Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ona misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra kad govori hrvatski pred razredom. - She thinks that the curious foreign woman is brave when she speaks Croatian in front of the class.

In the clause da je radoznala strankinja hrabra, je is the linking verb is, connecting the subject (radoznala strankinja) with the predicate adjective (hrabra).

Croatian has a special rule for these short forms: they are clitics and usually go in second position in the clause, i.e. after the first stressed word or phrase. Here, the first word of the clause is da, so the neutral order is:

da je radoznala strankinja hrabra
literally: that is [the] curious foreigner brave

You normally cannot move je to the end in standard Croatian, so:

✗ da radoznala strankinja hrabra je – incorrect / non‑standard
✗ da radoznala strankinja je hrabra – also wrong in standard word order

You must have some form of biti here; you can’t drop je the way English can sometimes drop is in headlines. The full (emphatic) form jest exists but is rare and stylistically marked here; the normal spoken and written form is clitic je.

Which adjective is part of curious foreigner and which means brave, and can we change the positions of radoznala, strankinja, and hrabra?

In the sentence as written:

radoznala modifies strankinja directly: radoznala strankinja = a curious foreign woman
hrabra is the predicate adjective linked by je: the curious foreign woman is brave

So the structure is:

[da] je [radoznala strankinja] [hrabra]

If you change the word order, you can change the meaning:

Ona misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra…
Usual reading: She thinks that the curious foreigner is brave when she speaks Croatian in front of the class.
Ona misli da je hrabra radoznala strankinja kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.
Now hrabra radoznala strankinja is likely taken as one long noun phrase: the brave, curious foreigner.
The sentence tends to mean: She thinks that the brave, curious foreigner speaks Croatian in front of the class.
(Now hrabra is also attributive, not clearly the predicate.)
Ona misli da je radoznala, hrabra strankinja kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.
With a comma, both radoznala and hrabra are adjectives modifying strankinja (a curious, brave foreigner). The verb je now just links ona to radoznala, hrabra strankinja:
She thinks that she is a curious, brave foreigner when she speaks Croatian…

So in the original, the most natural parse is:

radoznala = attributive adjective (part of the noun phrase)
hrabra = predicate adjective (the quality she is attributing to that foreigner in that situation)

Changing word order can shift which adjectives are descriptive of the noun itself and which are stating something the subject is in that moment.

Why do radoznala, strankinja, and hrabra all end in -a?

All three refer to the same noun, which is:

strankinja – a feminine noun (foreign woman)

In da je radoznala strankinja hrabra, strankinja is the subject of the verb je, so it is in nominative singular feminine.

Croatian adjectives must agree with the noun in:

gender (masculine / feminine / neuter)
number (singular / plural)
case (nominative, accusative, etc.)

So:

strankinja – feminine, singular, nominative
radoznala – feminine, singular, nominative
hrabra – feminine, singular, nominative

That is why they all end in -a here.

If the noun were masculine, you would have:

radoznav stranac hrabar (curious foreign man, brave) – masculine singular nominative endings.

Can we leave out ona, and if so, when would we keep it?

Yes, you can absolutely leave out ona here:

Misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.

Croatian is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni…) is normally omitted because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

You usually keep ona when:

You want to emphasize that it is she (and not someone else):
- Ona misli… = She (as opposed to others) thinks…
You want to avoid ambiguity between different third‑person subjects in context.

In a neutral sentence, with context already clear, Misli da… is more natural than Ona misli da….

Why is it simply hrvatski and not hrvatski jezik, and which case is it in?

In govori hrvatski, the verb govori (speaks) takes a direct object in the accusative case, answering What does she speak? → Croatian.

The full phrase is:

hrvatski jezik – Croatian language

But in everyday Croatian, the noun jezik is usually dropped, and only the adjective remains:

govori hrvatski – she speaks Croatian

Grammatically:

hrvatski here is masculine singular accusative, standing for hrvatski jezik.
You could also say govori hrvatski jezik, but that sounds a bit more formal or explicit.

So:

govoriti + [language in accusative]
- govorim engleski – I speak English
- govoriš njemački – you speak German
- govori hrvatski – she speaks Croatian

Why do we use kad instead of kada, and what is the difference?

Kad and kada both mean when and are largely interchangeable.

kad – shorter, more colloquial, very common in speech and informal writing
kada – slightly more formal or neutral, common in writing and careful speech

In your sentence:

kad govori hrvatski pred razredom
kada govori hrvatski pred razredom

Both are correct. The meaning does not change. Often the choice is just a matter of style, rhythm, or regional preference.

Why is it pred razredom and not pred razred?

The preposition pred (in front of, before) can govern two different cases:

instrumental → location, position (in front of X as a place)
accusative → direction, movement towards (to in front of X)

In your sentence, we have a location:

She is speaking Croatian in front of the class (where? – at that place).

