Breakdown of Učiteljica nas hrabri da se izražavamo slobodno, čak i kad nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
Questions & Answers about Učiteljica nas hrabri da se izražavamo slobodno, čak i kad nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
Učiteljica is the feminine noun meaning female teacher (usually at primary/elementary-school level).
The base word is:
- učitelj – male teacher (masculine)
- učiteljica – female teacher (feminine)
Croatian marks the gender in many professions this way:
- doktor / doktorica – male / female doctor
- profesor / profesorica – male / female professor
So the sentence tells you the teacher is female. If the teacher were male, the sentence would be:
- Učitelj nas hrabri da se izražavamo slobodno, čak i kad nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
Nas is the unstressed pronoun mi (we) in the accusative case – it means us as the direct object of the verb hrabri.
Literally:
- Učiteljica nas hrabri…
→ The teacher encourages us…
About the position:
- Croatian has clitic pronouns (short, unstressed forms) like me, te, ga, je, nas, vas, im.
- These clitics usually go in second position in the clause (after the first stressed word or phrase).
So:
- Učiteljica nas hrabri… is the normal word order.
You cannot normally say Učiteljica hrabri nas with the same neutral tone; that sounds marked/emphatic and less natural in this context.
The rule of thumb: in simple sentences, the first stressed element (here Učiteljica) comes first, and then clitics like nas follow it, before the main verb.
- hrabriti – to encourage, to make someone brave (imperfective)
- ohrabrivati – to encourage (also imperfective; more common in everyday speech)
- ohrabriti – to encourage (perfective, single completed act)
Hrabri is the 3rd person singular present of hrabriti.
Ohrabruje is the 3rd person singular present of ohrabrivati.
In your sentence the meaning is she encourages us (habitually or in general), so you can say:
- Učiteljica nas hrabri…
- Učiteljica nas ohrabruje…
Both are correct. Ohrabruje is a bit more common in everyday speech; hrabri may sound a bit more neutral or “bookish” but is fully normal.
Croatian very often uses a da + present-tense clause where English uses an infinitive:
- English: encourages us to express ourselves
- Croatian: hrabri nas da se izražavamo
Pattern:
- hrabriti / ohrabrivati nekoga da + prezent
– to encourage someone to do something
So:
- da se izražavamo literally: that we express ourselves
but functionally it matches English to express ourselves.
Using the infinitive hrabri nas izražavati se is not natural in standard Croatian in this kind of purpose/complement clause. The da + present construction is the normal one.
Se is a reflexive clitic pronoun. With izražavati (se):
- izražavati – to express (something)
- izražavati se – to express oneself
Here the idea is not “express something” but “express yourself / ourselves”, so the verb is used reflexively:
- izražavati se – to express oneself (one’s thoughts, feelings, opinions)
In the sentence:
- da se izražavamo slobodno
→ that we express ourselves freely
Word order of se:
In finite clauses, se is also a clitic and tends to come right after the first stressed word in its clause, usually near the verb:
- da se izražavamo
- izražavamo se
Both orders exist, but here da se izražavamo is the standard choice.
Slobodno here is an adverb meaning freely.
Many Croatian adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives by adding -o (or by using the neuter singular form):
- slobodan (free, adj.) → slobodno (freely, adv.)
- brz (fast, adj.) → brzo (fast, quickly, adv.)
- potpun (complete, adj.) → potpuno (completely, adv.)
You can check it is an adverb by asking:
- How should we express ourselves? → freely → slobodno
If it were an adjective, it would agree in gender/number/case with a noun, like:
- slobodna rečenica – a free sentence (feminine, singular, nominative)
But in the sentence we are not describing a noun; we are describing the manner of the action (how we express ourselves), so it’s an adverb.
- čak – even (emphasizing something surprising or extreme)
- i – and / also / even (in some contexts)
The combination čak i is often used together for emphasis, similar to English even (stronger, more marked):
- čak i kad nismo sigurni…
→ even when we are not sure…
You could technically say:
- čak kad nismo sigurni… – possible, but čak i kad is more natural.
- i kad nismo sigurni… – also used in speech and writing (even when we are not sure), but čak i kad has a bit stronger emphasis.
So čak i here is a fixed-sounding collocation that makes the “even when” part very clear and emphatic.
