Learn Hardcore Croatian: Te male rečenice mi pomažu pamtiti gdje raste koja biljka u šumi. - Those small sentences help me remember where each plant grows in the forest.

The choice te vs ove is about how “close” (physically, mentally, or in context) the speaker feels they are. English often just uses these either way, but Croatian keeps that distinction.

Why is it male rečenice and not something like malih rečenica?

The phrase te male rečenice is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative plural feminine:

rečenica → nominative singular
rečenice → nominative plural
mala rečenica → small sentence (nom. sg.)
male rečenice → small sentences (nom. pl.)

Both the adjective (male) and the noun (rečenice) are nominative plural feminine to match the verb pomažu (3rd person plural).

Malih rečenica would be genitive plural (or sometimes locative plural), which you would use in a different structure, e.g. puno malih rečenica (many small sentences). Here we simply need the subject in nominative.

What does mi mean here, and why is it in that position?

Mi here is not “we”. It is the clitic (short, unstressed) form of meni = to me / for me (dative case).

Te male rečenice mi pomažu…
= Those small sentences help me…
(literally: Those small sentences to-me help…)

In Croatian, clitic pronouns like mi, ti, mu, joj, im usually come very early in the clause, after the first stressed element (often the subject or one other word). That’s why you get:

Te male rečenice mi pomažu… (natural)
but not
~~Te male rečenice pomažu mi…~~ (possible but sounds marked/emphatic)

So mi is an indirect object in dative case, placed in the normal clitic position.

Is Te male rečenice the subject or the object of pomažu?

Te male rečenice is the subject.

You can see this from verb agreement:

pomažu is 3rd person plural (they help)
It agrees with te male rečenice (those small sentences)

The structure is:

Te male rečenice (subject)
mi (indirect object: to me)
pomažu (verb)
pamtiti… (infinitive complement)

So the meaning is literally: Those small sentences help me (to) remember…

Why is it pomažu pamtiti and not pomažu da pamtim?

Both structures are possible in Croatian:

pomažu pamtiti – verb infinitive
pomažu da pamtim – verb da + finite verb

In many cases, especially with verbs of wanting, needing, helping, etc., the infinitive is the more neutral or slightly more concise choice, especially in writing:

Pomažu mi pamtiti.
Pomažu mi da pamtim.

Here pomažu pamtiti is natural and idiomatic. Using da pamtim would be grammatically fine and understood, but it shifts the structure to a finite subordinate clause (they help so that I remember), which can sound a bit heavier.

What is the nuance of pamtiti here? Could we use zapamtiti instead?

Pamtiti is an imperfective verb, focusing on the ongoing process or ability to remember:

pamtiti – to remember, to retain in memory (process/habit)

Zapamtiti is perfective, focusing on the moment of successfully committing something to memory:

zapamtiti – to memorize, to remember (successfully, once)

In your sentence, the idea is that these sentences help with the general ability/process of remembering where each plant grows in the forest, so pamtiti is very appropriate.

If you said pomažu mi zapamtiti, it would sound more like they help me to memorize (once and for all) where each plant grows, with a stronger sense of a completed result. Both can be correct; it just depends on the nuance you want.

What exactly does gdje raste koja biljka mean? The word order looks strange from an English point of view.

Gdje raste koja biljka literally corresponds to something like where which plant grows, which is unnatural in English but natural in Croatian.

gdje – where
raste – grows (3rd person singular)
koja biljka – which plant / which kind of plant

Here koja means something like which (one) or which particular, and the whole phrase gdje raste koja biljka means where each particular plant grows, or where which plant grows.

So the idea is: these sentences help you remember the mapping between locations and plants: which plant is growing in which place in the forest.

Could we say gdje koja biljka raste instead of gdje raste koja biljka?

Yes, gdje koja biljka raste is also possible. Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and both:

gdje raste koja biljka
gdje koja biljka raste

are understandable and grammatically OK.

The version in your sentence, gdje raste koja biljka, is very natural and common. Putting koja biljka right after gdje can make you focus slightly more on which plant where, but the difference in meaning is minimal in everyday speech.

Why is it koja biljka (singular) and not koje biljke (plural)?

Koja biljka is singular because it refers to each individual plant type / each plant, one by one:

gdje raste koja biljka
≈ where each (particular) plant grows

This is a common Croatian pattern: using a singular like koja biljka, koji čovjek, koja životinja to talk about each member of a group in a general way.

If you said gdje rastu koje biljke, it would sound different: more like which (some) plants grow where, not the neat plant‑by‑location mapping implied by the original sentence.

Which case is biljka in here, and why?

Biljka is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the verb raste in the subordinate clause:

(koja) biljka raste – (which) plant grows

Inside gdje raste koja biljka, the mini-clause koja biljka raste has koja biljka as its subject. That’s why biljka stays in nominative singular, and the verb is raste (3rd person singular) to agree with it.

Why is it u šumi and not u šumu?

In Croatian, u can take locative (static location: in the forest) or accusative (movement into: into the forest).

u šumi – in the forest (locative singular)
u šumu – into the forest (accusative singular)

Your sentence describes where the plants are growing, i.e. a location, not movement towards it. So the locative is used:

gdje raste koja biljka u šumi
≈ where each plant grows in the forest (location)

Can the word order around mi change? For example, is Te mi male rečenice pomažu… possible?

Clitic pronouns like mi have fairly strict placement rules, but you do get some flexibility for emphasis.

The most neutral, natural order here is:

Te male rečenice mi pomažu pamtiti…

You could say Te mi male rečenice pomažu…, but it sounds more marked, with special emphasis on mi, almost like: Those small sentences help *me (as opposed to someone else).* In everyday, neutral speech, the version you have is the best one.

What you generally cannot do is push mi to the very end:

~~Te male rečenice pomažu pamtiti mi…~~ (wrong / ungrammatical)

Is it necessary to say male, or could we just say Te rečenice mi pomažu…?

Grammatically, you can drop male:

Te rečenice mi pomažu pamtiti… – Those sentences help me remember…

However, male adds the nuance that these are specifically short / small sentences or phrases, which is important to the meaning (for example, if you are using little mnemonic phrases or labels).

So male is not required by grammar, but it is meaningful for the description.