Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ipak vjeruje da će uz uporan rad njegovo malo otkriće biti da govori tečno kao izvorni govornik. - He still believes that with persistent work his small discovery will be that he speaks fluently like a native speaker.

ipak
- Emphasizes contrast with what was said or implied before.
- Similar to nevertheless / nonetheless / still in English.
- Often placed at the start of the clause: Ipak vjeruje…
ali (“but”)
- A coordinating conjunction: joins two clauses.
- You’d normally see: Htio je odustati, *ali ipak vjeruje…*
- You generally wouldn’t start this sentence with ali unless continuing a previous clause.
još uvijek (“still / yet”)
- More literal “still” in the sense of continuing over time:
  - Još uvijek vjeruje… = He still believes (he hasn’t stopped believing).
- ipak focuses on contrast; još uvijek focuses on ongoing duration.

So ipak tells you: Given some obstacle or doubt, in spite of that, he believes…

Why is it vjeruje da će… and not just vjeruje će… or vjeruje govoriti…?

In Croatian, vjerovati (to believe) normally introduces a “da”-clause, not an infinitive:

Correct: Vjeruje *da će…*
Incorrect / ungrammatical: Vjeruje *će…*
Unnatural: Vjeruje govoriti tečno… (you don’t use an infinitive like in English “believes to speak fluently”)

So the structure is:

vjeruje (he believes)
da (that)
će (future auxiliary)
… rest of the clause

Literally: “He believes that will… [happen]”.

In Croatian, verbs like misliti, vjerovati, znati, reći commonly take a finite clause introduced by “da”, rather than an infinitive.

Why is će placed right after da? Could it go somewhere else?

Će is a clitic (short, unstressed word) and obeys Croatian second-position clitic rules:

In a clause, clitics tend to come in the second position, after the first stressed word or phrase.

Here the “da”-clause is:

da će uz uporan rad njegovo malo otkriće biti…

Inside that clause:

da is a conjunction and counts as the “first element”.
So će (future auxiliary) must come right after da.

You cannot place će freely:

✔️ da će uz uporan rad…
❌ da uz uporan rad će…
❌ da njegovo će malo otkriće…

So the word order da će… is required by clitic placement rules.

What does the phrase uz uporan rad mean exactly, and why is uz used instead of s/sa?

Uz uporan rad literally is:

uz – a preposition that here means “with / accompanied by / given”
uporan – “persistent, persevering” (adjective)
rad – “work” (noun)

Together: “with persistent work / with hard, persistent effort.”

Why uz?

uz
- accusative often means:
- “together with / in combination with / given the presence of …”
- Example: Uz malo sreće, uspjet ćemo. = “With a bit of luck, we’ll succeed.”
s/sa
- instrumental can also mean “with”, but:
- s/sa is more neutral, literal accompaniment: s prijateljem = “with a friend”.
- uz often adds the nuance of a supporting factor or condition.

So uz uporan rad here feels like:

“provided there is persistent work / with the help of persistent work.”

What case is rad in, and why? What about izvorni govornik?

rad is in the accusative singular: uz uporan rad.
- The preposition uz requires the accusative.
- Base form: rad (NOM) → uz rad (ACC, same form for masculine inanimate singular).
izvorni govornik is in the nominative singular:
- Base form: izvorni govornik (NOM).
- The preposition kao (“like / as”) usually takes the nominative in this comparative sense:
  - govori kao učitelj – “he speaks like a teacher”
  - izgleda kao model – “she looks like a model”

So:

uz uporan rad → accusative after uz
kao izvorni govornik → nominative after kao in comparison.

How does njegovo malo otkriće work grammatically? Why these endings?

Njegovo malo otkriće (“his little discovery”) is:

otkriće – noun, neuter, nominative singular
malo – adjective “small/little”, neuter, nominative singular
njegovo – possessive adjective “his”, neuter, nominative singular

In Croatian, adjectives and possessives agree with the noun in:

Gender – here: neuter
Number – here: singular
Case – here: nominative (subject / complement of “biti”)

So you must have:

njegovo (not njegova / njegovi)
malo (not mali / mala)
otkriće

The order possessive + adjective + noun is typical:

njegov veliki problem – his big problem
njezina stara kuća – her old house
njegovo malo otkriće – his little discovery

Why is it njegovo and not svoje? When would svoje malo otkriće be used?

Both njegovo and svoje can mean “his own”, but:

njegovo – standard third-person possessive: “his”.
svoje – reflexive possessive: “his own / her own / their own” referring back to the subject of the clause.

You use svoje when the possessor is the subject of the clause:

On voli *svoju obitelj. – He loves *his (own) family.
Vjeruje da će *svoje malo otkriće podijeliti s drugima. – He believes that he will share *his own little discovery with others.

