Ta emocija mi je važna.

That emotion is important to me.

Breakdown of Ta emocija mi je važna.

• biti: to be
• mi: me (dative short form)
• važan: important
• taj: that

Questions & Answers about Ta emocija mi je važna.

What does mi mean here, and why is it in the middle of the sentence?

In Ta emocija mi je važna, mi means to me / for me.

Grammatically, mi is a dative pronoun (1st person singular: to me). Croatian uses the dative case instead of a preposition like to or for.

It appears in the middle because mi is an unstressed (clitic) pronoun, and Croatian clitics usually go in second position in the clause. The first “block” is Ta emocija, so the clitic mi comes next:

• Ta emocija | mi | je | važna
  That emotion | to me | is | important

What case is mi, and how is it different from meni or mene?