Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ta glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi. - That musician often practices in a quiet room.

ovaj, ova, ovo – “this” (near the speaker)
taj, ta, to – “that” (near the listener or already known in the situation)
onaj, ona, ono – “that (over there) / that one (far away or more distant in context)”

Here, ta is the feminine form of taj.
We use it because:

Gender agreement: glazbenica is feminine, so we must use ta (feminine), not taj (masc.) or to (neut.).
Nuance: ta glazbenica is like saying “that (particular) musician”, someone already known in the conversation or context.

You could say:

ova glazbenica – “this musician” (closer to me)
ona glazbenica – “that musician (over there / that one we talked about earlier)”

The choice depends on physical or contextual “distance,” just as with this/that in English, but with an extra “far” option (onaj).

The word glazbenica looks feminine. How would I say “musician” if the person is male, or if I don’t want to specify gender?

glazbenik – male musician
glazbenica – female musician

glazbenica is formed from glazbenik + the feminine suffix -ica, which is very common for feminine job titles.

If you don’t want to specify gender:

In practice, Croatians often use the masculine form generically:
- On je poznat glazbenik. – “He is a famous musician.”
- Moj prijatelj je glazbenik. – could be generic in some contexts, but usually taken as male.
To be explicitly neutral, you might say something like:
- Osoba koja se bavi glazbom – “a person who works with music,” but that’s more wordy and less natural for everyday use.

In your sentence, glazbenica clearly tells us the musician is female.

Can I just say Glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi without ta?

Yes, that is completely grammatical:

Glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi.

The difference is nuance:

Ta glazbenica… – “that (specific) musician…”, someone identifiable from context.
Glazbenica… – “a/the musician…”, more general; the sentence doesn’t force the idea that we already know which musician.

Croatian doesn’t have articles (a/the), so demonstratives like ta are often used to add “definiteness,” but they are not obligatory.

Is the word order fixed? Could I also say Ta glazbenica u tihoj sobi često vježba or Često ta glazbenica vježba u tihoj sobi?

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, but the neutral, most natural order here is:

Ta glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi.

Other variants:

Ta glazbenica u tihoj sobi često vježba.
– Correct, but it slightly highlights “in the quiet room” as an important location.
Često ta glazbenica vježba u tihoj sobi.
– Also correct. Starting with Često strongly emphasizes frequency:
“It is often that this musician practices in a quiet room.”

In Croatian, moving words around usually changes emphasis/focus, not basic meaning. For learners, stick to the neutral S–(Adv)–V–(Place) order until you’re comfortable with the nuances.

What is the dictionary form of vježba here, and which tense/person is it?

The verb is vježbati – “to practice, to exercise.”

vježba in this sentence is 3rd person singular, present tense:
- ja vježbam – I practice
- ti vježbaš – you practice (sg.)
- on/ona/ono vježba – he/she/it practices
- mi vježbamo – we practice
- vi vježbate – you practice (pl./formal)
- oni/one/ona vježbaju – they practice

So (ona) vježba = “she practices / she is practicing.”

Is vježbati imperfective or perfective? How would I say “she practiced” as a completed action?

vježbati is imperfective – it describes ongoing, repeated or habitual actions (“to practice in general”).

To talk about past actions, Croatian uses the perfect tense (auxiliary + past participle):

Ona je vježbala. – “She practiced / She was practicing.”

This can describe:

a completed action (“she practiced (yesterday)”)
or a process (“she was practicing for hours”)

Croatian aspect is mostly about whether the action is seen as a process/habit (imperfective) or a single, completed event (perfective). There are perfective partners like uvježbati, izvježbati (to drill/practice something until it’s ready), but for ordinary “she practiced,” vježbati in the perfect tense (je vježbala) is what you need.

Why is it u tihoj sobi and not u tiha soba or u tihoj sobu?

Because the preposition u (“in”) with a static location (“in the quiet room”) requires the locative case.

Nominative (dictionary form): tiha soba – “quiet room”
Locative (singular, feminine): tihoj sobi

So:

u tihoj sobi – “in the quiet room / in a quiet room”

tiha soba is nominative, used for the subject:

Tiha soba je mala. – “The quiet room is small.”

tihoj sobu is simply incorrect: it mixes a locative adjective form (tihoj) with an accusative noun (sobu).

So which case are tihoj and sobi, and when do we use that case?

Both tihoj and sobi are in the locative singular, feminine.

The locative case (in modern Croatian) is used almost only after prepositions, mainly:

u – in
na – on, at
o – about
po – along, over
pri – at, by (less common, more formal)

Typical usage:

u tihoj sobi – in the quiet room
na stolu – on the table
o njemu – about him

So here: u + (locative) = “in + [place].”

