Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.

After the match the captain calmly talks with the coach.

Breakdown of Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.

• poslije: after
• s: with
• razgovarati: to talk
• mirno: calmly
• trener: coach
• utakmica: match
• kapetanica: captain

Questions & Answers about Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.

What does Kapetanica mean exactly, and how is it related to kapetan?

Kapetanica is the feminine form of kapetan (captain).

• kapetan = captain (male, or grammatically masculine / generic)
• kapetanica = female captain

The suffix -ica is a common way to form a feminine noun from a masculine one:

• učitelj → učiteljica (teacher)
• prijatelj → prijateljica (friend, female)

So Kapetanica here clearly refers to a woman who is the team captain.

Why is there no word for the in Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom?

Croatian has no articles like the or a/an. Definiteness is usually understood from:

• context: who has already been mentioned or is known
• word order and stress
• sometimes using demonstratives (taj, ovaj, onaj) when you really need to specify “that/this (exact) one”

So Kapetanica here naturally means the captain (female) because the context makes it clear which captain you are talking about. If you really wanted to emphasize “that captain,” you could say:

• Ta kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom.
  (That (female) captain is calmly talking with the coach.)

Why is it poslije utakmice and not poslije utakmica or poslije utakmicu?

The preposition poslije (“after”) always takes the genitive case.

The noun utakmica (match) declines as:

• Nominative (basic form): utakmica – the match
• Genitive (after poslije): utakmice – of the match

So:

• poslije utakmice = after the match
  (poslije
  • genitive)

You could not say:

• ✗ poslije utakmica – that would be genitive plural (“after matches”)
• ✗ poslije utakmicu – accusative, wrong case after poslije

What is the difference between poslije and nakon? Could I say nakon utakmice instead?

Yes, you can say nakon utakmice; it is correct and very natural.

Both poslije and nakon mean after and both require genitive:

• poslije utakmice
• nakon utakmice

Nuance:

• nakon can sound just a bit more formal or neutral.
• poslije is very common in everyday speech.

In most contexts they are interchangeable here:

• Kapetanica nakon utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.
• Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.

Both are fine.

Why is it mirno and not mirna in mirno razgovara?

Mirno is an adverb (“calmly”), while miran / mirna / mirno are adjectives (“calm”) used with nouns.

• adjective: mirna kapetanica – a calm captain (describes the noun)
• adverb: kapetanica mirno razgovara – the captain talks calmly (describes the verb)

To say how she talks, we need the adverb:

• mirno razgovara = she talks / is talking calmly

Using mirna razgovara would be incorrect here.

Where can mirno go in the sentence? Is Kapetanica mirno poslije utakmice razgovara s trenerom acceptable?

Word order in Croatian is flexible, but not all permutations sound natural.

Natural positions for mirno here:

• Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom poslije utakmice.
• Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.
• Poslije utakmice kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom.
• Kapetanica mirno poslije utakmice razgovara s trenerom. – possible, but a bit awkward; it splits poslije and its object.

What usually feels most neutral:

• adverb close to the verb it modifies (mirno razgovara)
• prepositional phrase (poslije utakmice) kept together

So the original Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom or Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom poslije utakmice sound more natural than breaking poslije from utakmice.

Why is it razgovara and not a past tense like je razgovarala, since the match is already over?

Razgovara is present tense: “(she) is talking / talks”.

The phrase poslije utakmice just tells you when this present action is happening – it is after the match, but still in the present moment of the story (for example, describing a photo, a scene you are watching, or using “historical/narrative present”).

• Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.
  The captain (right now, after the match) is calmly talking with the coach.

If you want standard past tense, you would say:

• Kapetanica je poslije utakmice mirno razgovarala s trenerom.
  The captain calmly talked with the coach after the match.

Both are correct; they just set a different “camera time” (present description vs past narrative).

What is the aspect of razgovara (from razgovarati), and is there a perfective partner?

Razgovarati is imperfective. It focuses on the process or ongoing nature of talking.

• Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom.
  She is in the middle of talking; we don’t care about the endpoint.

A common perfective partner is porazgovarati (“to have a talk, to talk for a while, to complete the talking”):

• Kapetanica je poslije utakmice mirno porazgovarala s trenerom.
  She had a (completed) talk with the coach after the match.

So:

• razgovarati – imperfective, ongoing / repeated action
• porazgovarati – perfective, one completed instance of talking

Why do we say s trenerom and not something like s trener or sa trenera?

The preposition s (“with”) that means together with takes the instrumental case.

The noun trener (coach) declines as:

• Nominative: trener – the coach (subject)
• Genitive: trenera
• Dative: treneru
• Accusative: trenera
• Instrumental: trenerom
• Locative: treneru

With s meaning “with”:

• s trenerom = with the coach (instrumental)

So:

• ✗ s trener – wrong case
• ✗ sa trenera – genitive; would mean something like “from the coach” with a different preposition, not “with the coach”

When do we use s and when sa, and why is it s trenerom here?

Both s and sa are the same preposition; sa is just a variant used for easier pronunciation.

General tendency:

• Use s before words starting with most consonants.
• Use sa before words starting with s, z, š, ž or some difficult clusters, to avoid tongue-twisters.

Examples:

• sa sestrom (with the sister) – sa helps avoid s sestrom
• sa ženom (with the woman)
• s bratom (with the brother)
• s trenerom (with the coach) – s t- is easy to pronounce

You could hear sa trenerom in speech, but s trenerom is the standard and more common form.

Why is Kapetanica in this form and not something like kapetanicu or kapetanice?

Kapetanica here is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular.

If we change the role of the noun, the form changes:

• Nominative (subject):
  Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.
  The captain talks…

• Accusative (direct object):
  Vidim kapetanicu poslije utakmice.
  I see the captain after the match.

• Genitive:
  Nema kapetanice.
  There is no captain.

So the form kapetanica tells you she is the one doing the action in this sentence.

Could I say Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom nakon utakmice instead? Does changing poslije to nakon or moving poslije/nakon utakmice change the meaning?

You can absolutely say:

• Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom nakon utakmice.

Changing poslije to nakon:

• meaning: the same (after the match)
• style: nakon is slightly more formal or neutral; poslije is very common and colloquial.

Moving the phrase:

• Kapetanica poslije utakmice mirno razgovara s trenerom.
• Kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom poslije utakmice.
• Poslije utakmice kapetanica mirno razgovara s trenerom.

All of these still mean the same thing; you just change what is emphasized (for example, starting with Poslije utakmice puts more focus on the time frame).