Learn Hardcore Croatian: Učenica večeras uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi. - The pupil is studying Croatian in a quiet room tonight.

Context: what has already been mentioned
Word order and emphasis
Demonstratives like taj / ta / to (that), ovaj / ova / ovo (this), etc.

So:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
can mean:
- The (female) pupil is studying Croatian in the quiet room tonight., or
- A (female) pupil is studying Croatian in a quiet room tonight.,
  depending on context.

Croatian simply doesn’t mark this difference grammatically with a separate word.

What exactly does učenica mean, and how is it different from studentica?

Učenica means “(female) pupil” or “(female) school student”, usually:

primary school
middle school / high school

It is the feminine form:

učenik = male pupil
učenica = female pupil

Studentica also means female student, but usually at:

university
college
sometimes higher vocational schools

So:

učenica → girl in school (non-university)
studentica → female university/college student

In your sentence, Učenica večeras uči hrvatski…, you’re talking about a female school pupil.

What does večeras mean, and could it be placed somewhere else in the sentence?

Večeras means “this evening / tonight” (specifically the coming or current evening).

In Croatian, adverbs of time like večeras are quite flexible in position. All of these are correct:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
Večeras učenica uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
Učenica uči hrvatski večeras u tihoj sobi.

Differences:

Putting večeras at the beginning (Večeras učenica…) slightly emphasizes when it happens.
Keeping večeras after the subject (as in your sentence) is very neutral and common.
Moving it later can sound a bit more conversational or for contrast, depending on intonation.

The core meaning does not change; nuance and emphasis do.

What form and tense is uči, and why isn’t there a separate word like “is” (as in “is studying”)?

Uči is:

present tense
3rd person singular
of the verb učiti (to study / to learn / to teach, depending on context)

In English you say:

“She is studying Croatian.”

In Croatian this is just:

Uči hrvatski.

There is no auxiliary “to be” in the present continuous tense. The simple present in Croatian covers both:

English present simple: She studies Croatian.
English present continuous: She is studying Croatian.

So uči here can be understood as “is studying” or “studies”, with context usually telling you which is intended. In this sentence, because of večeras, we naturally read it as “is studying tonight.”

Could uči also mean “teaches”? How do I know if it is “studies” or “teaches”?

Yes, the verb učiti can mean both:

to study / to learn
to teach (in certain structures)

How to tell:

Without an object indicating a person, učiti usually means study/learn:
- Uči hrvatski. → She is studying Croatian.
To mean teach, Croatian often uses:
- učiti nekoga nešto = teach someone something
  - Uči djecu hrvatski. → She teaches children Croatian.

So in your sentence:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski…
A učenica (pupil) is much more naturally the one studying, not teaching. Therefore, here uči clearly means “is studying / learns”, not “teaches.”

Why is hrvatski written alone, without jezik (language), and what form is it?

Hrvatski here stands for hrvatski jezik = Croatian (language).

Details:

hrvatski can be an adjective: Croatian (e.g. Croatian language, Croatian people).
In this kind of sentence, it’s used by itself as a noun, meaning “the Croatian language”.

Case and gender:

hrvatski is masculine singular.
As a direct object (what she is studying), it’s in the accusative.
For masculine inanimate nouns/adjectives, the nominative and accusative forms are identical in the singular, so it simply looks like hrvatski.

You could also say:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski jezik u tihoj sobi.
(fully explicit: …studies the Croatian language…)

But in everyday speech, just hrvatski is very common and natural.

Why is hrvatski not capitalized like “Croatian” in English?

In Croatian:

Names of languages, nationalities, and adjectives derived from country names are not capitalized, unless they start a sentence.

So you write:

hrvatski jezik (Croatian language)
engleski, njemački, francuski (English, German, French – as languages)
Hrvat, Englez (Croat, Englishman – these are nouns and are capitalized)

In your sentence:

hrvatski = Croatian (language) → written with a lowercase h.
English capitalizes language names; Croatian doesn’t.

What case is used in u tihoj sobi, and why is it not u tiha soba?

U tihoj sobi uses the locative case.

Rule:

The preposition u (in) can take:
- Locative → for location / where something is
  - u sobi = in (the) room
- Accusative → for motion into / where something is going to
  - u sobu = into (the) room

In your sentence:

She is studying in a quiet room (no movement into it is described),
so u requires the locative.

Hence:

tihoj sobi (feminine singular locative)
not tiha soba (which is nominative, used for the subject: Tiha soba je velika. – The quiet room is big.).

Why does tihoj end in -oj? How does it agree with sobi?

Tihoj is the adjective tih (quiet) in the form that agrees with sobi.

soba (room) is:
- feminine
- singular
- here in the locative → sobi

Adjectives must agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

For a feminine singular locative noun like sobi, the adjective also takes the feminine singular locative form, which often ends in -oj:

tih → tihoj (quiet)
nova soba (new room – nominative) → u novoj sobi (in the new room – locative)

So u tihoj sobi = in the quiet room, with full adjective–noun agreement.

Could I say u tihu sobu instead of u tihoj sobi? What would that mean?

Yes, u tihu sobu is grammatically correct, but it means something different:

u tihoj sobi → in the quiet room (location; locative case)
u tihu sobu → into the quiet room (movement into; accusative case)

So:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
= The pupil is studying in the quiet room.
Učenica večeras ulazi u tihu sobu.
= The pupil is entering into the quiet room.

For your meaning (place where she is studying), u tihoj sobi is the correct choice.

Why is there no word for “she” before uči? Shouldn’t it be Ona uči?

Croatian is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni, one) are often omitted when the verb form already clearly shows the subject.

Uči hrvatski.
The verb ending -i (in uči) tells us it’s 3rd person singular (he/she/it).

You would say:

Ona uči hrvatski.
to add extra emphasis (e.g. She is the one who is studying Croatian, maybe in contrast to someone else).

But in a neutral sentence like yours:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski…
the noun učenica already identifies the subject, so ona is not needed.

How flexible is the word order in this sentence? Can I rearrange the parts?

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, because grammatical roles are marked by endings, not mostly by position.

All of these are grammatically correct and natural, with slight changes in emphasis:

Učenica večeras uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
– Neutral, very natural.
Večeras učenica uči hrvatski u tihoj sobi.
– Emphasizes “tonight”.
Učenica uči hrvatski večeras u tihoj sobi.
– Slight emphasis on “tonight” as additional info.
Učenica u tihoj sobi večeras uči hrvatski.
– Could emphasize location first, then time.

What you generally cannot do is split words that belong tightly together in a bad way (e.g. inserting something between u and tihoj sobi), but time, place, and manner phrases can move around quite a bit. The meaning remains the same; only focus and naturalness shift slightly.