Learn Hardcore Croatian: U našem dvorištu svake jeseni imamo mali festival. - In our yard every autumn we have a small festival.

dvorište = yard (neuter, nominative singular)
dvorištu = locative singular of dvorište
naš = our → našem = dative/locative singular (neuter), agreeing with dvorištu

So:

u + našem dvorištu = “in our yard”
- u (in)
- našem (our – locative, neuter)
- dvorištu (yard – locative, neuter)

If you said naše dvorište (nominative/accusative), it would not fit after u for expressing location. You might see u naše dvorište with accusative if you mean into our yard (motion towards).

Could I say na našem dvorištu instead of u našem dvorištu? What’s the difference between u and na here?

Both u and na can mean “in/at/on”, but they are used with different nouns by habit and nuance.

u dvorištu = literally “in the yard”, standard, neutral choice
na dvorištu can appear, but:
- may sound dialectal or less standard
- can emphasize the open space / surface (“out in the yard”)

For something like a small festival at your home, u našem dvorištu is the most natural and standard way to say it. You’d normally learn u dvorištu, u kući, u školi, but na ulici (on the street), na trgu (on the square), etc., by collocation.

What exactly is going on with svake jeseni? Why not svaka jesen?

Svake jeseni literally is “of every autumn,” but together it means “every autumn / every fall”.

Grammar:

jesen = autumn (feminine noun)
jeseni = genitive singular (also several other cases, but here it’s genitive)
svaka = every (feminine, nominative singular)
svake = every (feminine, genitive singular), agreeing with jeseni

Time expressions like svake jeseni, svakog ljeta (“every summer”), svakog dana (“every day”) often use the genitive to express a repeated, regular time: every X.

You could say svaka jesen in other contexts (as a subject, e.g. “Every autumn is different”), but with the meaning “every autumn (we do something)”, Croatian strongly prefers svake jeseni.

Is jeseni here singular or plural? How do I know?

In svake jeseni, jeseni is genitive singular:

Singular:
- Nominative: jesen
- Genitive: jeseni
Plural:
- Nominative: jeseni
- Genitive: jeseni (same form again)

So the form jeseni can be both singular and plural depending on context.

Here, svake is feminine genitive singular (“of every”), so svake jeseni must be genitive singular = “of every autumn” → “every autumn”. If it were clearly plural “every autumns”, that wouldn’t make sense.

Why is it imamo and not something like “we are having”? Does Croatian have a special tense for habits?

Croatian uses the present tense for both:

actions happening right now
habitual / repeated actions

So imamo is the simple present of imati (“to have”):

imamo = “we have” / “we are having” / “we have (regularly)”

In this sentence, svake jeseni (“every autumn”) tells you it’s a habitual action, so:

U našem dvorištu svake jeseni imamo mali festival.
= “In our yard, every autumn we have a small festival.”

There is no separate tense like English “used to” or “would” for habits; context words such as svake jeseni, često, uvijek, etc., give that nuance.

What’s the agreement between mali and festival? Why mali, not malo?

Festival is a masculine noun, so its adjective must be masculine too:

festival = masculine, nominative singular
mali = masculine, nominative singular of the adjective mali (“small”)

Forms of mali in nominative singular:

masculine: mali (mali festival)
feminine: mala (mala kuća – small house)
neuter: malo (malo selo – small village)

So:

mali festival = “small festival” (correct)
malo festival is wrong, because malo is neuter, but festival is masculine.

Could I drop mali and just say imamo festival? Does the meaning change much?

Yes:

Imamo festival. = “We have a festival.”
Imamo mali festival. = “We have a small festival.”

Removing mali keeps the core meaning (there is a festival), but you lose the detail that it’s small. Grammatically, both are perfectly fine:

U našem dvorištu svake jeseni imamo festival.
U našem dvorištu svake jeseni imamo mali festival.

Can I change the word order, for example: Svake jeseni u našem dvorištu imamo mali festival? Is that still correct?

Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and your example is correct.

All of these are grammatical and natural:

U našem dvorištu svake jeseni imamo mali festival.
Svake jeseni u našem dvorištu imamo mali festival.
Imamo mali festival svake jeseni u našem dvorištu.

Differences are mainly in emphasis / information structure:

Starting with U našem dvorištu highlights the place first.
Starting with Svake jeseni highlights the time / regularity first.
Starting with Imamo puts focus on the action / fact of having the festival.

But the basic meaning remains the same.

How would I make this sentence negative? Is it ne imamo or nemamo?

With imati (“to have”), the negative is usually contracted:

imamo → nemamo (“we don’t have”)

So the negative version is:

U našem dvorištu svake jeseni nemamo mali festival.
= “In our yard, every autumn we don’t have a small festival.”

You will see ne + verb written separately for most verbs (e.g. ne radimo – we don’t work), but imati is one of the common verbs that strongly prefers the contracted form (nemam, nemaš, nema, nemamo, nemate, nemaju).

How do you pronounce the cluster in dvorištu? It looks hard for English speakers.

Dvorištu is pronounced approximately:

[d-VOH-ree-shtoo]

Syllable breakdown: dvo-ri-štu

dv – pronounced together, like d
- v at the start of “dvance” (if that existed)
ri – as in “ree”
štu – š = “sh” in “shoe”, tu like “too”

Stress usually falls on the first syllable in Croatian: DVO-ri-štu.