Learn Hardcore Croatian: Volim kada je dogovor pošten i kada obje strane osjećaju da su dobile dobru ponudu. - I like it when an agreement is fair and when both sides feel that they have received a good offer.

Volim comes from voljeti (to love / to like):
- It expresses a more stable preference or attitude.
- It usually takes a clause or noun directly:
  - Volim kada je dogovor pošten. – I like it when the deal is fair.
  - Volim poštene dogovore. – I like fair deals.
Sviđa mi se literally means it pleases me / I find it nice:
- It is more about immediate impression or aesthetic liking.
- It usually refers to a concrete thing now:
  - Sviđa mi se ova ponuda. – I like this offer.
  - Sviđa mi se kako si to objasnio. – I like how you explained that.

You could say:

Sviđa mi se kada je dogovor pošten…

and it would be understood, but it sounds more like I find it pleasing when… rather than a general statement of principle. Volim is more natural for a general preference like this.

Can I say kad instead of kada? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can:

Volim kad je dogovor pošten…

The difference is mostly style and formality:

kada
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, careful speech, and when you want a more “complete” feel.
kad
- Colloquial, shorter.
- Very common in everyday speech.

They mean the same thing in this sentence. So both:

Volim kada je dogovor pošten…
Volim kad je dogovor pošten…

are correct; kad just sounds a bit more casual.

Why is the word order kada je dogovor pošten and not kada dogovor je pošten or kada je pošten dogovor?

Two key points decide the word order:

Clitics must be in “second position”
The verb je (is) is an enclitic (short, unstressed form of biti – to be). In Croatian, enclitics usually go in the second position in the clause.
So in kada je dogovor pošten:
- First element: kada
- Second position: je (clitic)
- Then: dogovor pošten
*kada dogovor je pošten is ungrammatical because je is not in second position.
Normal neutral order is Subject – Predicate
- dogovor (the agreement/deal) is the subject.
- pošten (fair) is the predicate adjective.
So the neutral order after the clitic is dogovor pošten.

You could say kada je pošten dogovor in some contexts, but that slightly emphasizes pošten (when it’s a fair deal as opposed to some other kind of deal). The given sentence uses the most neutral, standard order.

Why is it pošten and not pošteni or pošteno?

Because pošten is agreeing with dogovor, which is:

gender: masculine
number: singular
case: nominative (subject)

So:

masculine singular nominative: pošten
masculine plural nominative: pošteni
neuter singular nominative: pošteno

Also, pošteno can be an adverb meaning fairly / honestly (e.g. Igrali su pošteno. – They played fair(ly).)

Here we are describing the agreement (a masculine noun), not how something is done:

dogovor je pošten – the agreement is fair ✅
*dogovor je pošteno – the agreement is fairly ❌ (ungrammatical in this meaning)
pošteni dogovor – a fair deal (masc. sg. nominative with a different syntactic role, as an attribute)

What is the nuance of dogovor compared to words like sporazum or ugovor?

All three relate to agreements, but they differ:

dogovor
- Very common, neutral.
- Means an agreement, a deal, something people agreed on (formally or informally).
- Can be anything from “We’ll meet at 5” to a business deal.
- Fits perfectly in this sentence because it’s about a deal between two sides.
sporazum
- More formal; often used for official agreements, often between organizations, institutions, or states.
- međunarodni sporazum – international agreement.
ugovor
- Specifically contract (usually written, legal).
- ugovor o radu – employment contract.

So dogovor works best for the general idea of a deal where both sides negotiate and feel they got a good offer.

Why is it obje and not oba? And what about obe?

The number “both” in Croatian has different forms depending on gender:

obje – used with feminine plural nouns
oba – used with masculine and neuter plural (and mixed masculine groups)
obe – a variant form of obje, used in some dialects/regions and also accepted in standard Croatian, but obje is more standard.

Here we have strane:

strana (side, party) → feminine
plural: strane

So you must use the feminine form:

obje strane – both sides / both parties ✅
*oba strane – wrong gender agreement ❌

Obje is the standard choice; obe strane can also be heard and is not incorrect, just a variant.

What exactly does strane mean here? Is it like “sides” physically, or “parties” in a deal?

In this context, strane means the sides/parties involved in a deal, not physical left/right sides.

Singular: strana – side, party (in an agreement, conflict, debate, etc.)
Plural: strane

So obje strane here is best understood as:

both parties (to the agreement/deal)
rather than physical sides of something.

Why is it osjećaju and not se osjećaju?

Croatian has both:

osjećati (nešto) – to feel something (transitive)
osjećati se (nekako) – to feel (in some way) (reflexive, about one’s state)

In this sentence we have:

osjećaju da su dobile dobru ponudu
literally: they feel that they have received a good offer

Here, osjećati takes a clause as its object: da su dobile dobru ponudu. It’s like English they feel that…

If you used the reflexive:

obje strane se osjećaju dobro – both sides feel good
obje strane se osjećaju kao da su dobile dobru ponudu – both sides feel as if they have received a good offer.

So:

osjećaju da… – they feel that… (focus on belief/perception)
se osjećaju… – they feel (in such-and-such a way) (focus on their internal state)

The original sentence focuses on their perception of the deal (what they think/feel is true), so osjećaju without se is correct.

Why is it da su dobile and not da su dobili? What is dobile agreeing with?

The form dobile is:

past participle of dobiti (to get/receive)
gender: feminine
number: plural

It must agree with the subject of the clause introduced by da.

In da su dobile dobru ponudu, the implied subject is obje strane (both sides):

strana is feminine.
obje strane → feminine plural.
So the participle must be feminine plural: dobile.

If you said da su dobili, that would be masculine plural. That would be used if the subject were masculine plural, e.g.:

oba partnera su dobila / dobili dobru ponudu
- more natural: oba partnera su dobila… (since partnera is grammatically neuter plural)
- but with real, animate males, you’ll often hear dobili in speech.

Here, grammatically and in standard usage, obje strane … da su dobile is correct.

Why is it da su dobile (a kind of past) when the rest is in the present tense (osjećaju)?

Croatian often uses a past tense in a “da”-clause to express something completed that is being evaluated now.

osjećaju – present: they (now) feel
da su dobile dobru ponudu – literally: that they have received / got a good offer

The idea is:

The deal/offer has already been made.
As a result, now they feel that they got a good offer.

If you used present in the subordinate clause:

osjećaju da dobivaju dobru ponudu – they feel that they are getting a good offer (ongoing process; a bit unusual here).

So da su dobile nicely captures the idea they feel they got (have gotten) a good offer.

Why is it dobru ponudu and how is that form built?

Dobru ponudu is:

dobru – accusative singular feminine of dobar (good)
ponudu – accusative singular feminine of ponuda (offer)

Why accusative? Because dobiti (to get/receive) takes a direct object in the accusative:

dobiti ponudu – to get an offer
dobiti dobru ponudu – to get a good offer

Adjective dobar in feminine singular:

nominative: dobra ponuda – a good offer (subject)
accusative: dobru ponudu – a good offer (object)

So the form is simply adjective + noun, both in accusative singular feminine.

Can I drop the second kada and say Volim kada je dogovor pošten i obje strane osjećaju…?

Yes, you can:

Volim kada je dogovor pošten i obje strane osjećaju da su dobile dobru ponudu.

This is also grammatically correct and natural. The difference is very small and mostly stylistic:

With both kada:
- Volim kada je dogovor pošten i kada obje strane osjećaju…
- Slightly more balanced and explicit: I like it when A is true and when B is true.
With only one kada:
- Volim kada je dogovor pošten i obje strane osjećaju…
- Sounds a bit more compact; the second “kada” is understood from context.

Both are fine in standard Croatian; repetition of kada often sounds slightly more careful or emphatic.

What’s the role of da in da su dobile dobru ponudu? Could I leave it out?

In this sentence, da introduces a subordinate clause that functions like the object of osjećaju:

osjećaju [da su dobile dobru ponudu]
they feel [that they have received a good offer]

Here da is equivalent to English that in I feel that…

You cannot leave it out in standard Croatian:

*osjećaju su dobile dobru ponudu – incorrect

You need da (or another conjunction or a different structure) to connect osjećaju with the clause su dobile dobru ponudu.