Learn Hardcore Croatian: Za nju je svemir u mašti jednako važan kao i sadašnjost u gradu. - For her, space in her imagination is just as important as the present in the city.

After prepositions, Croatian normally uses the full form with the initial n-, so you get za nju, not za je.
Za je would sound wrong; clitic je doesn’t go directly after the preposition like that.

So za nju literally means for her (as in from her point of view, as far as she is concerned).

Why does the verb je come before svemir? Could we say Svemir u mašti je za nju…?

Je (is) is a clitic verb form and Croatian clitics very strongly prefer to be in second position in the clause.

The clause structure here is roughly:

Za nju – first chunk (prepositional phrase, fronted for emphasis: for her)
je – clitic verb in second position
svemir u mašti jednako važan kao i sadašnjost u gradu – the rest

So Za nju je svemir… follows the usual “clitic in second position” rule.

You can say:

Svemir u mašti je za nju jednako važan kao i sadašnjost u gradu.

This is also correct; it just changes what is emphasized:

Original: emphasizes for her (contrast with other people).
Reordered: emphasizes the universe in imagination (contrast with something else).

Both are grammatically fine; the choice is about nuance and focus.

What exactly does u mašti mean, and why is it mašti and not mašta?

Mašta means imagination.
The preposition u (in) with a static location / state uses the locative case.

Declension of mašta (singular):

Nominative: mašta (imagination)
Locative: mašti (in imagination)

So u mašti literally means in (the) imagination (understood as in her imagination from context).

You could make it explicit and say:

u njezinoj / njenoj mašti – in her imagination

Here njezinoj / njenoj is a possessive adjective in the feminine locative singular, agreeing with mašti.

What does jednako važan kao i mean as a structure?

The pattern is:

jednako + adjective + kao i + noun

It corresponds closely to English “just as + adjective + as + noun”.

Here:

jednako važan – equally / just as important
kao i sadašnjost u gradu – as the present in the city

So jednako važan kao i ≈ just as important as.

Related, very common patterns:

isto važan kao – just as important as
tako važan kao – so/as important as

Kao i is a bit emphatic; kao sadašnjost would also work, but kao i sadašnjost slightly stresses the comparison partner.

Why is važan masculine, when sadašnjost (the present) is feminine?

The adjective važan must agree with the subject, which is svemir:

svemir – masculine singular noun
therefore: važan – masculine singular adjective

Even though sadašnjost (the present) is feminine, it’s only part of the comparison phrase (as important as X), not the subject.

So:

svemir (m.sg.) je jednako važan (m.sg.) kao i sadašnjost (f.sg.) u gradu.

Why is sadašnjost in that form? Shouldn’t comparisons use another case?

In Croatian, after kao (as/like) in comparisons, it’s very common to use the nominative, especially when you are comparing two nouns:

On je visok kao otac. – He is as tall as (his) father.
Ona je pametna kao profesorica. – She is as smart as (a/the) professor.

Here:

sadašnjost is in the nominative singular (feminine), acting as the “standard of comparison”.

You can occasionally see other cases (e.g., when a preposition or verb inside the comparison demands it), but in a simple comparison like this, nominative is normal and correct.

Why is it u gradu and not u grad?

With u (in, into) Croatian distinguishes:

Static location (where something is):
- u + locative
- u gradu – in the city (being there)
Movement into a place:
- u + accusative
- u grad – into the city (going there)

In the sentence, sadašnjost u gradu is a state (the present in the city), not movement, so u gradu (locative) is correct.

Can I change the word order, for example: Za nju je u mašti svemir jednako važan…?

Croatian word order is quite flexible, but some options sound more natural than others.

Grammatically possible variants include:

Za nju je svemir u mašti jednako važan kao i sadašnjost u gradu.
Za nju je svemir jednako važan u mašti kao i sadašnjost u gradu. (slightly different nuance)
Svemir u mašti je za nju jednako važan kao i sadašnjost u gradu.

Za nju je u mašti svemir… is understandable but less natural; splitting svemir u mašti like that sounds awkward without a special stylistic reason.

General guideline:

Keep subject + its descriptive phrase together (svemir u mašti).
Keep the clitic je in second position.
Move larger chunks (za nju, u mašti, u gradu) mainly to adjust emphasis, not randomly.

Why is it za nju je… and not njoj je… (dative)? What’s the difference?

Both za nju and njoj can be translated as for her / to her in English, but they’re not the same in Croatian.

za nju (for her) – has a nuance of “as far as she is concerned / in her view / from her perspective” or sometimes “for her benefit / in relation to her”.
njoj je (to her, dative) – usually marks an experiencer (to her it seems / to her it is X), often with verbs like činiti se (seem), sviđati se (to please), biti (drago) (be glad), etc.

In this sentence, Za nju je svemir… highlights that this is her personal hierarchy of importance (for her, the universe in imagination is as important as…).
Using Njoj je svemir u mašti jednako važan… would be possible, and would be understood similarly, but za nju sounds more neutral and idiomatic here for stating someone’s values / priorities.

Could je be omitted, like Za nju svemir u mašti jednako važan…?

No. In standard Croatian, you need the verb biti (je) in this kind of sentence:

Za nju je svemir u mašti jednako važan…

Omitting je is not standard here and would sound like you accidentally left out the verb.
There are contexts where je can drop (e.g., headlines, some fixed expressions), but not in a normal, full sentence of this type.