Learn Hardcore Croatian: Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik, a njegova sestra želi biti glazbenica. - My friend wants to become a musician, and his sister wants to be a female musician.

postati = to become
- Focuses on the change from one state to another.
- Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik. = “My friend wants to become a musician” (he is not a musician yet).
biti = to be
- Focuses on being in a state, not on the change.
- …a njegova sestra želi biti glazbenica. = “and his sister wants to be a musician” (she wants to have that role/status, without emphasizing the process of becoming).

You could technically say želi biti glazbenik in the first part too, but postati highlights the idea of becoming more strongly.

Why is it glazbenik in the first part and glazbenica in the second part?

Croatian often has masculine and feminine forms of professions and roles:

glazbenik – masculine (a male musician)
glazbenica – feminine (a female musician)

The sentence keeps grammatical and natural gender consistent:

Moj prijatelj (my male friend) → glazbenik
njegova sestra (his sister, female) → glazbenica

In everyday speech, some people do use the masculine form for both genders in certain professions, but using the feminine form like glazbenica is perfectly standard and often preferred when talking specifically about a woman.

Why is it moj prijatelj and not moja prijatelj?

Because prijatelj is grammatically masculine, and the possessive adjective moj must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Singular forms of moj:

moj prijatelj – my (male) friend → masculine
moja prijateljica – my (female) friend → feminine
moje dijete – my child → neuter

So:

Moj prijatelj (masc.) is correct.
Moja prijatelj would be wrong, because prijatelj is not feminine.

What is the role of njegova in a njegova sestra želi…? Why not njena sestra?

Njegova is a possessive pronoun meaning “his”, and it agrees with the noun sestra:

njegova sestra = his sister
- njegova → feminine singular nominative (agrees with sestra)

Njena also exists and means “her”:

njena sestra = her sister

In this sentence, njegova refers back to moj prijatelj (my friend). So we’re saying:

“My friend wants to become a musician, and his sister wants to be a musician.”

If the sentence were about a female person before, you might use njena sestra (her sister). The gender of the pronoun (njegov– / njen–) depends on who owns the sister, not on the gender of sestra (which is always feminine).

What case are the nouns prijatelj, glazbenik, sestra, and glazbenica in here?

All four are in the nominative singular:

Moj prijatelj – subject of the first clause (Who wants? → My friend).
glazbenik – predicate noun after postati (What does he want to become? → a musician).
njegova sestra – subject of the second clause (Who wants? → his sister).
glazbenica – predicate noun after biti (What does she want to be? → a musician).

In Croatian, nouns after biti (to be) and postati (to become) usually remain in the nominative, not accusative. That often surprises English speakers, because English has no visible case here, but Croatian does.

Why is there a comma before a, and what is the difference between a, i, and ali?

The comma is there because a is joining two independent clauses:

Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik,
a njegova sestra želi biti glazbenica.

About the conjunctions:

i = and (simply adds things, neutral)
- Moj prijatelj i njegova sestra žele biti glazbenici.
a = and / whereas / while (often shows a contrast or mild difference)
- Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik, a njegova sestra želi biti glazbenica.
  → Slight contrast: he wants one thing; she wants something (slightly) different.
ali = but (stronger contrast or opposition)
- Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik, ali nema talenta.

So a here signals “and at the same time, whereas his sister wants…” more than a simple additive “and”.

Could we say Moj prijatelj želi biti glazbenik instead of želi postati glazbenik?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

Moj prijatelj želi biti glazbenik. = “My friend wants to be a musician.”

However, it slightly changes the nuance:

želi postati glazbenik → stresses the process of becoming (he isn’t one yet; he wants to reach that state).
želi biti glazbenik → focuses more on the state or role (he wants his life to be that of a musician; it doesn’t say much about whether he already is one or not).

In everyday speech, both forms are used, but postati is the more natural choice when talking specifically about a future change of profession or status.

How is želi formed, and is there a difference between željeti and htjeti?

Želi is the 3rd person singular present tense of željeti (to want, to wish):

ja želim
ti želiš
on/ona/ono želi
mi želimo
vi želite
oni/one/ona žele

željeti vs htjeti:

željeti – to want, to wish (often a bit more neutral/polite, more like “to desire”)
- Želim postati glazbenik. – I want (would like) to become a musician.
htjeti – to want (more direct, can sound stronger or blunter)
- Hoću postati glazbenik. – I want to become a musician / I’m determined to.

In many contexts they overlap, but željeti often sounds slightly softer or more formal than htjeti/htjeti → hoću, hoćeš, hoće… in spoken language.

Can the word order change, for example Prijatelj moj želi postati glazbenik?

Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, especially with subjects and possessives:

Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik. – neutral, most common.
Prijatelj moj želi postati glazbenik. – also correct, but sounds poetic, emotional, or marked in some way, not neutral everyday speech.

The basic rules:

Subject usually precedes the verb in neutral statements.
Possessives (moj, tvoj, njegov, etc.) usually come before the noun they modify.
Moving moj after prijatelj changes the tone or emphasis, but not the grammatical structure.

So the original word order is the most natural standard option.

Can we omit moj or njegova if the context is clear, like just Prijatelj želi…?

Yes, you can omit possessives when the context already makes ownership clear:

Prijatelj želi postati glazbenik. – A/that friend wants to become a musician.
Sestra želi biti glazbenica. – The sister wants to be a musician.

However, you lose some information:

Moj prijatelj → specifically “my friend”
njegova sestra → specifically “his sister”

Without moj, prijatelj could be any friend, not necessarily yours. Without njegova, sestra could be someone’s sister, but not clearly “his sister”. So you can drop them grammatically, but you change how specific the sentence is.

Why is present tense (želi) used when talking about the future?

Croatian often uses the present tense to talk about intentions or plans for the future, especially with verbs like željeti, htjeti, planirati, etc.

Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik.
Literally: “My friend wants to become a musician.”
In meaning: a present wish about something that will happen in the future.

You could add a future tense for the action:

Moj prijatelj želi da postane glazbenik. – “My friend wants (that he) becomes a musician.”
Moj prijatelj će postati glazbenik. – “My friend will become a musician.”

But for simple statements of desire or intention, present tense + infinitive (as in the original sentence) is the most natural.

Is it possible to say Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik, a njegova sestra glazbenica (omitting želi biti)?

Not in standard, natural Croatian. You generally cannot drop the second želi biti here.

You could shorten it in a coordinated structure like:

Moj prijatelj želi postati, a njegova sestra biti glazbenica.

…but that sounds unnatural and awkward; native speakers typically wouldn’t say it that way.

The normal patterns are:

Moj prijatelj želi postati glazbenik, a njegova sestra želi biti glazbenica.
Or combine: Moj prijatelj i njegova sestra žele biti glazbenici. (if you don’t care about the becoming aspect).

So, in this specific sentence, repeating the verb (želi) is the natural choice.

How are the letters lj in prijatelj and glazbenik pronounced?

In prijatelj, the lj is a single sound, not just l + j separately. It’s a palatal lateral, similar to the lli in Italian “famiglia” or to the “lli” in some pronunciations of “million”.

prijatelj is pronounced approximately: priya-tely (with lj as one sound, not “tel-j”).

In glazbenik, there is no lj, only l:

glazbenik ≈ glaz-benĭk (short i).

So the tricky one is lj in prijatelj, which corresponds to the separate Croatian letter ⟨lj⟩ (one phoneme).