Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.

Everyday work is sometimes tiring.

Breakdown of Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.

• biti: to be
• posao: work
• ponekad: sometimes
• naporan: tiring
• svakodnevan: everyday

Questions & Answers about Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.

What does svakodnevni literally mean, and how is it different from svakodnevno?

Svakodnevni is an adjective meaning everyday / daily and it agrees with a noun (here: posao).

• svakodnevni posao = everyday work / daily job
  
  • svakodnevni: adjective, masculine singular, nominative
  • posao: noun, masculine singular, nominative

Svakodnevno is usually an adverb, meaning every day / on a daily basis:

• Radim svakodnevno. = I work every day.

So:

• Use svakodnevni before a noun: svakodnevni posao, svakodnevne obaveze
• Use svakodnevno to modify verbs: svakodnevno radim, svakodnevno učim

Why is there no word for the in svakodnevni posao?

Croatian has no articles like the or a/an. The noun phrase svakodnevni posao can be translated as:

• the everyday job
• an everyday job
• everyday work

Which English article you choose depends only on context, not on anything in the Croatian grammar. The Croatian phrase itself is neutral; it just says everyday job/work without specifying definiteness.

What is the function of je in this sentence?

Je is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb biti (to be).

• on je = he is
• posao je naporan = the job is tiring

In the sentence Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan, je links the subject (svakodnevni posao) with the predicate adjective (naporan) and means is.

Why does je come after ponekad instead of directly after posao?

Croatian has a rule that certain short words (called clitics), including je, tend to appear in second position in a clause.

The basic sentence is:

• Svakodnevni posao je naporan. = Everyday work is tiring.

When you add ponekad (sometimes), it likes to stand at the beginning of the “middle field” of the sentence, and je as a clitic then moves to the second position:

• Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.

Other word orders are also possible, for example:

• Ponekad je svakodnevni posao naporan.
• Ponekad je naporan svakodnevni posao.

All mean roughly the same, with small differences in emphasis.

What part of speech is ponekad, and what does it literally mean?

Ponekad is an adverb of frequency. It means sometimes or occasionally.

There is no direct literal breakdown that matters in modern usage; you simply learn ponekad = sometimes.

Some near-synonyms:

• povremeno = occasionally
• katkad (or kadkad) = sometimes (a bit more literary or formal)

Why is it svakodnevni posao and naporan, both with masculine endings?

In Croatian, adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe.

• posao is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case.

• Therefore, adjectives that describe it must also be masculine singular nominative:

  • svakodnevni (everyday) – masculine singular nominative
  • naporan (tiring) – masculine singular nominative

If the noun changed, the adjectives would change too, for example:

• svakodnevna obaveza je naporna
  
  • obaveza = feminine singular
  • svakodnevna, naporna = feminine singular nominative
• svakodnevni poslovi su naporni
  
  • poslovi = masculine plural
  • svakodnevni, naporni = masculine plural nominative

What is the difference between posao and rad? When do I use posao here?

Both are related to work, but they are used differently:

• posao

  • can mean a job, a task, or work as something you have to do
  • more concrete and countable
  • example: Imam puno posla. = I have a lot of work to do.

• rad

  • more abstract, work in the sense of activity or labor in general
  • used in phrases like radno vrijeme (working hours), uvjeti rada (working conditions)

In this sentence, svakodnevni posao refers to your daily job / everyday work obligations, so posao is the natural choice.
Svakodnevni rad would sound more technical or abstract.

Can I say Svakodnevni posao je ponekad naporan instead? Is that correct?

Yes, Svakodnevni posao je ponekad naporan is grammatical and natural.

Word order in Croatian is relatively flexible. Comparing:

• Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.
• Svakodnevni posao je ponekad naporan.

Both mean Everyday work is sometimes tiring.
The version in your example puts ponekad right before je, which sounds quite normal; the alternative puts je directly after the subject. In everyday speech you will hear both.

What does naporan mean exactly? Is it only “tiring”?

Naporan is an adjective that means:

• tiring, exhausting
• demanding, hard, strenuous

It often implies that something takes a lot of energy or effort and wears you out. Examples:

• Naporan dan = a tiring / exhausting day
• Naporan trening = a strenuous training session

So Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan can be understood as:
Daily work is sometimes tiring / demanding / exhausting.

What case is svakodnevni posao in, and why?

Svakodnevni posao is in the nominative singular.

• It is the subject of the sentence: it is the thing that is tiring.
• In Croatian, the subject is normally in the nominative case.

Structure of the sentence:

• Svakodnevni posao – subject (nominative)
• ponekad – adverb (sometimes)
• je – verb (is)
• naporan – predicate adjective (also nominative to agree with the subject)

Is the subject “it” missing in Croatian, like in English “It is tiring”?

No subject is missing here. The subject is explicitly present: svakodnevni posao (everyday work).

In English you might say:

• Everyday work is sometimes tiring. (subject: everyday work)
• or It is sometimes tiring to do everyday work. (dummy “it”)

Croatian does not use a dummy it. The sentence directly says:

• Svakodnevni posao ponekad je naporan.
  = Everyday work is sometimes tiring.

If the subject were obvious from context, Croatian could even drop it:

• Ponekad je naporan. = Sometimes it is tiring.
  (here it is understood from context, not said)