Learn Hardcore Croatian: Postoji više vrsta zadataka: neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor. - There are several types of exercises: some check vocabulary, and others pronunciation.

Postoji is the 3rd person singular present of postojati – “to exist”. In this kind of sentence it corresponds to English “there is / there exists”.

Why singular?

The phrase više vrsta zadataka is introduced by a quantity word više (“more, several”).
In Croatian, when you have quantity words like puno, mnogo, više, nekoliko
- a noun, the verb is very often in the neuter singular:
  - Puno ljudi je došlo. – “A lot of people came.”
  - Više vrsta zadataka postoji. / Postoji više vrsta zadataka.

So Postoji više vrsta zadataka literally means “There exists more kinds of tasks”, but it’s translated more naturally as “There are several kinds of tasks.”

You will also hear Ima više vrsta zadataka in everyday speech; that’s a bit more colloquial than Postoji... but very common.

Why is it više vrsta zadataka, with zadataka, not zadaci? What case is that?

Both vrsta and zadataka are in the genitive plural, for two reasons:

više (“more, several”) requires the genitive:
- više vode – more water
- više knjiga – more books
- više vrsta – more types
The noun vrsta (“kind / type”) itself also takes a genitive complement:
- vrsta zadataka – a type of tasks
- vrsta automobila – a type of car(s)

So we get a chain of genitives:

više vrsta zadataka
- više – quantity word
- vrsta – genitive plural of vrsta
- zadataka – genitive plural of zadatak (“task”)

zadaci would be nominative plural (“tasks” as the subject: Zadaci su teški – The tasks are hard), which does not fit the structure vrsta + genitive.

What exactly are neki and drugi referring to? Why are they masculine plural, not feminine like vrste?

In this sentence:

neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor.

the words neki (“some”) and drugi (“others”) are standing in for an omitted noun.

Earlier we had vrsta zadataka (“types of tasks”), and the idea is:

Neki (zadaci) provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi (zadaci) izgovor.
– “Some (tasks) check vocabulary, and others (tasks) [check] pronunciation.”

Key points:

zadatak is masculine, plural zadaci.
Therefore neki and drugi are masculine plural nominative to agree with the implied zadaci, not with vrste (feminine).

So grammatically they agree with zadaci, which is not repeated but understood from context.

Why is the verb provjeravaju missing in the second part (a drugi izgovor)?

Croatian often omits a repeated verb if it would be exactly the same as in the first clause and is obvious from context.

Full, non-elliptical version would be:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi provjeravaju izgovor.

Because provjeravaju would be repeated immediately, it’s natural to drop it in the second clause:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor.

The listener automatically understands a drugi (provjeravaju) izgovor – “and others (check) pronunciation.”

What form is provjeravaju, and from which infinitive does it come?

provjeravaju is:

3rd person plural present tense,
from the verb provjeravati – “to check, to verify” (imperfective).

So:

(oni) provjeravaju – they check / they are checking

Other forms for reference:

infinitive: provjeravati
1st sg: provjeravam – I check
3rd sg: provjerava – he/she/it checks
past: provjeravali su – they checked / they were checking

There is also a perfective partner provjeriti (“to check once, to verify completely”), but here the ongoing/general action (“tasks check…”) needs the imperfective provjeravati.

What does rječnik mean here? Is it “dictionary” or “vocabulary”?

The noun rječnik primarily means:

“dictionary” (a book or digital resource listing words),
but it can also refer to “vocabulary / lexicon”, i.e. the set of words someone knows or uses.

In the sentence about tasks that “check rječnik”, the natural interpretation is:

“Some tasks check vocabulary” (i.e. whether you know certain words).

You could translate it as “lexicon” in a more technical linguistics context, but in language-learning contexts “vocabulary” is usually best.

What does izgovor mean here, and how is it different from izgovaranje?

izgovor has two main meanings in Croatian:

pronunciation (linguistic sense)
- Tvoj izgovor je dobar. – Your pronunciation is good.
excuse / pretext
- To je samo loš izgovor. – That’s just a bad excuse.

In this sentence, it clearly means pronunciation (the way you pronounce words).

izgovaranje is a verbal noun from izgovarati (“to pronounce”), and focuses more on the action / process of pronouncing, rather than the quality or result.

izgovor – pronunciation as a quality (good/bad pronunciation)
izgovaranje – the act of pronouncing

So zadaci provjeravaju izgovor = “the tasks check (your) pronunciation.”

What does the conjunction a mean here? Is it just the same as i (“and”)?

The conjunction a is often translated as “and”, but it usually adds a contrast or a slight opposition, closer to English “whereas / while / whereas on the other hand”.

In this sentence:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor.

we have a contrast between two groups of tasks:

Some check vocabulary, while others (on the other hand) check pronunciation.

If you used i:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, i drugi izgovor.

it would sound off or wrong here; i is a neutral “and” linking similar things, without the clear contrast between two sets.

So a is the right choice to express “one group does this, the other does that.”

Why is there a comma before a in ..., a drugi izgovor?

In Croatian punctuation, a, ali, nego, and similar conjunctions that introduce a contrast or opposition between two clauses are normally preceded by a comma.

Here we have two clauses:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik
(a) drugi izgovor (provjeravaju)

So you must write:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor.

The comma separates the two clauses and marks the contrast introduced by a.

Could we say Postoje više vrsta zadataka instead of Postoji više vrsta zadataka?

With više + noun, the usual and most natural agreement is singular:

Postoji više vrsta zadataka. – preferred
Više vrsta zadataka postoji. – also fine (same agreement, just different word order)

Using Postoje here:

Postoje više vrsta zadataka.

sounds unnatural to most speakers and is usually avoided.

However, without a quantity word like više, with a clearly plural subject, you do use the plural:

Postoje razne vrste zadataka. – “There are various types of tasks.”
Postoje tri vrste zadataka. – “There are three types of tasks.”

So:

with više / puno / mnogo / nekoliko → usually singular: Postoji više vrsta…
with a plain plural noun phrase → plural: Postoje razne vrste…

Is the colon after zadataka used the same way as in English?

Yes, very similarly. The colon introduces an explanation, definition, or list of what was just mentioned.

Postoji više vrsta zadataka: neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi izgovor.

This can be read as:

“There are several types of tasks: namely, some check vocabulary and others check pronunciation.”

So the colon is correct and used much like in English in this type of sentence.

Can we change the word order in the second part, for example Drugi izgovor provjeravaju?

Croatian word order is relatively flexible, but there are natural preferences.

Standard, neutral order here is:

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a drugi (provjeravaju) izgovor.
– Subject – Verb – Object

You could say:

Neki rječnik provjeravaju, a drugi izgovor.

Neki provjeravaju rječnik, a izgovor drugi provjeravaju.

but these sound marked, with extra emphasis (for example, emphasising rječnik vs izgovor, or drugi).

For a normal, neutral sentence, the original word order is the best and most idiomatic.