Learn Hardcore Croatian: Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka. - His female partner thinks that a good relationship is more important than a perfect marriage.

Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.

His female partner thinks that a good relationship is more important than a perfect marriage.

Breakdown of Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.

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Questions & Answers about Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.

What does Njegova mean here, and why is it Njegova and not Njegov?

Njegova means his.

Croatian possessive adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify:

njegov – masculine (e.g. njegov prijatelj – his (male) friend)
njegova – feminine (e.g. njegova partnerica – his (female) partner)
njegovo – neuter (e.g. njegovo dijete – his child)

Since partnerica is feminine singular in the nominative case, the correct form is Njegova partnerica, not Njegov partnerica.

Why is it partnerica and not just partner?

Partner is grammatically masculine.

Croatian often uses the suffix -ica to form a feminine version of a noun:

učenik → učenica (male student → female student)
glumac → glumica (actor → actress)
partner → partnerica (male partner → female partner)

So partnerica means female partner.
If you wanted a male partner, you would say Njegov partner.

What exactly does misli mean, and from which verb does it come?

Misli means (she) thinks.

It is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb misliti (to think):

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

In Croatian, the subject pronoun (ona = she) is usually dropped because the verb ending (-i) already shows who is doing the action:

Ona misli – She thinks
Misli – She thinks (pronoun omitted, but understood from context)

So Njegova partnerica misli = His partner thinks.

What does da do in misli da je dobar odnos važniji…? Is it like English that, and can it be left out?

Yes, da here is a conjunction similar to English that in sentences like:

She thinks that a good relationship is more important…

It introduces a subordinate clause that is the object of misli:

Main clause: Njegova partnerica misli – His partner thinks
Subordinate clause: da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka – that a good relationship is more important than a perfect marriage

In standard Croatian, da cannot be omitted here. You cannot say:

✗ Njegova partnerica misli je dobar odnos važniji…

You must keep da:

✓ Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji…

Why is je right after da, in da je dobar odnos važniji, and not da dobar odnos je važniji?

Je is the short (clitic) present form of biti (to be) meaning is.

In Croatian, clitics (short unstressed words like je, sam, se, ga) normally go in second position in a clause – after the first stressed word or element.

In the clause:

da je dobar odnos važniji…

the first element is da, so the clitic je comes immediately after it. That gives:

da je dobar odnos važniji – that a good relationship is more important

Putting je later, like:

✗ da dobar odnos je važniji

sounds wrong or very unnatural in standard Croatian. The rule is: in that subordinate clause, je must be as close to the beginning as possible, usually right after da.

In dobar odnos, which word is the subject of the clause, and what case is it in?

In the clause (da) je dobar odnos važniji, the subject is dobar odnos:

dobar – adjective good, masculine, nominative singular
odnos – noun relationship, masculine, nominative singular

The predicate is važniji (more important).

So the structure of the subordinate clause is:

dobar odnos – subject
je – verb is
važniji – predicate adjective (more important)

Because odnos is the subject, it is in the nominative case. That is why it is odnos, not odnosa or another form.

How is važniji formed from važan, and what does it mean?

Važniji is the comparative form of the adjective važan (important).

važan – important
važniji – more important

For many adjectives ending in -an, you form the comparative by:

Dropping -an
Adding -niji or -iji (depending on the word)

Here:

važan → važniji

It agrees with odnos in gender, number, and case:

važan odnos – an important relationship
odnos je važniji – the relationship is more important

If the subject were feminine, you would see:

važnija veza – a more important relationship (with veza, feminine)

Why is od used for than in važniji od savršenog braka, and what about nego?

In Croatian, with comparative adjectives like važniji, you can express than using either:

od
- genitive
nego
- the same case as in the first part (often nominative)

In this sentence you have:

važniji od savršenog braka – more important than a perfect marriage

Here, od literally means from, but in comparatives it corresponds to English than, and it requires the genitive.

You could also say:

važniji nego savršeni brak

That is grammatically possible, but in everyday speech, od with the genitive (od savršenog braka) is very common and sounds natural here.

Why is it savršenog braka and not savršen brak?

Because of the preposition od.

Od always requires the genitive case. So both the adjective and noun must be in genitive masculine singular:

nominative: savršen brak – a perfect marriage (subject form)
genitive: savršenog braka – of a perfect marriage

In the comparison:

važniji od savršenog braka

od forces:

savršen → savršenog (adjective, genitive masculine singular)
brak → braka (noun, genitive masculine singular)

So savršen brak would be wrong after od.

What is the difference between odnos and veza for relationship?

Both can be translated as relationship, but they are used a bit differently:

odnos
- more general: relation/attitude/relationship
- dobar odnos – a good relationship (often a bit more abstract or formal)
- odnos prema nečemu – attitude toward something
- međuljudski odnosi – interpersonal relations
veza
- narrower and often more personal or romantic
- ljubavna veza – romantic relationship
- imaju vezu – they are in a relationship
- also: connection, link (e.g. internet veza – internet connection)

In this sentence:

dobar odnos suggests the quality of the relationship in a broad, almost conceptual sense.
You could also say dobra veza in some contexts, but dobar odnos is very natural when talking about having a healthy, well-functioning relationship.

What is the difference between brak and vjenčanje?

Both are related to marriage, but they are not the same:

brak – marriage as a state or institution
- imaju dobar brak – they have a good marriage
- protiv je braka – he/she is against marriage
vjenčanje – wedding, the ceremony/event
- njihovo vjenčanje – their wedding
- ići na vjenčanje – to go to a wedding

In the sentence, savršenog braka means a perfect marriage, not a perfect wedding. If you said savršenog vjenčanja, that would mean of a perfect wedding.

Can the word order in the subordinate clause be changed, for example da je važniji dobar odnos od savršenog braka?

Yes, Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and da je važniji dobar odnos od savršenog braka is grammatically correct.

Both:

da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka
da je važniji dobar odnos od savršenog braka

are possible.

The difference is subtle and mostly about emphasis:

da je dobar odnos važniji…
- neutral: stating that a good relationship is more important
da je važniji dobar odnos od savršenog braka
- slightly more contrastive: it is the good relationship that is more important (than the perfect marriage) – focusing a bit more on dobar odnos as the key element

However, the original order (dobar odnos važniji) is the most natural and neutral-sounding here.

Could you leave out je and say Njegova partnerica misli da dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka?

No, you need je here.

In Croatian, the verb biti (to be) is normally required in such sentences in the present tense, even when English could sometimes leave out is in headlines or notes.

So:

✓ Njegova partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.
✗ Njegova partnerica misli da dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.

Without je, the sentence sounds ungrammatical. The structure needs:

subject (dobar odnos)
verb (je)
predicate adjective (važniji)

Could you drop Njegova and just say Partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka?

Grammatically, yes, you can say:

Partnerica misli da je dobar odnos važniji od savršenog braka.

Then it simply means:

The partner (female) thinks that a good relationship is more important than a perfect marriage.

But you would only do this if the context already makes it clear whose partner she is, or if you are introducing her as a character (e.g. Njegova supruga je liječnica. Partnerica misli da… could be odd; you’d usually keep Njegova if you mean his).

Njegova adds the information his, and is important if that information matters in the context.