So pred takes the instrumental case:

razred (class, grade) – nominative singular
razredom – instrumental singular

Thus:

pred razredom – in front of the class (as a location)

If it were movement, you might see accusative, e.g.:

Izašao je pred razred. – He came out in front of the class.
(He moved to that place.)

But with govoriti pred razredom, we are describing where she is speaking, not where she is going, so razredom (instrumental) is correct.

How is misli formed from misliti, and does it mean she thinks or she is thinking?

The infinitive is misliti (to think). In the present tense:

ja mislim – I think
ti misliš – you think
on / ona / ono misli – he / she / it thinks
mi mislimo – we think
vi mislite – you (pl) think
oni / one misle – they think

So misli is the 3rd person singular present form: he/she thinks.

Croatian does not distinguish simple present vs. present continuous the way English does. Misli can correspond to both:

She thinks that… (general opinion)
She is thinking that… (right now)

Context usually tells you which one fits better. In this sentence it most often means She thinks / she believes that… (an opinion about the foreigner).

Who is actually speaking Croatian here: ona or the radoznala strankinja?

The relevant part is:

Ona misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.

The clause kad govori hrvatski pred razredom does not explicitly repeat the subject. In Croatian, the subject is often just understood from context.

Two readings are possible in principle:

The foreigner is the one speaking
- She thinks that the curious foreigner is brave when she (the foreigner) speaks Croatian in front of the class.
“Ona” is the one speaking
- She thinks that the curious foreigner is brave when she (the speaker, “ona”) speaks Croatian in front of the class.

In practice, most native speakers will interpret it as the same subject as the closest relevant noun phrase inside the “da”‑clause, i.e. radoznala strankinja. So the default reading is:

The curious foreigner is the one speaking Croatian in front of the class.

If the speaker wanted to make it clearly refer to ona, they might rephrase, for example:

Ona misli da je ta radoznala strankinja hrabra kad ona govori hrvatski pred razredom.
(She thinks that the curious foreigner is brave when she [the speaker] speaks Croatian…)

But Croatian usually skips the pronoun, so some ambiguity can remain, and context outside the sentence normally clarifies it.

Could we say Ona misli da je hrabra radoznala strankinja kad govori hrvatski pred razredom, and would that change the meaning?

Yes, that word order is possible, but it subtly changes what is being stated.

Original:

Ona misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.
Focus: The curious foreigner is brave when she speaks Croatian in front of the class.

Variant:

Ona misli da je hrabra radoznala strankinja kad govori hrvatski pred razredom.

Now native speakers are more likely to hear hrabra radoznala strankinja as a single noun phrase:

the brave, curious foreigner

So the sentence leans toward:

She thinks that the brave, curious foreigner speaks Croatian in front of the class.

In other words:

In the original, hrabra is clearly the predicate (what the foreigner is).
In the variant, hrabra more easily becomes an additional attributive adjective describing the noun strankinja.

Context and intonation can still rescue the original intended meaning, but the original word order makes the structure and focus clearer: [radoznala strankinja] [hrabra].

Could we say Ona misli kako je radoznala strankinja hrabra kad govori hrvatski pred razredom instead of da je…?

You can hear sentences like that in everyday speech, especially in some regions, but there are a few points to know:

In standard Croatian, the neutral conjunction for think that… is da:
- Ona misli da je… – She thinks that…
Kako can introduce a content clause in many dialects and in colloquial language:
- Mislio sam kako je to dobra ideja.

In formal or careful standard language, da is preferred after verbs like misliti, vjerovati, znati for that‑clauses. Kako has other main uses (how, in what way, as, etc.), and misliti kako can sound more colloquial or regional.

So:

Everyday / colloquial: Ona misli kako je radoznala strankinja hrabra… – widely understood.
Neutral / more standard: Ona misli da je radoznala strankinja hrabra… – recommended form.

Why don’t we say Ona misli da radoznala strankinja je hrabra…, putting je after strankinja?

This goes back to the clitic rule.

The short form je is a clitic and normally occupies second position in the clause, after the first stressed word or phrase. In the clause:

da je radoznala strankinja hrabra

the first element is da, so je comes right after da.

You cannot freely move je to a later position the way you might in English:

Croatian: da je radoznala strankinja hrabra – correct
✗ da radoznala strankinja je hrabra – ungrammatical in standard Croatian

If you want je to come later, you would need to use the full form jest (non‑clitic), which is possible but marked and not typical here:

Ona misli da radoznala strankinja jest hrabra kad…
(sounds emphatic, slightly literary/old‑fashioned)

With the short form je, the natural and correct order is to keep it in second position: da je …