Learn Hardcore Croatian: Danas izgledam umoran, ali sam sretan.

You can say “Ja danas izgledam umoran, ali sam sretan.”
That’s also correct, but it sounds more emphatic: “I today look tired, but (still) I am happy.”

What tense and person is izgledam, and what is the infinitive?

izgledam is:

Tense: present
Person: 1st person singular (“I”)
Infinitive: izgledati = to look, to appear

Present tense of izgledati:

ja izgledam – I look
ti izgledaš – you (sg.) look
on/ona/ono izgleda – he/she/it looks
mi izgledamo – we look
vi izgledate – you (pl.) look
oni/one/ona izgledaju – they look

So “Danas izgledam umoran” = “Today I look tired.”

Why is it “izgledam umoran” and not “izgledam umorno”?

Both forms exist, but they mean slightly different things.

izgledam umoran – adjective (umoran = tired)
- describes a state / property of me
- “I look (as if I am) tired.”
izgledam umorno – adverb (umorno = tiredly)
- describes how I look / the manner
- “I look in a tired way / I look tiredly.”

In practice, when talking about someone’s appearance or state, Croatian usually uses the adjective:

Izgleda umoran. – He looks tired.
Izgledam sretan. – I look happy.

So in this sentence “izgledam umoran” is the natural, idiomatic choice.

Why are umoran and sretan in the masculine form? How would it change for a woman?

Adjectives in Croatian agree with the gender, number and case of the noun (or pronoun) they describe.

Here, the (hidden) subject is ja = I. The sentence is written as if a man is speaking, so:

umoran = tired (masculine singular, nominative)
sretan = happy (masculine singular, nominative)

If a woman is speaking, the adjectives must be feminine:

Danas izgledam umorna, ali sam sretna.

Forms:

umoran (m), umorna (f), umorno (n)
sretan (m), sretna (f), sretno (n)

So you choose the form based on the speaker’s gender.

What case are umoran and sretan in?

Both umoran and sretan are in the nominative singular masculine.

They are predicate adjectives after verbs:

izgledam (I look)
sam (I am)

In sentences with “to be” (biti) or seeming/looking verbs like izgledati, biti, činiti se, the complement is in the nominative, not in another case:

Ona je umorna. – She is tired.
On izgleda sretan. – He looks happy.
Danas sam sretan. – Today I am happy.

Why do we need sam in “ali sam sretan”? Can we just say “ali sretan”?

You normally need the verb “to be” in Croatian:

sam = (I) am

So the full clause is:

(Ja) sam sretan. – I am happy.

In very informal or elliptical speech, Croatians sometimes drop the verb in the second part if it’s identical to the first:

Umoran sam, ali (sam) sretan.

Here the second sam is understood but omitted.

However, your full sentence is written with both verbs expressed, so:

… ali sam sretan. is the normal, complete clause.
Just “… ali sretan.” on its own sounds incomplete in neutral/standard style.

Why is the order “ali sam sretan” and not “ali sretan sam”?

This is about Croatian clitics (short unstressed words) and word order.

sam is the short (clitic) form of the verb biti (to be).
Clitics in Croatian usually stand in second position in the clause.

In the clause “ali sam sretan”:

First word in the clause: ali (but)
Second position: sam
Then the rest: sretan

So “ali sam sretan” follows the rule: clitic sam goes after the first word.

“ali sretan sam” is possible only with special emphasis, and it would sound unusual in neutral speech. The default is “ali sam sretan”.

Why is there a comma before ali?

In Croatian, when ali (“but”) connects two clauses, you normally put a comma before ali:

Danas izgledam umoran, ali sam sretan.
Clause 1: Danas izgledam umoran.
Clause 2: (Ja) sam sretan.

So it is:

…, ali … = “, but …”

If ali is connecting just words or short phrases (not full clauses), a comma is often not used:

Volim kavu ali ne i čaj. – I like coffee but not tea.

In your sentence, both parts have their own verbs (izgledam, sam), so a comma is required.

Is the word order fixed, or can I move danas to another position?

Word order in Croatian is fairly flexible, but changing it can affect emphasis and sometimes naturalness.

Your sentence:

Danas izgledam umoran, ali sam sretan.
Neutral: “Today I look tired, but I am happy.”

Other possibilities:

Izgledam danas umoran, ali sam sretan.
- Possible, but less natural; puts slightly more focus on danas as a contrast.
Izgledam umoran danas, ali sam sretan.
- Also possible, but sounds somewhat marked; “I look tired today, but I am happy.”

In most everyday speech, time expressions like danas, jučer, sutra often come at the beginning of the sentence, so your original order is the most natural.

The second clause “ali sam sretan” is less flexible because of the clitic “sam”: it really wants to be in second position.

Could we say “Danas sam umoran, ali sam sretan” instead? What changes?

Yes, that’s a different, but perfectly correct, sentence:

Danas sam umoran, ali sam sretan.
= “Today I am tired, but I am happy.”

Difference in meaning:

Danas izgledam umoran – “Today I look/appear tired”
- You might not actually be tired, you just look tired.
Danas sam umoran – “Today I am tired”
- You really feel tired.

So izgledam talks about appearance, whereas sam (+ adjective) talks about your actual state/feeling.

How would this sentence look in the plural, like “Today we look tired, but we are happy”?

For “we” (mi), both the verb and the adjectives must be in 1st person plural / plural masculine (assuming a mixed or all-male group):

Danas izgledamo umorni, ali smo sretni.
- izgledamo – we look
- umorni – tired (masc. plural)
- smo – we are
- sretni – happy (masc. plural)

If it’s a group of only women, adjectives are feminine plural:

Danas izgledamo umorne, ali smo sretne.

Can “sretan” mean anything else, or is it only “happy”?

sretan mainly means:

happy – emotional state
- Danas sam sretan. – Today I am happy.
lucky / fortunate – in some contexts
- On je sretan čovjek. – He is a lucky man.

It can also appear in fixed expressions:

Sretan rođendan! – Happy birthday!
Sretan put! – Have a good trip! / Safe travels!

In your sentence, sretan clearly means happy.

What about “srećan” that I sometimes see? Is that the same as sretan?

Yes, sretan and srećan are closely related forms, but they belong to different standard varieties:

sretan – standard in Croatian
srećan – standard in Serbian (and common in Bosnian/Montenegrin)

So in standard Croatian, you say:

Danas sam sretan.

In standard Serbian, you would see:

Danas sam srećan.

For learning Croatian, stick with sretan / sretna / sretno / sretni.