Learn Hardcore Croatian: Na radionici psiholog kaže da je mašta važna i za djecu i za odrasle. - At the workshop the psychologist says that imagination is important both for children and for adults.

na
- locative (radionici) is used for:
  - events or activities: na koncertu (at a concert), na sastanku (at a meeting), na predavanju (at a lecture), na radionici (at a workshop).
u
- locative usually means in(side) a physical space:
  - u sobi (in the room), u školi (in the school building).

So na radionici focuses on participating in the event, not just being in the room where it happens.

What case is radionici, and why does it have the ending -i?

Radionici is in the locative singular case.

Base noun: radionica (workshop), feminine.
Locative singular of most feminine -a nouns ends in -i:
- u školi (from škola)
- na ulici (from ulica)
- o knjizi (from knjiga)

Because the preposition na here expresses location (where? at the workshop), it requires the locative, so radionica → radionici.

Why is there no article before psiholog? How do we know if it is a psychologist or the psychologist?

Croatian has no articles (no words like a or the), so psiholog by itself can mean:

a psychologist
the psychologist

Context decides which is more natural in English. Here, because it sounds like a specific person running the workshop, English would usually say the psychologist.

Grammatically:

psiholog is masculine, nominative singular.
It is the subject of kaže (says).

So you always just say psiholog, and choose a/the psychologist when you translate into English.

What does da do in psiholog kaže da je mašta važna? Is it like English that, and can it be left out?

Here da is a subordinating conjunction meaning that. It introduces a reported/embedded statement:

psiholog kaže – the psychologist says
da je mašta važna – that imagination is important

So the structure is: [main clause] + da + [subordinate clause].

Unlike English, you cannot normally drop da in this kind of sentence:

✅ Psiholog kaže da je mašta važna.
❌ Psiholog kaže je mašta važna.

Croatian really needs da here; it is not optional the way English that often is.

Why is the order da je mašta važna, and not da mašta je važna or da mašta važna je?

The key point is the small verb je (is). In Croatian, je is a clitic – a short unstressed word that must go in second position in its clause.

In the clause introduced by da:

The clause starts with da.
The clitic je must come right after the first element (da).

So you get:

✅ da je mašta važna (that imagination is important)

You normally cannot say:

❌ da mašta je važna (wrong clitic position)
❌ da mašta važna je (also wrong here)

This “clitic in second position” rule is very strong in Croatian and explains many word-order patterns with je, se, ga, mu, etc.

Why is it važna, and not važan or važno?

Važna is the feminine form of the adjective važan (important) and it must agree in gender, number and case with the noun mašta:

mašta – feminine, singular, nominative (subject)
važna – feminine, singular, nominative (predicate adjective)

Other forms would be used with other genders:

važan – masculine (e.g. važan čovjek – an important man)
važno – neuter (e.g. važno pitanje – an important question)

So because mašta is feminine, we must say mašta je važna.

What exactly is mašta grammatically?

Mašta means imagination and is:

a noun
feminine
here in the nominative singular (it is the subject)

In the clause da je mašta važna:

mašta = subject (imagination)
je = is
važna = important (adjective agreeing with mašta)

Croatian does not add any article (a/the) to mašta; you just say mašta, and translate as imagination, the imagination, or an imagination depending on English context.

Why is it za djecu and not something like za djeca or za dijete?

The base forms are:

dijete – child (singular)
djeca – children (nominative plural)
djecu – children (accusative plural)

The preposition za takes the accusative case. Because we are talking about children in general (plural), and za requires accusative:

nominative: djeca
accusative: djecu

So we must say:

✅ za djecu – for children
❌ za djeca – wrong case
za dijete would be for a child (singular), which is a different meaning.

What is odrasle here? Is something like osobe omitted?

Odrasle comes from the adjective odrasli (grown-up, adult).

In this sentence, it is used as a noun, meaning adults. Croatian often uses adjectives on their own like this:

mladi – (the) young (people)
bogati – (the) rich
odrasli / odrasle – adults

Grammatically:

Base plural nominative for “adults” is odrasli.
After za, we need accusative plural → odrasle.

You could explicitly say za odrasle osobe (for adult persons), but it is very common and natural just to say za odrasle.

Which case does za take, and is that the reason for both djecu and odrasle?

Yes. The preposition za always takes the accusative case:

za djecu – for children (accusative plural)
za odrasle – for adults (accusative plural)
za mene – for me
za tebe – for you
za školu – for the school

So both djecu and odrasle are in the accusative because za requires it.

Why is it i za djecu i za odrasle? Could we just say za djecu i odrasle, and what is the difference?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different:

i za djecu i za odrasle

This is the i … i … structure, which corresponds to both … and … in English.
It emphasises that the statement applies equally to both groups.
Literally: and for children and for adults, but the natural translation is for both children and adults.

za djecu i odrasle

Here i just means and.
It still means for children and adults, but the emphasis is a bit lighter and the structure is less symmetrical.

Repeating za is not obligatory, but it is very natural and clear, especially in the i … i … pattern.

Why is kaže used here, and what is the difference between kaže, govori, and je rekao?

Kaže is the 3rd person singular present of kazati (to say, to tell).

In this sentence, psiholog kaže can mean:

what the psychologist is saying during this workshop now
or, more generally, what the psychologist (always/typically) says at workshops

Compared with other options:

govori (from govoriti) – to speak, to talk
- psiholog govori da… could sound more like “the psychologist is talking / is speaking (at length) that…”
je rekao – he said (perfect tense, past)
- Psiholog je rekao da je mašta važna… = The psychologist said that imagination was/is important…

Here kaže is a natural choice for says / states / tells us in a fairly neutral, reporting sense.