Learn Hardcore Croatian: Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju. - The curious foreign woman constantly asks questions in the course.

Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju.

The curious foreign woman constantly asks questions in the course.

Breakdown of Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju.

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Questions & Answers about Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju.

Why does radoznala end in -a here?

Radoznala is an adjective meaning curious. It takes the ending -a because it must agree with strankinja in:

gender: feminine
number: singular
case: nominative (subject of the sentence)

Strankinja is a feminine singular noun in the nominative, so the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative: radoznala strankinja.

With a masculine subject, the adjective would change, for example:

radoznali stranac – the curious (male) foreigner
radoznalo dijete – the curious child (neuter)

What exactly does strankinja mean?

Strankinja is a feminine noun derived from stranac (foreigner, stranger).

Depending on context, strankinja can mean:

a female foreigner (from another country)
a female tourist, visitor, or outsider
in some contexts, a female client/customer (e.g. in a law firm, a bank)

In your sentence, in a course/class context, it most naturally means a female foreign student / female foreigner in the class.

Masculine form: stranac
Plural forms: strankinje (females), stranci (males/mixed)

Why is the adjective before the noun: radoznala strankinja, and can it go after?

The default position for descriptive adjectives in Croatian is before the noun:

radoznala strankinja – a curious foreign woman

You can sometimes put an adjective after the noun (e.g. in literature, poetry, or for emphasis), but that is marked or stylistic. For everyday neutral speech, radoznala strankinja is the natural word order.

Something like strankinja radoznala would sound poetic, contrastive, or unusual, not like a normal neutral sentence.

Why is there no word for “the” in radoznala strankinja?

Croatian has no articles (the, a/an). Nouns can be interpreted as definite or indefinite purely from context.

So radoznala strankinja can mean:

the curious foreign woman (if both speaker and listener know which one)
a curious foreign woman (if she’s being mentioned for the first time)

Context around the sentence tells you whether to translate it with the or a in English. The Croatian phrase itself is the same.

Why is there no ona (“she”) at the start of the sentence?

Croatian is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni…) are usually omitted when the subject is clear from:

the verb ending, and/or
an explicit noun subject in the sentence

Here, radoznala strankinja is the subject, so adding ona would be redundant.

Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju. – normal
Ona, radoznala strankinja, stalno postavlja pitanja… – possible, but now ona adds extra emphasis (“She, the curious foreigner, …”)

What does stalno mean exactly, and can it go somewhere else in the sentence?

Stalno is an adverb meaning constantly, all the time, repeatedly.

Typical positions in this sentence would be:

Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju.
Radoznala strankinja postavlja stalno pitanja na tečaju. (less common, slight focus on pitanja)
Stalno radoznala strankinja postavlja pitanja na tečaju. (more emphasis on how constant it is)

The most neutral and natural is the original: stalno right before the verb. Moving it usually adds some emphasis or sounds more marked.

Why is the verb postavlja, and not pita?

Both verbs relate to “asking”, but they are used differently:

pitati (nekoga) – to ask (someone) (a question)
- Pita učiteljicu. – She asks the teacher.
- Object is usually the person being asked.
postavljati pitanja – to pose / ask questions (set them up)
- Postavlja pitanja. – She asks questions.
- Object is the question(s) themselves.

Crucially, you do not say *pitati pitanja (“ask questions”) in good Croatian – that is redundant and incorrect. The natural collocation is:

postavljati pitanja – to ask questions

What’s the difference between postavlja and postavi / postavljala je?

This is about aspect and tense:

postavljati – imperfective (ongoing, repeated)
- postavlja – she asks (is asking) [habitually, repeatedly]
postaviti – perfective (one complete act)
- postavi – she will ask / she asks (one time, in the future or certain contexts)

In your sentence:

Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja…
→ she constantly / repeatedly asks questions (habit).

If you said:

Radoznala je strankinja postavila pitanja na tečaju.
→ She (once) asked / has asked questions in the course (a completed event, not necessarily habitual).

Why does pitanje become pitanja here?

The base noun is pitanje (question), neuter gender.

In the sentence, pitanja is:

accusative plural – because it is the direct object of the verb (what does she ask? → questions)
neuter nouns often have the same form for nominative and accusative plural (pitanja is both nominative plural and accusative plural)

Mini-paradigm for pitanje (singular → plural):

nominative: pitanje → pitanja
accusative: pitanje → pitanja

So here postavlja (što?) pitanja – asks questions (accusative plural).

What case is na tečaju, and why that form, not na tečaj?

Na tečaju uses the locative singular of tečaj:

base form (nominative): tečaj – course
locative singular: tečaju

With the preposition na:

na
- locative → location/state: at/on/in
  - na tečaju – at the course, in the course / in class
na
- accusative → movement onto/into: to/onto
  - na tečaj – to the course (direction: going to attend)

So:

Postavlja pitanja na tečaju. – She asks questions during the course / in class.
Ide na tečaj. – She is going to the course.

Is the overall word order fixed, or can it be changed?

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but not completely free. Your sentence is the most neutral:

Radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja na tečaju.

You can rearrange for emphasis, but you must keep grammatical relationships clear. For example:

Na tečaju radoznala strankinja stalno postavlja pitanja.
– puts some emphasis on during the course / in class.
Pitanja stalno postavlja radoznala strankinja na tečaju.
– quite marked; strong focus on pitanja (“It’s questions that she keeps asking…”).

As a learner, it’s safest to keep [subject] [adverb] [verb] [object] [place], like in the original sentence.