Learn Hardcore Croatian: Za festival djeca crtaju veliki plakat i lijepe ga na ogradu. - For the festival the children draw a big poster and stick it on the fence.

Za festival means for the festival and tells you the purpose of the action.
Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and elements can be moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis or to set the scene.

All of these are possible and correct, with slightly different emphasis:

Za festival djeca crtaju veliki plakat… – emphasizes the purpose (for the festival).
Djeca za festival crtaju veliki plakat… – neutral; focuses more on the children.
Djeca crtaju veliki plakat za festival… – neutral, with the for the festival part at the end.

So placing Za festival first is a natural way to foreground why they are doing this.

What does the preposition za do here, and why doesn’t festival change form after it?

Za is a preposition that often means for, in favor of, or in (for a specific time). It governs the accusative case.

So za + accusative:

za koga? – for whom?
za što? – for what?

In the sentence, we have:

za festival → festival is in the accusative singular.

For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular is usually the same form as the nominative singular. So:

Nominative: festival (subject form)
Accusative: festival (after za, but looks the same)

That’s why you don’t see a visible change, even though grammatically it is accusative.

There is no the or a in za festival djeca crtaju veliki plakat. How do articles work in Croatian?

Croatian does not have articles like a/an or the at all.

So one Croatian sentence can correspond to several English possibilities, depending on context:

Za festival djeca crtaju veliki plakat.
- For the festival, the children are drawing a big poster.
- For a festival, children draw a big poster.
- For the festival, children draw the big poster.

Which English article you choose (a vs the) depends on what is already known in the context, not on anything explicit in the Croatian sentence. Native speakers rely on context, word order, and stress rather than articles.

Why is the subject djeca and not something like djecu? What exactly is djeca?

Djeca means children and is the nominative plural form of dijete (child). It’s a bit irregular:

Singular: dijete – a child
Plural: djeca – children

In this sentence, djeca is the subject, so it must be in the nominative case:

Tko crta? – Who is drawing? → Djeca crtaju.

Forms like djecu belong to other cases:

Vidi(m) djecu. – I see the children. (accusative)
Pomažem djeci. – I help the children. (dative)

So djeca is correct here because it is the subject (doing the action), and the verb crtaju is in the 3rd person plural to agree with it.

What form is the verb crtaju, and how is it related to the infinitive crtati?

Crtaju is:

present tense
3rd person plural
of the verb crtati (to draw).

Conjugation (present tense):

(ja) crtam – I draw
(ti) crtaš – you (sg) draw
(on/ona/ono) crta – he/she/it draws
(mi) crtamo – we draw
(vi) crtate – you (pl) draw
(oni/one/ona) crtaju – they draw

In the sentence djeca crtaju veliki plakat, we have oni crtaju (they draw), but the subject is explicitly djeca instead of oni.

Why is it veliki plakat and not velik plakat or something else? How does the adjective veliki agree with plakat?

Veliki is the adjective velik (big) in a form that agrees with plakat (poster).

Plakat is:

gender: masculine
number: singular
case here: accusative (as a direct object of crtaju)

For masculine animate nouns you see a difference between nominative and accusative (student → studenta), but plakat is inanimate, so:

Nominative: velik(i) plakat
Accusative: velik(i) plakat (same form)

About velik vs veliki:

Both can be correct; veliki is the full form and is very common and neutral.
Velik plakat is possible, but many speakers prefer veliki plakat as the default spoken form.

The key point: the adjective must match the noun in gender, number, and case, so veliki is masculine, singular, accusative here, agreeing with plakat.

What is the exact meaning of plakat? Is it like “poster” in English?

Yes, plakat means poster – typically a large printed sheet used for advertising, announcements, or decoration.

Do not confuse:

plakat – noun, a poster
plakati – verb, to cry (they look similar but are pronounced slightly differently and have different stress).

In this sentence, veliki plakat is clearly a big poster (not “a big crying” or anything like that).

In lijepe ga, what does lijepe mean, and which verb does it come from?

Lijepe is:

present tense
3rd person plural
of the verb lijepiti – to glue, to stick, to paste.

Conjugation (present tense):

(ja) lijepim – I glue
(ti) lijepiš – you glue
(on/ona/ono) lijepi – he/she/it glues
(mi) lijepimo – we glue
(vi) lijepite – you (pl) glue
(oni/one/ona) lijepe – they glue

So djeca lijepe ga na ogradu literally is: the children glue it onto the fence.

What does the pronoun ga refer to, and why is it ga and not something like njega?

Ga is a clitic pronoun meaning him/it (for masculine singular nouns in the accusative).

In this sentence:

ga refers back to veliki plakat (a big poster)
plakat is masculine singular, inanimate → the correct clitic in accusative is ga

So:

crtaju veliki plakat – they draw a big poster
i lijepe ga na ogradu – and glue it on the fence

Why ga, not njega?

Ga is the short, unstressed clitic form, used in normal sentences.
Njega is the strong, stressed form, used for emphasis or after prepositions:
- Vidim ga. – I see him/it. (neutral)
- Vidim baš njega. – I see him in particular. (emphasis)
- Za njega je to teško. – It’s hard for him.

Here we don’t need emphasis, so the neutral clitic ga is correct.

Why does ga come after lijepe and not before it, like ga lijepe?

In Croatian, clitic pronouns like ga, je, ih, mi, ti usually appear in second position in the clause (the so‑called “second position clitic rule”).

In the small clause lijepe ga na ogradu:

The first element is the verb lijepe.
The clitic ga then comes immediately after this first element.

So:

lijepe ga na ogradu is the natural order.
ga lijepe na ogradu would sound marked or unnatural here, except maybe in special emphasized or poetic contexts.

In the full sentence, the “second position” was mostly satisfied earlier (after Za festival djeca), but within this coordinated part … i lijepe ga na ogradu, lijepe is treated like the first element of that sub‑clause, so ga follows it.

Why is it na ogradu and not na ogradi? What case is ogradu, and what does na do with it?

Na can be used with two different cases, with different meanings:

na + locative → location (where something is)
- na ogradi – on the fence (static location)
na + accusative → direction (onto, to)
- na ogradu – onto the fence (movement towards)

In the sentence, the children are moving the poster onto the fence, so we use:

lijepe ga na ogradu – they glue it onto the fence.

Here ogradu is the accusative singular of ograda (fence):

Nominative: ograda – a fence
Accusative: ogradu – (onto) the fence

Could I say i lijepe plakat na ogradu instead of i lijepe ga na ogradu? Why use a pronoun instead of repeating plakat?

You could say:

Za festival djeca crtaju veliki plakat i lijepe plakat na ogradu.

It’s grammatically correct, but sounds a bit repetitive.

Croatian (like English) often avoids repeating a noun that was just mentioned, especially in the same sentence. Using a pronoun is more natural:

crtaju veliki plakat i lijepe ga na ogradu
– they draw a big poster and glue it onto the fence.

So ga is there simply to avoid repeating plakat, and this is the most natural wording.

Could the sentence be shortened to Djeca crtaju i lijepe veliki plakat na ogradu? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Djeca crtaju i lijepe veliki plakat na ogradu.

This version:

drops Za festival (so you lose the explicit purpose information), and
does not use the pronoun ga, because veliki plakat is now the direct object of both verbs:
- crtaju (veliki plakat) and
- lijepe (veliki plakat) na ogradu

The core meaning (children draw and glue a big poster onto the fence) stays the same; you just don’t say that it’s for the festival and you choose to repeat veliki plakat instead of referring back with ga.