Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep.

The sunset above the river is really beautiful.

Breakdown of Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep.

• biti: to be
• iznad: above
• lijep: beautiful
• stvarno: really
• rijeka: river
• zalazak sunca: sunset

Questions & Answers about Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep.

What does zalazak sunca literally mean, and why is it sunca and not sunce?

Literally, zalazak sunca means “setting of the sun”.

• zalazak = the act of setting, from the verb zalaziti / zaći (to set, to go down).
• sunce is the base form (nominative) meaning sun.
• sunca is the genitive singular of sunce, so zalazak sunca is literally “the setting of the sun”.

Croatian often uses [noun] + [genitive noun] to express what something is “of”:

• šalica čaja – a cup of tea
• vrh planine – the top of the mountain
• zalazak sunca – the setting of the sun (sunset)

So sunca is genitive because it depends on zalazak in this way.

What case is rijeke in iznad rijeke, and why is that case used?

In iznad rijeke, the word rijeke is in the genitive singular.

The preposition iznad (above, over) normally takes the genitive case when expressing location:

• iznad rijeke – above the river
• iznad kuće – above the house
• iznad grada – above the city

So rijeke is genitive singular of rijeka (river), required by the preposition iznad.

What is the difference between iznad rijeke and nad rijekom?

Both can translate as “above/over the river”, but there are two main differences:

1. Preposition + case

   • iznad
     • genitive → iznad rijeke
   • nad
     • instrumental → nad rijekom

2. Nuance

   • iznad rijeke: neutral “above the river”, often a bit more literal/positional.
   • nad rijekom: very common too, often used in phrases like most nad rijekom (a bridge over the river). It can sound a bit more idiomatic or slightly more poetic in some contexts.

In your sentence, both iznad rijeke and nad rijekom would be grammatically correct and natural.

Why is the adjective lijep used, and not lijepa or lijepo?

The form of the adjective must agree with the gender, number and case of the noun it describes.

• zalazak is a masculine singular noun in the nominative (it’s the subject).
• So the predicate adjective must also be masculine singular nominative → lijep.

Compare:

• Zalazak (m.) je lijep. – The sunset is beautiful.
• Rijeka (f.) je lijepa. – The river is beautiful.
• Sunce (n.) je lijepo. – The sun is beautiful.

So lijep is correct here because it agrees with zalazak.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” before zalazak sunca?

Croatian has no articles (no equivalents of English a/an or the).

Definiteness is usually understood from:

• context
• word order
• or sometimes demonstratives like taj / taj zalazak (that sunset), ovaj (this), onaj (that over there).

So Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep naturally means “The sunset over the river is really beautiful” in English, even though there is no word for “the” in the Croatian sentence.

Can the word order je stvarno lijep be changed, for example to stvarno je lijep?

Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, especially for adverbs like stvarno.

All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep. – neutral; focus on lijep, “(it) is really beautiful.”
• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke stvarno je lijep. – puts a bit more emphasis on stvarno (“really is”).
• Stvarno je lijep zalazak sunca iznad rijeke. – emphasizes the whole phrase “really beautiful is the sunset over the river”; sounds a bit more expressive or poetic.

What you generally don’t do in a normal statement is start with je:
✗ Je stvarno lijep zalazak… – feels wrong in standard Croatian. The verb je tends to stand early in the sentence, but not usually in very first position in statements.

What exactly does stvarno mean here, and what are alternatives?

Here, stvarno means “really / truly” and works as an adverb that intensifies the adjective lijep.

It’s similar to:

• zaista, doista, zbilja – also “really, truly”
• jako, veoma, vrlo – more like “very”, focusing on degree/intensity

Some natural alternatives:

• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je zaista lijep.
• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je jako lijep.
• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je vrlo lijep.

All are correct; stvarno is very common in everyday speech.

How do you pronounce zalazak, sunca, and rijeke?

Approximate pronunciations for an English speaker:

• zalazak → ZA-la-zak

  • z as in zoo
  • each a like a in father
  • k as in cat

• sunca → SOON-tsa

  • u like oo in food
  • c always pronounced ts, like in cats

• rijeke → REE-yeh-keh

  • r rolled or tapped
  • j pronounced like English y in yes
  • e like e in bed
  • ije is often pronounced as two sounds i + je, which for learners is fine as “yeh”.

Every letter in Croatian is pronounced; there are no silent letters.

Could you leave out je in this sentence?

In standard Croatian, in a normal declarative sentence like this, you should keep je:

• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke je stvarno lijep. ✔

Leaving it out:

• Zalazak sunca iznad rijeke stvarno lijep.

might appear in:

• very informal speech,
• short notes, captions, or headlines,
• or poetry / highly stylized language.

But in regular, correct prose or spoken language, you normally include je.

Is rijeke singular or plural here?

Here, rijeke is singular, specifically genitive singular of rijeka.

The noun rijeka (river) declines like this (just the forms relevant here):

• rijeka – nominative singular (subject form)
• rijeke – genitive singular (of the river), and also nominative plural (rivers)
• rijeka – genitive plural (of the rivers)

Because iznad requires the genitive, and there is no context of multiple rivers, iznad rijeke is understood as “above the river” (one river), not “above the rivers.” For multiple rivers, you would say iznad rijeka.