Learn Hardcore Croatian: Kad krov prokišnjava, kiša ulazi u stan i popraviti ga može koštati više nego što mislimo. - When the roof leaks, rain gets into the apartment and fixing it can cost more than we think.

Kad pada kiša, uzmem kišobran. – When it rains, I take an umbrella.
Kad dođeš, javi se. – When you come, let me know. (future meaning, but present tense)

Using a future form like kad će krov prokišnjavati is ungrammatical in standard Croatian, and kad bude prokišnjavao (future II) is reserved for more specific temporal relations, not for this kind of general statement.

What is the difference between kad and kada, and could we use ako here?

kad and kada mean the same thing: when.
- kada is just a slightly more formal/longer version.
- You can say: Kad krov prokišnjava… or Kada krov prokišnjava… – both are fine.
ako means if (conditional), not “when”.
- Ako krov prokišnjava… would emphasize the condition:
  “If the roof leaks, rain enters the apartment…”

In many real-life contexts, kad in Croatian overlaps with English when and sometimes even if (“whenever”), but ako is purely conditional.

In your sentence, kad sounds more like a general, typical situation – “when/whenever that happens”.

Why is it u stan and not u stanu? What case is used here?

The preposition u can take either accusative or locative, and the choice depends on the meaning:

u + accusative = movement into / direction towards
- ulazi u stan – (she/he/it) enters the apartment (movement)
u + locative = location / being inside
- živi u stanu – (she/he) lives in the apartment (no movement)

In kiša ulazi u stan, rain is moving into the apartment, so stan is in the accusative case (u stan).
If you described the static location, you’d say kiša je u stanu (the rain is in the apartment) – u stanu (locative).

Why is the infinitive popraviti used (instead of a noun like “repair”), and why is it perfective, not popravljati?

Infinitive as a “-ing” form

Croatian often uses the infinitive where English uses a gerund (-ing):

Popraviti ga može koštati…
≈ “Repairing it can cost…”

So popraviti here functions like “to repair / repairing”.

Perfective vs. imperfective

popraviti – perfective: a single, completed act of repair
popravljati – imperfective: the process of repairing, repeated/ongoing

In this sentence we’re talking about the whole job of repairing the roof as one completed action, whose total cost can be high. That’s why the perfective infinitive popraviti is used.

If you said popravljati ga može koštati…, it would sound more like “the ongoing process of repairing it can cost…”, which is possible but less natural in this context.

What does ga refer to, and why is it ga and not some other pronoun?

Ga is the unstressed accusative singular masculine object pronoun, meaning him / it.

It refers back to krov (roof):

krov is masculine (ten krov) → accusative pronoun ga
“repair it” = popraviti ga

Other forms for comparison:

je – feminine singular or neuter plural (her/it/them)
- Ex: vidim je – I see her / it (fem.)
ih – plural (them)
- Ex: popraviti ih – to repair them

Since krov is masculine singular, ga is the only correct clitic pronoun here.

Why is ga placed after popraviti in popraviti ga može koštati? Could it come earlier in the sentence?

In Croatian, short object pronouns like ga, je, ih are clitics. They have special placement rules:

They can’t normally stand at the very beginning of a clause.
- ✗ Ga popraviti može koštati… – sounds wrong.
In a clause, clitics tend to appear in “second position” – after the first stressed word or phrase of that clause.

In Popraviti ga može koštati… (ignoring the preceding part of the sentence):

first word: popraviti
clitic in second position: ga
then the finite verb: može, then koštati

So popraviti ga može koštati… actually respects the “second position” rule: ga follows the first word in the clause.

You could also say:

Njegov popravak može koštati više nego što mislimo. – “Its repair can cost more than we think.”

But if you keep this exact structure with a clitic, popraviti ga at the start is the natural option.

Why is the order popraviti ga može koštati and not something closer to English, like Može koštati popraviti ga?

Word order in Croatian is more flexible than in English, and it’s often used to show focus or make the sentence sound more natural.

Popraviti ga može koštati više nego što mislimo.
- Fronts popraviti ga (repairing it) as the topic:
  “As for repairing it, that can cost more than we think.”
Može koštati popraviti ga više nego što mislimo.
- Grammatically possible, but sounds quite unnatural and awkward.

More natural alternatives with a similar meaning would be:

Njegov popravak može koštati više nego što mislimo.
Popravak krova može koštati više nego što mislimo.

Your original order is idiomatic: the infinitive phrase popraviti ga acts like the subject (“repairing it”), and the rest is the predicate (“can cost more than we think”). Fronting that phrase emphasises the act of repairing as the thing that’s (surprisingly) expensive.

What exactly is going on in može koštati? Why are there two verbs?

Može is the present tense of moći (can, to be able to), and koštati is an infinitive (to cost). This is a standard modal verb + infinitive construction:

može koštati – can cost
može raditi – can work
moram ići – I must go
želim spavati – I want to sleep

In standard Croatian, you don’t add da here:

✗ može da košta – characteristic of Serbian; not standard Croatian
✓ može koštati – standard Croatian

So popraviti ga može koštati literally: “to repair it can cost”.

Why do we say više nego što mislimo and not just više nego mislimo or something like that?

The structure here is:

više nego što… = more than what…

Što functions like a relative/connecting pronoun, roughly “what/that”.

više nego što mislimo – more than (what) we think

You can sometimes hear više nego mislimo in speech, but:

više nego što mislimo sounds more natural and complete
nego što is the typical structure for comparisons followed by a whole clause

Examples:

Teže je nego što misliš. – It’s harder than you think.
Bolje je nego što sam očekivao. – It’s better than I expected.

So više nego što mislimo is the standard, idiomatic way to say “more than we think”.

What’s the difference between nego and od in comparisons, and why is nego used here?

Croatian uses two common ways to express “than”:

od + genitive (often with nouns/pronouns)
- skuplje od njega – more expensive than him/it
- više od mene – more than me
nego (often before pronouns in nominative or before clauses)
- skuplje nego on – more expensive than he is
- više nego ja – more than I (do)
- više nego što mislimo – more than we think

In your sentence, the comparison is followed by a whole clause (što mislimo), so nego is the natural choice:

više nego što mislimo – more than we think

Using od here (✗ više od što mislimo) would be incorrect.

Why is it mislimo (present tense “we think”) and not something like smo mislili (“we thought”)?

The phrase više nego što mislimo expresses a general, current belief or assumption:

“more than we (generally) think / imagine / expect”

If you used the past:

više nego što smo mislili – more than we thought (before)

…you would be comparing the cost to some previous expectation or estimate that you had at an earlier time.

So:

više nego što mislimo – compared to what we now typically believe
više nego što smo mislili – compared to what we used to think at some specific earlier point

In your sentence, the idea is a general statement about underestimating the cost, so the present tense is the natural choice.

Could we say Kad krov procuri instead of Kad krov prokišnjava? Is there a difference in meaning?

Yes, you can say Kad krov procuri, but the nuance changes:

prokišnjavati (here: prokišnjava) – imperfective, focuses on the ongoing situation / state of leaking
- Kad krov prokišnjava – When(ever) the roof is leaking / leaks (as a condition or state).
procuriti (here: procuri) – perfective, focuses on the moment something starts leaking / a single event
- Kad krov procuri – When the roof (first) starts leaking / when it springs a leak.

In your sentence, Kad krov prokišnjava nicely describes the general situation: whenever the roof is in a leaking state, rain gets in and repairs can be costly.
Kad krov procuri would sound more like “at the moment it starts to leak…”, a bit more event-focused.