Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju o tome radi li vlada dovoljno dobro. - People in the café are talking about whether the government is doing enough.

In this sentence, o tome is a “placeholder” object for the conversation, which is then specified by the indirect question radi li vlada dovoljno dobro. It’s roughly like saying:

“People in the café are talking about whether the government is doing a good enough job.”

You wouldn’t normally drop o tome here;
✗ Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju radi li vlada dovoljno dobro.
sounds unnatural, because razgovarati strongly wants o + (something).

How does radi li vlada work? Why is the word order like this?

Radi li vlada is an indirect yes/no question built with the particle li.

Basic, neutral statement word order would be:

Vlada radi dovoljno dobro. – The government is doing a good enough job.

To turn the verb radi into a yes/no question inside a larger sentence, Croatian:

Takes the finite verb (radi)
Puts li right after it
Then comes the subject (vlada)

So:

radi
- li
  - vlada → radi li vlada
    does the government do / is the government doing

This is standard literary word order for embedded yes/no questions. Compare:

Ne znam radi li vlada dovoljno dobro.
I don’t know whether the government is doing a good enough job.

Why is there no question mark at the end, even though we have li and a question-like structure?

The overall sentence is not a question; it’s a statement describing what people are doing:

Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju o tome …
People in the café are talking about …

Inside that statement, we have an indirect question (radi li vlada dovoljno dobro), but the whole sentence is still declarative, so it ends with a period, not a question mark.

Compare:

Radi li vlada dovoljno dobro? – direct question → ?
Razgovaraju o tome radi li vlada dovoljno dobro. – statement containing an indirect question → .

Could we also say da li vlada radi dovoljno dobro, and what’s the difference from radi li vlada?

Yes, you will often hear:

… o tome da li vlada radi dovoljno dobro.

Differences:

Style / register
- radi li vlada… – more standard / formal / written
- da li vlada radi… – more colloquial / everyday speech, especially in some regions
Word order
- radi li vlada: verb + li
  - subject
- da li vlada radi: da li
  - subject + verb

Both are widely understood. In careful written Croatian, radi li vlada… is usually preferred, but da li… is not “wrong,” just more informal.

What exactly does radi mean here? Is it “works” or “does”?

The verb raditi can mean both:

to work (as in having a job)
- On radi u banci. – He works in a bank.
to do / to function / to perform its job
- Stroj radi dobro. – The machine works well.

In radi li vlada dovoljno dobro, the meaning is:

radi = does its job / functions / performs

So the clause means something like:

radi li vlada dovoljno dobro
≈ whether the government is doing its job well enough / functioning well enough.

Why is it u kafiću and not u kafić? What case is that?

U kafiću uses the locative case:

u
- locative = in / at a place (when something is located there, not moving to it)

Kafić (café) is masculine singular:

Nominative: kafić (basic form, subject)
Locative: kafiću

So:

Ljudi su u kafiću. – People are in the café. (location → locative)

If there were movement into the café, you’d use the accusative:

Idem u kafić. – I’m going to the café. (motion → accusative)

Why is it kafiću with -u, not something like kafiče or kafića?

Masculine nouns ending in -ć often decline like this (singular):

Nominative: kafić
Genitive: kafića
Dative: kafiću
Accusative: kafić
Locative: kafiću
Instrumental: kafićem

The locative (used after u for location, and after o, etc.) is kafiću, with -u at the end. That’s why we say:

u kafiću – in the café
o kafiću – about the café

Why is the verb razgovaraju and not govore or pričaju?

All three exist, but they differ slightly in nuance:

razgovarati (razgovaraju) – to talk, to have a conversation, to discuss (often two‑way, interactive)
govoriti (govore) – to speak, to talk (more general: ability to speak, giving a speech, etc.)
pričati (pričaju) – to tell, to narrate, to chat

In this context:

Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju o tome…
suggests they are discussing something, having a conversation about it.

You could say pričaju o tome…, which would feel a bit more like they’re chatting about….
Govore o tome… is possible but sounds slightly more formal / less like a mutual discussion in a café.

Does razgovaraju mean “are talking” (continuous) or “talk” (simple present)? How does aspect work here?

Croatian doesn’t have a separate present continuous tense like English. The present tense covers both:

Ljudi razgovaraju.
can mean “People talk” (present habitual) or “People are talking” (right now), depending on context.

The verb razgovarati is imperfective, which is what you normally use for ongoing or repeated actions. In this sentence and typical context (describing a current scene in a café), you’d naturally translate:

Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju…
as “People in the café are talking…”

What does dovoljno dobro mean, and why is the word order like that?

Dovoljno dobro literally is:

dovoljno = enough, sufficiently (adverb)
dobro = well (adverb) or good (adjective; here adverbially: well)

Together:

dovoljno dobro ≈ well enough / good enough

In English the usual order is “good enough / well enough”, but in Croatian the normal order is:

dovoljno (enough) + adverb/adjective → dovoljno dobro

So radi li vlada dovoljno dobro ≈ whether the government is doing its job well enough.

Why is vlada singular when “government” in British English can take a plural verb (“the government are…”)?

In Croatian, vlada is grammatically:

feminine
singular
3rd person

So it always takes a singular verb:

Vlada radi dobro. – The government works / is working well.
(literally: The government does well.)

Croatian doesn’t alternate between singular and plural agreement with collective nouns the way English (especially British English) sometimes does. Even if you conceptually imagine many people, the verb still agrees with the grammatical number, not the logical “many individuals.”

Can I change the word order to Ljudi razgovaraju u kafiću o tome…, and does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Ljudi razgovaraju u kafiću o tome radi li vlada dovoljno dobro.

Word order in Croatian is relatively flexible. The basic meaning is the same: People in the café are talking about whether the government is doing a good enough job.

Differences:

Ljudi u kafiću razgovaraju…
puts early focus on where the people are (in the café).
Ljudi razgovaraju u kafiću…
starts with the fact that people are talking, and then adds where they’re doing it.

Both are natural. The original order is perhaps a bit more typical when you first want to set the scene: People in the café…

Could we say o tome što vlada radi instead of o tome radi li vlada dovoljno dobro?

You could, but it changes the meaning:

o tome što vlada radi
= about what the government is doing (open-ended: the content of its actions)
o tome radi li vlada dovoljno dobro
= about whether the government is doing a good enough job (a yes/no evaluation)

So:

što vlada radi – an open question: what does the government do?
radi li vlada dovoljno dobro – a yes/no question: does the government do a good enough job or not?

The original sentence specifically talks about people evaluating the government’s performance.