How do I know that ta, glazbenica, tihoj, and sobi all have to be feminine? Could I say taj glazbenica or u tihom sobi?

You can’t say taj glazbenica or u tihom sobi. Here’s why:

Nouns have fixed gender.
- glazbenica – feminine
- soba – feminine
Adjectives and demonstratives must agree with the noun in:
- gender (masc./fem./neut.)
- number (sg./pl.)
- case

So:

ta glazbenica – ta = fem. nom. sg. (agrees with glazbenica)
(taj glazbenica is wrong: taj is masculine.)
u tihoj sobi – tihoj fem. loc. sg., sobi fem. loc. sg.
(u tihom sobi is wrong: tihom is masculine/neuter form.)

Once you learn each noun’s gender, all the related words have to “match” it.

In English we say “a quiet room” or “the quiet room.” How do I know whether u tihoj sobi means “in a quiet room” or “in the quiet room”?

Croatian has no articles (a, an, the), so u tihoj sobi can mean:

“in a quiet room”
“in the quiet room”

The difference is decided by context, not by a word like the.

If it’s already clear which specific room we’re talking about, an English speaker would usually translate it as “in the quiet room.”
If we’re introducing this idea for the first time, “in a quiet room” might sound more natural in English.

If you really want to stress a particular, known room, you might add a demonstrative:

u toj tihoj sobi – literally “in that quiet room” ⇒ very clearly “in the quiet room (that we both know about).”

Where can the adverb često go in the sentence? Are other positions wrong?

često = “often.” The most neutral placement is just before the verb:

Ta glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi.

Other options:

Često ta glazbenica vježba u tihoj sobi.
– Correct; strong emphasis on often.
Ta glazbenica vježba često u tihoj sobi.
– Also correct; can sound slightly marked, with extra emphasis on the frequency of practicing specifically in that location.
Ta glazbenica vježba u tihoj sobi često.
– Possible but feels less natural; sounds like you’re adding “often” almost as an afterthought.

For everyday speech, put često before the main verb and you’ll be fine.

How do you pronounce često and vježba? The letters č, ž, j together look confusing.

Approximate pronunciation:

često – /ˈtʃɛsto/
- č = like ch in “chess”
- e = like e in “bed”
- sto like “stoh” (short o, not as long as in English “stow”)
  → roughly “CHEH-stoh”
vježba – /ˈvʎeʒba/ (simplified: /ˈvjeʒba/)
- vje roughly like vye in “vyet” (Russian-style vye)
- ž = like s in “measure”, vision
- b as in English, a like a in “father” (but short)
  → roughly “VYEZH-bah”

Important tips:

j is like English y in “yes”.
č and ć are different letters; č is a hard ch (like church).
Croatian has fixed, clear vowel sounds; don’t reduce them like English schwa.

If I say Ta glazbenica često vježba tiho u sobi, is that correct, and does it mean the same thing?

Yes, it is correct, but the meaning is slightly different.

u tihoj sobi – “in a quiet room”
→ the room itself is quiet.
tiho u sobi – “quietly in (the) room”
→ describes how she practices (quietly), not what the room is like.

So:

Ta glazbenica često vježba u tihoj sobi.
– She often practices in a room that is quiet.
Ta glazbenica često vježba tiho u sobi.
– She often practices quietly in a room (we don’t know if the room is quiet or noisy).

Both are grammatical; choose based on whether you want to describe the room or the manner of practicing.

I’ve also seen muzičar/muzičarka for “musician.” Is there any difference from glazbenik/glazbenica?

Both pairs mean “musician”:

glazbenik / glazbenica
muzičar / muzičarka

Differences:

In standard Croatian (Croatia), glazbenik/glazbenica is considered more standard and is preferred in formal language, media, school, etc.
muzičar/muzičarka is common in Serbian and Bosnian and is also understood in Croatia, but in Croatia it can sound more colloquial or regional.

In a Croatian language-learning context, glazbenica is the “textbook standard” feminine form.

Could the sentence be just Često vježba u tihoj sobi without mentioning ta glazbenica at all?

Yes, that’s possible:

Često vježba u tihoj sobi. – “She often practices in a quiet room.”

Croatian usually drops subject pronouns (like I, you, she) when the verb ending already shows the person:

Vježbam. – “I’m practicing.”
Vježbaš. – “You’re practicing.”
Vježba. – “He/She is practicing.”

In Često vježba u tihoj sobi, context would tell you who “she” is (maybe someone mentioned in the previous sentence). The full version with Ta glazbenica simply makes it explicit who we mean.