
Dobro je jesti zdravo. – It is good to eat healthily.

Using uči (3rd person singular present: “he/she learns”) would change the meaning:

Uči hrvatski svaki dan. – He / she learns Croatian every day.

In your sentence, we’re talking about the general action, so the infinitive učiti is the right choice.

Why isn’t it učiti se hrvatski? I often see učiti se meaning “to study”.

Both exist, but the usage is slightly different:

učiti + object – to learn something
- učiti hrvatski – to learn Croatian
- učiti gramatiku – to learn grammar
učiti se – to study (more reflexive / general, often “to study for a test”, “to be a student”, etc.)
- Učim se za ispit. – I am studying for the exam.
- Djeca se u školi uče. – Children study / are being educated at school.

In važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan, we are focusing on what you are learning (Croatian), so učiti hrvatski (without se) is most natural.

Why is hrvatski used alone? Why not hrvatski jezik?

Croatian often uses the adjective form of a language as a noun for “the [language]”:

hrvatski – Croatian (language)
engleski – English
njemački – German

So:

učiti hrvatski
literally: “to learn Croatian (language)”
fully: učiti hrvatski jezik, but jezik is usually omitted.

Grammatically:

hrvatski here is masculine singular accusative, because it’s the direct object of učiti:
- učiti što? – hrvatski.

What about svaki dan? Why isn’t there a preposition, like “svaki u dan” or something?

Time expressions in Croatian often use a bare noun in the accusative without a preposition:

svaki dan – every day
prošli tjedan – last week
cijelu noć – the whole night

In učiti hrvatski svaki dan,

svaki dan is a time expression meaning “every day”.
dan is masculine singular accusative (same form as nominative for inanimate nouns), with the adjective svaki also in masculine singular accusative.

You don’t add a preposition here; svaki dan by itself already means “every day”.

What’s the difference between svaki dan and svakog dana? Could we say svakog dana here?

Both are correct and common:

svaki dan – “every day” (neutral, very common in speech)
svakog dana – also “every day”, but slightly more formal/literary sounding, using the genitive.

In your sentence, you can say:

✅ …učiti hrvatski svaki dan.
✅ …učiti hrvatski svakog dana.

The meaning is the same; the difference is mostly style.

Why is it govore and not kažu or reknu? Aren’t those verbs closer to “say”?

Croatian has several verbs around “to say / to speak”:

govoriti – to speak, to talk, also “to say (repeatedly / generally)”
reći / kazati (perfective) – to say (a specific statement, usually once)

In your sentence:

Roditelji govore da je važno…
suggests something like “The parents say (in general / repeatedly) that it’s important…”, or “The parents keep saying that…”

If you want to emphasize a single act of saying, you would more likely use:

Roditelji su rekli / kazali da je važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan.
– The parents said that it is important to learn Croatian every day.

So govore fits well for a general rule or repeated advice.

Why is roditelji and not roditelji su at the beginning? Where did su go?

Here the main verb is govore (“speak / say”), not biti (“to be”). So we don’t need su at all.

Roditelji govore… – The parents say / are saying…
- roditelji – subject (“parents”)
- govore – main verb (“say”)

You only use su with the verb biti (“to be”):

Roditelji su umorni. – The parents are tired.
Roditelji su rekli da… – The parents have said that… (here su helps form the past tense).

In Roditelji govore da…, govore already carries the person and number (3rd person plural), so no extra su is needed.

Could I change the word order inside the “da”-clause? For example:
Roditelji govore da je svaki dan važno učiti hrvatski.

Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible, especially for adverbs and time expressions. All of these are grammatically correct:

Roditelji govore da je važno učiti hrvatski svaki dan.
Roditelji govore da je važno svaki dan učiti hrvatski.
Roditelji govore da je svaki dan važno učiti hrvatski.

The differences are about emphasis:

(1) is neutral: “it is important to learn Croatian every day.”
(2) slightly highlights the frequency of learning: “it is important to, every day, learn Croatian.”
(3) can sound like: “every day, it is important to learn Croatian” (daily importance).

The key rule is that je stays in its clitic second position (after da). The rest can move for nuance.

What’s the aspect difference between učiti and naučiti here? Could we say važno je naučiti hrvatski?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

učiti – imperfective: to be learning / to study (ongoing, process)
- važno je učiti hrvatski svaki dan
  – it is important to study/keep learning Croatian every day (focus on the ongoing process and habit).
naučiti – perfective: to learn / to acquire knowledge (reach the result, finish learning)
- važno je naučiti hrvatski
  – it is important to learn (eventually master) Croatian (focus on the end result, not the daily habit).

Your sentence with učiti emphasizes the ongoing daily practice, which matches “every day” very well.

How do you pronounce hrvatski and svaki dan? The consonant clusters look hard.

hrvatski: /ˈhr̩.vat.ski/
- h – like English h
- r – trilled/flapped
- In hrv, the r is syllabic (it acts like a vowel), roughly like “hr̩-vat-ski”.
svaki dan: /ˈsʋa.ki dan/
- sv – close to English “sv” in “Svalbard”, but v is softer, almost like an English w in some positions.
- Stress is on the first syllable: SVA-ki dan.

Croatian usually stresses the first syllable of content words in their basic form, and consonant clusters like hrv- are normal for native speakers, even if they feel unusual to English speakers.