Questions & Answers about Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja.
Word by word:
- Hrvatska – Croatia (the country)
- je – is (3rd person singular of biti – to be)
- lijepa – beautiful (feminine form of the adjective lijep)
- zemlja – country, land, earth
So the structure corresponds closely to “Croatia is [a] beautiful country.”
Croatian has no articles (no a/an or the) at all.
Where English must choose between a beautiful country and the beautiful country, Croatian just says lijepa zemlja, and the context tells you whether it’s specific or general.
Adjectives in Croatian agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe.
- zemlja is a feminine noun (you can see that from the ending -a).
- Therefore the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative, which is lijepa.
Other forms of lijep would be:
- lijep – masculine singular nominative (for a masculine noun, e.g. lijep grad – beautiful city)
- lijepo – neuter singular nominative (e.g. lijepo selo – beautiful village)
Here we need feminine → lijepa zemlja.
The sentence is in the nominative case, because it’s a basic “X is Y” sentence:
- Hrvatska – subject (nominative)
- lijepa zemlja – predicate noun phrase (also nominative)
In Croatian, both parts of an “X is Y” statement are usually in the nominative:
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja. – Croatia is a beautiful country.
- Zagreb je glavni grad. – Zagreb is the capital city.
Forms like zemlju or zemlji are other cases (accusative, dative/locative) and are used in different structures, not here.
In normal, neutral Croatian word order, an adjective precedes the noun it modifies:
- lijepa zemlja – beautiful country
- velik grad – big city
So Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja is the standard way to say it.
You can say Hrvatska je zemlja lijepa, but that sounds unusual or poetic, with extra emphasis on lijepa. In everyday speech, you would not use that order.
- biti is the infinitive – to be.
- je is the 3rd person singular present: he/she/it is or it is.
- jest is a full form of je. It’s used less often, usually for emphasis or in more formal/literary style.
In everyday speech and writing you use je:
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja.
Using jest here is possible but would sound formal or emphatic:
- Hrvatska jest lijepa zemlja. (something like: Croatia really is a beautiful country).
Yes, Hrvatska is feminine in Croatian.
Historically, many country names in Croatian come from an adjective + (understood) noun structure. For example, Hrvatska (zemlja / država) – the Croatian land / state.
The -ska ending is a common feminine adjectival ending. So:
- Hrvatska – Croatia (feminine)
- Poljska – Poland (feminine)
- Francuska – France (feminine)
Because Hrvatska is feminine, you’d also say things like:
- Lijepa je Hrvatska. – Croatia is beautiful. (adjective in feminine form)
You can, and it’s correct:
- Hrvatska je lijepa. – Croatia is beautiful.
The meaning is very close, but:
- Hrvatska je lijepa. focuses on the country as a whole being beautiful.
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja. explicitly calls it a beautiful country, which sounds slightly more descriptive and complete, similar to English.
Both are natural in Croatian.
zemlja is a flexible word and can mean:
- country / nation – as in this sentence
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja. – Croatia is a beautiful country.
- land / territory
- plodna zemlja – fertile land
- earth / soil / ground
- pasti na zemlju – to fall to the ground
In this specific sentence, context makes it clear that zemlja means country.
Croatian capitalization rules are similar to English in this area:
- Names of countries like Hrvatska, Francuska, Njemačka are capitalized.
- Common nouns and adjectives like zemlja, grad, lijep, velik are not capitalized unless they start a sentence.
So you write:
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja.
- Francuska je velika zemlja.
Yes, both are natural and they just intensify the meaning of beautiful:
- Hrvatska je jako lijepa zemlja. – Croatia is a very beautiful country.
- Hrvatska je prelijepa zemlja. – Croatia is an extremely / wonderfully beautiful country.
The structure stays the same; you just add an adverb (jako) or a prefix (pre- in prelijepa) to strengthen lijepa.
No. In standard Croatian, you cannot drop je in this kind of sentence.
You must have the verb biti (to be) in the present tense for “X is Y” statements:
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja. – correct
- Hrvatska lijepa zemlja. – incorrect in normal modern Croatian
(There are old or highly stylized poetic uses where the verb can be omitted, but that’s not standard conversational language.)
The neutral, most natural order is exactly:
- Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja.
Some variations are possible, often with changes in emphasis or a poetic effect:
- Lijepa je Hrvatska zemlja. – poetic, emphasis on lijepa.
- Hrvatska je zemlja lijepa. – also poetic / marked.
For normal everyday Croatian, the safest and most natural is to keep:
[subject] + je + [adjective + noun] → Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja.