Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj. - She often makes soup for the family.

Juha is the base form (nominative singular) meaning soup.
In this sentence, soup is the direct object of the verb praviti (to make), so it has to be in the accusative case:

Nominative (subject): Juha je vruća. – The soup is hot.
Accusative (object): Ona pravi juhu. – She makes soup.

For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative singular ending is typically -u, so juha → juhu.

Why is it za obitelj and not just obitelji?

The preposition za roughly means for and it always takes the accusative case.
Here, za obitelj literally means for (the) family.

Without a preposition, Croatian sometimes uses the dative to express “for someone”, e.g.:

Kuham obitelji. – I cook for the family. (dative: obitelji)

But once you use za, you must use the accusative:

Kuham za obitelj. – I cook for the family.

So:

za + obitelj (accusative) → za obitelj
not za obitelji (that would be a different form, usually genitive or dative/locative plural, depending on context).

Why doesn’t obitelj change form in the accusative, while juha does?

Different feminine nouns decline in different ways.

juha (ends in -a)
- nominative: juha
- accusative: juhu
obitelj (ends in a consonant -lj, but is feminine)
- nominative: obitelj
- accusative: obitelj (no change in form)

So obitelj happens to have the same form in nominative and accusative singular, even though the grammatical case is different. That’s just how this noun class works in Croatian.

Could I leave out Ona and just say Često pravi juhu za obitelj?

Yes. In Croatian, subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni, etc.) are often dropped because the verb ending usually tells you the person and number.

So you can say:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj.
Često pravi juhu za obitelj.

Both can mean She often makes soup for the family.

However, with 3rd person singular present (pravi), the form is the same for he and she, so if the context is not clear, people may keep on/ona to make it explicit:

On često pravi juhu za obitelj. – He often makes soup for the family.
Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj. – She often makes soup for the family.

Is the word order fixed, or can I say Ona pravi često juhu za obitelj?

Croatian word order is flexible, but there are strong preferences.

Most natural here are:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj.
Često ona pravi juhu za obitelj. (emphasis on she)
Ona juhu često pravi za obitelj. (marked, focusing on juhu or on the frequency)

Putting često right before the verb (često pravi) is the neutral choice.

Ona pravi često juhu za obitelj is understandable but sounds less natural and a bit “foreign”. Native speakers much more often place često before the main verb rather than after it in this kind of sentence.

Could I use kuha instead of pravi? What’s the difference between praviti and kuhati here?

Yes, and many speakers would actually prefer kuha in this context:

Ona često kuha juhu za obitelj.

Differences:

praviti = to make, create, prepare (very general)
- praviti juhu = to make soup (sounds fine, but slightly more general/colloquial)
kuhati = to cook, boil
- kuhati juhu = to cook soup (most literal for the process of cooking)

So:

praviti juhu – highlights preparing/making (could be cooking, could be broader preparation).
kuhati juhu – clearly about the cooking itself.

Both are correct; kuhati juhu is the most straightforward for cooking soup.

What about napraviti vs praviti? How does aspect work here?

Croatian verbs usually come in aspectual pairs:

praviti – imperfective (ongoing, habitual, repeated)
napraviti – perfective (completed, one-time, result-focused)

In this sentence we’re describing a habit:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj. – She often makes soup for the family. (repeated action)

If you say:

Ona je napravila juhu za obitelj. – She made (has made) soup for the family.

That focuses on one completed event in the past. So for “often/usually/regularly makes”, you want the imperfective: praviti (or kuhati).

In English we say “She often makes soup,” with often usually before the verb. Is the position of često similar in Croatian?

Yes, very similar. The most neutral position for često is right before the main verb:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj.

Other positions are possible for emphasis or style:

Često ona pravi juhu za obitelj. – Emphasis on ona (it’s she who often does it).
Ona juhu često pravi za obitelj. – Emphasis can fall on juhu or često, more marked.

But if you’re unsure, put često right before the verb: često pravi, često kuha, često radi, etc.

How do we know it’s she and not he? The verb pravi looks the same for both, right?

Correct: in the present tense, the third-person singular forms are the same for he and she:

on pravi – he makes
ona pravi – she makes

So the pronoun (on/ona) or the context tells you the gender.

In the past tense, gender is visible in the participle:

On je pravio juhu. – He made soup.
Ona je pravila juhu. – She made soup.

But in present, pravi itself is not marked for gender, only for person and number (3rd sg). That’s why pronouns are more often included in 3rd person when you need to be clear.

In English we say a/the soup, but here it’s just juhu with no article. Is anything like that expressed in Croatian?

Croatian doesn’t have articles (a, an, the), so juhu can mean:

a soup
the soup
some soup

The specificity is usually understood from context or added with other words:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj. – She often makes (some/the) soup for the family.
Ona često pravi ovu juhu za obitelj. – She often makes this soup for the family.
Ona često pravi jednu juhu za obitelj. – She often makes one/one particular soup for the family. (can imply “one (same) soup”)

So, there is no direct equivalent of English articles; Croatian uses other means (demonstratives, word order, context) to convey that nuance.

Why is obitelj singular when “family” refers to several people?

This is the same as in English: family is grammatically singular, even though it refers to multiple members.

obitelj = family (as a unit) – singular
obitelji = families – plural

In this sentence we’re talking about one family (her family), so we use singular:

za obitelj – for (the) family

You’d only use plural when there is more than one family:

Ona često pravi juhu za dvije obitelji. – She often makes soup for two families.

Could I say radi juhu instead of pravi juhu?

You can hear raditi juhu, but:

raditi = to work; to do; to make (in some expressions)
praviti = to make; to prepare
kuhati = to cook

In practice:

praviti juhu – acceptable, understandable, sounds fine.
kuhati juhu – the most common/natural when talking about cooking soup.
raditi juhu – less common; might sound a bit odd or overly literal/work-like.

So for everyday speech, prefer:

Ona često kuha juhu za obitelj.
or
Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj.

If I replace juhu with a pronoun, where does the pronoun go?

The direct-object pronoun for juhu (feminine singular) is je or ju. In present-tense sentences without auxiliaries, Croatian clitic pronouns usually go in the second position in the clause.

Original:

Ona često pravi juhu za obitelj.

With a pronoun:

Ona je često pravi za obitelj.
Ona ju često pravi za obitelj.

Both je and ju are used in practice; ju is more clearly “her/it (fem.)” and can be stylistically preferable to avoid confusion with je as a form of biti (to be).

Notice that the pronoun comes after the first stressed word (Ona), not directly before or after the verb, which is different from English word order.