Learn Hardcore Croatian: Učenica pita može li bilo tko bilo gdje učiti hrvatski ako ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine. - A female pupil asks whether anyone can study Croatian anywhere if they have a good book and a bit of silence.

So the sentence is specifically about a female school-age learner, not a university student. If you wanted a female university student, you’d say studentica.

Why is it Učenica pita and not Učenica se pita? Don’t both mean “the student asks”?

They are different:

Učenica pita ... – The student asks ... (she is asking someone else this question, e.g. a teacher, the group).
Učenica se pita ... – The student wonders ... (she is asking herself, she is thinking about it internally).

In the given sentence, pita without se implies she is posing this question out loud, probably to another person.

Why is there no comma after pita? In English I would write “The student asks, whether anyone...”.

Croatian punctuation is different here.

When a verb of speaking/thinking like reći, pitati, misliti is followed directly by a clause (for example with da or li), there is normally no comma:

Rekao je da dolazi. – “He said that he is coming.”
Pitam se hoće li doći. – “I wonder whether he will come.”
Učenica pita može li... – “The student asks whether (someone) can...”

So the lack of a comma after pita is the standard rule, not a mistake.

Why doesn’t the sentence say da li može instead of može li? Isn’t da li the normal way to say “whether/if”?

Both forms exist, but there are differences in style.

može li – uses only li, which is the “pure” standard form recommended in more formal language and in grammar books.
da li može – very common in everyday speech; some style guides consider da redundant here and prefer leaving it out in formal writing.

So:

Učenica pita može li bilo tko ... – neutral/standard
Učenica pita da li bilo tko može ... – common in conversation, but a bit less preferred in careful written Croatian.

Your sentence chooses the more standard može li structure.

Why is the word order može li bilo tko and not li može bilo tko or bilo tko li može?

The key is the clitic li.

In yes/no questions and indirect questions, li usually stands in second position in the clause, often right after the verb:

Možeš li doći? – Can you come?
Ne znam može li doći. – I don’t know whether he can come.

In your sentence, the first stressed element in that clause is the verb može, so li attaches to it:

može li bilo tko...

Forms like li može are wrong in normal prose because li doesn’t start the clause; it must come after something.

Bilo tko li može... is theoretically possible only in very marked, poetic, or archaic style; you would not use it in normal speech or writing.

What exactly does bilo tko mean, and how is it different from netko, svatko, or tko god?

bilo tko = anyone (at all), no matter who.

Compare:

netko – someone (an unspecified person)
svatko – everyone / each person
bilo tko – anyone whatsoever, “it can be whoever”
tko god – also whoever / no matter who, often a bit more emphatic or with a slight “whoever it may be” nuance

Examples:

Netko kuca na vrata. – Someone is knocking on the door. (you don’t say who)
Svatko može pogriješiti. – Everyone can make a mistake.
Bilo tko može pogriješiti. – Anyone can make a mistake. (no restrictions on who)
Tko god dođe, dobro je došao. – Whoever comes is welcome.

In your sentence, bilo tko fits because the idea is “any person, whoever they are, can learn Croatian”.

What about bilo gdje? How is it different from negdje, igdje, and svugdje?

These are all place adverbs with different meanings:

bilo gdje – anywhere (at all) in positive sentences
negdje – somewhere (unspecified place)
igdje – anywhere, but mainly used in questions and negatives
svugdje / svuda – everywhere

Examples:

Mogu učiti bilo gdje. – I can study anywhere.
Živi negdje u Zagrebu. – He lives somewhere in Zagreb.
Ne mogu to naći igdje. – I can’t find that anywhere.
Tražio sam svugdje. – I searched everywhere.

So bilo tko bilo gdje nicely expresses “anyone, anywhere” in affirmative, general statements.

Why is it učiti hrvatski and not učiti hrvatski jezik, and why is there no article like “a” or “the”?

Croatian doesn’t have articles (a, an, the), so there’s nothing to translate there.

With languages, Croatian normally uses the adjective form alone:

učiti hrvatski – learn Croatian
govoriti engleski – speak English
čitam talijanski – I read Italian (as a language)

You can say učiti hrvatski jezik (“to learn the Croatian language”) for emphasis or formality, but in everyday speech hrvatski by itself is completely natural and more common.

So učiti hrvatski literally means “to learn Croatian (language)”, with jezik simply omitted because it’s obvious.

What case is hrvatski in, and why does it look the same as the base form?

Grammatically, hrvatski here is in the accusative singular masculine.

The verb učiti takes a direct object in the accusative: učiti što? – hrvatski (to learn what? – Croatian).
For inanimate masculine adjectives, nominative singular and accusative singular have the same form: hrvatski (NOM) → hrvatski (ACC).

So it looks like the base form, but syntactically it is the accusative object of učiti.

Why is it dobru knjigu instead of dobra knjiga? What’s happening with the endings?

Dobra knjiga is nominative singular feminine:

dobra – feminine nominative adjective
knjiga – feminine nominative noun

But in the sentence, dobru knjigu is the object of the verb ima (“to have”), so it must be in the accusative:

Nominative: dobra knjiga – “a good book” (as subject)
Accusative: dobru knjigu – “(a) good book” (as object)

Feminine singular accusative normally ends in -u for both the adjective and the noun:

dobra → dobru
knjiga → knjigu

So ima dobru knjigu = “(he/she/they) has a good book.”

Why do we say malo tišine and not malo tišina or mala tišina?

Two points are important:

malo (“a little, a bit of”) usually takes a genitive noun after it.
tišina (silence) in genitive singular is tišine.
So: malo tišine = “a little (bit) of silence”.
mala tišina would be “a small silence” – a countable, concrete “little silence”, which sounds odd in this context. We’re not counting silences; we’re talking about a certain amount of silence.

Therefore, the natural phrase is:

malo tišine – a bit of silence (partitive genitive after a quantity word)

malo tišina is grammatically wrong; the noun must change to the genitive form.

Who is the subject of ima in ako ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine? There’s no pronoun like “on” or “ona”.

The subject is understood from context and omitted, which is very common in Croatian.

Earlier in the clause we have bilo tko (“anyone”). The second part ako ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine logically refers back to that same person:

bilo tko ... ako (taj netko) ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine

So it means: “anyone, if they have a good book and a bit of silence.”

Croatian often drops subject pronouns and even repeats of indefinite pronouns when they are clear from context. English must keep “they” or “he/she”, but Croatian does not.

Why is ako used here and not kad? Could I say kad ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine?

Both ako and kad can introduce subordinate clauses, but their main meanings differ:

ako – if, expressing a condition (it may or may not happen)
kad – usually when/whenever, expressing time

In your general, hypothetical sentence, we’re talking about a condition under which anyone can learn Croatian:

...učiti hrvatski ako ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine.
– “…learn Croatian if they have a good book and a bit of silence.”

Using kad here would shift the nuance toward time or a repeated situation:

...kad ima dobru knjigu i malo tišine.
– more like “when(ever) they have a good book and a bit of silence.”

People do sometimes use kad colloquially where strict grammar would prefer ako, but ako is the clearest and most neutral choice for a condition in this sentence.