Kad and kada are basically the same word; kada is slightly more formal or full, kad is shorter and more colloquial/neutral.
Both can mean:
- when (time)
- sometimes “whenever”, depending on context
So you could also say:
- …čak i kada nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
There is no change in meaning here. Both are fully correct; in everyday speech, kad is more frequent.
- kad / kada – when, whenever (time-related)
- ako – if (condition)
Čak i kad nismo sigurni puts the focus on situations/times when you are not sure. It suggests this happens from time to time, and even in those situations you should still speak.
If you said:
- čak i ako nismo sigurni – even if we are not sure
…it would sound a bit more hypothetical/conditional: if that condition happens, still do it. It’s not wrong, but čak i kad is more natural when you’re talking about repeated real situations rather than hypothetical ones.
Je li is made of:
- je – 3rd person singular of biti (to be)
- li – an interrogative particle used to form yes–no questions.
In direct questions, you can put the verb before the subject and add li:
- Je li rečenica potpuno pravilna?
→ Is the sentence completely correct?
In your sentence, this question is reported/indirect:
- …kad nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
→ when we are not sure whether the sentence is completely correct.
So je li here means whether … is:
- nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna
→ we are not sure if/whether the sentence is completely correct.
Li cannot stand alone; it must attach to a verb or auxiliary. With biti, the usual order is je li.
You will hear both:
- je li rečenica potpuno pravilna
- da li je rečenica potpuno pravilna
Differences:
Standard recommendation
In standard Croatian, je li is preferred, especially in indirect questions like yours.
Da li is more common in speech, sometimes felt as more colloquial or Serbian-influenced, but it’s very widely used.Word order
With je li, the verb je and li stay together: je li rečenica…
With da li, da li goes first and the verb follows: da li je rečenica…
Your alternative:
- …kad nismo sigurni da li je rečenica potpuno pravilna.
is understandable and widely heard in real life, but the sentence you have with je li is more in line with stricter standard usage.
Pravilna is an adjective meaning correct, proper and it must agree with the noun it describes in gender, number, and case.
- rečenica – sentence
- gender: feminine
- number: singular
- case: nominative (subject)
So the adjective must also be:
- feminine, singular, nominative → pravilna
That is why we say:
- rečenica je potpuno pravilna
the sentence is completely correct
If the noun changed, the adjective would change too:
- tekst je potpuno pravilan – the text is completely correct (masc. sg.)
- pravila su potpuno pravilna – the rules are completely correct (neut. pl.)
In your sentence, pravilna is at the end, but it’s still linked to rečenica by agreement.
Potpuno here is another adverb, meaning completely, totally.
Structure:
- potpuno (completely, adv.) + pravilna (correct, adj.)
→ completely correct
Again, many adverbs are formed from adjectives:
- potpun (complete, adj.) → potpuno (completely, adv.)
Compare:
- potpuna rečenica – a complete sentence (adjective)
- rečenica je potpuno pravilna – the sentence is completely correct (adverb + adjective)
So slobodno describes how we express ourselves (adverb of manner), and potpuno describes to what degree the sentence is correct (adverb of degree).
Yes, you can say:
- Učiteljica nas hrabri da se slobodno izražavamo, čak i kad nismo sigurni je li rečenica potpuno pravilna.
This is very natural Croatian and means the same thing.
Both:
- da se izražavamo slobodno
- da se slobodno izražavamo
are grammatical. The difference is only in focus:
- izražavamo slobodno – slight emphasis on expressing ourselves; how comes at the end.
- slobodno izražavamo – slight emphasis on freely; you hear the adverb earlier.
In everyday speech, both orders are common and the nuance is small; you can treat them as practically equivalent here.
Aspect:
- izražavati se – to express oneself (imperfective)
- ongoing, repeated, habitual action
- izraziti se – to express oneself (perfective)
- one complete act of expressing
In your sentence, the teacher is encouraging a general habit:
- da se izražavamo slobodno
→ that we (habitually/in general) express ourselves freely
For repeated or ongoing actions, Croatian uses the imperfective aspect → izražavati se → izražavamo.
If you talked about one single act, you might use the perfective:
- Pokušaj se jasno izraziti.
Try to express yourself clearly (this one time).
So izražavamo is chosen because the sentence talks about a general way of behaving, not one particular moment.