In the given sentence:

If the subject of vjeruje is the same “he” whose discovery it is, then svoje malo otkriće would be more natural in many contexts:
- …da će uz uporan rad *svoje malo otkriće …*

Njegovo is still grammatically correct, but it can sound slightly less “automatic” when referring back to the subject; svoje is normally preferred for that reflexive meaning.

The structure biti da govori feels odd. What is going on with biti + da govori, and is this fully natural?

Grammatically, the part:

njegovo malo otkriće biti da govori tečno kao izvorni govornik

is:

biti – “to be” (future: će … biti)
Predicate: a “da”-clause – da govori tečno kao izvorni govornik.

So literally:

“his little discovery will be that he speaks fluently like a native speaker.”

This “biti + da”-clause structure is possible but sounds a bit bookish / awkward here, because “otkriće” is usually something you discover (a fact, thing), rather than the discovery itself being phrased as “that he speaks…”.

More idiomatic Croatian might be something like:

…vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, doći do malog otkrića: govorit će tečno kao izvorni govornik.
…vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, moći govoriti tečno kao izvorni govornik.
…vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, *njegovo malo otkriće biti to da može govoriti tečno… (adding to can help: biti to da…)

So:

It is grammatically interpretable, but many native speakers would rephrase it to sound more natural and clearer.

Why is it govori (present tense) and not govorit će (future) after da?

In Croatian, after da, you almost always use a finite present-tense form even if the meaning is future or general:

Vjerujem da *ću govoriti tečno.* – future auxiliary inside the “da”-clause.
Vjerujem da *govorim dobro.* – present, general statement.

Here we have:

da govori tečno kao izvorni govornik – “that he speaks fluently like a native speaker.”

Interpreting it:

It states a kind of general fact/ability: “the fact that he speaks fluently…”
The future is already introduced by će biti (“will be”), so the da govori part can be understood as the content of that future “discovery”, phrased as a present fact.

If you wanted to explicitly future-mark the speaking itself, you could also have:

…njegovo malo otkriće biti da *će govoriti tečno…*

That’s grammatical and perhaps clearer, but somewhat heavier stylistically. Using present govori here is acceptable because it’s describing the factual content of the “discovery” (what will be true about him then), not the time of his speaking step by step.

Is there a difference between govoriti and pričati here? Why use govori tečno, not priča tečno?

Yes, there’s a nuance:

govoriti – “to speak” (a language, to talk in general).
- govoriti engleski – speak English
- govoriti glasno – speak loudly
pričati – “to talk / tell / narrate (stories, information)”.
- pričati priču – tell a story
- pričati o svojim planovima – talk about one’s plans

Fluency in a language is normally expressed with govoriti:

govoriti tečno hrvatski / engleski – speak Croatian / English fluently

So govori tečno kao izvorni govornik (“speaks fluently like a native speaker”) is the natural choice.
Pričati tečno is possible but sounds more like fluent narration or storytelling, not “being fluent in the language” overall.

What exactly is tečno, and where does it come from?

Tečno here is an adverb meaning “fluently”.

It comes from the adjective:

tečan – “fluent” (about speech, language, movement of liquid, etc.)

Adverb formation:

tečan → tečno (“fluently”)
- tečan govor – fluent speech
- govoriti tečno – to speak fluently

Position:

In Croatian, adverbs usually come right after the verb they modify:
- govori tečno – speaks fluently
- piše sporo – writes slowly
- čita brzo – reads fast

So govori tečno is the standard, natural order.

Why is it kao izvorni govornik in the singular, while English often says “like a native speaker” or “like native speakers”?

Croatian often uses the singular in comparisons with kao:

kao izvorni govornik – like a native speaker
kao učitelj – like a teacher
kao profesionalac – like a professional

English can say:

“like a native speaker” (singular)
“like native speakers” (plural, more general)

Croatian usually sticks with singular nominative after kao for “like a typical X”:

govori kao izvorni govornik – he speaks the way a native speaker does.
It implicitly means “like any / a typical native speaker”.

You could use plural:

kao izvorni govornici – “like native speakers”
…but in this kind of fluency sentence, the singular is more idiomatic.

Is the whole sentence natural Croatian? How might a native speaker phrase the same idea more idiomatically?

The sentence is grammatically understandable, but the part with “njegovo malo otkriće biti da govori…” is somewhat clumsy and not the most idiomatic way to express this idea.

More natural versions could be, for example:

Focusing on his belief about his future ability:
- Ipak vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, govoriti tečno kao izvorni govornik.
  → “He nevertheless believes that, with persistent work, he’ll speak fluently like a native speaker.”
Keeping “little discovery” but making the structure smoother:
- Ipak vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, doći do malog otkrića: govorit će tečno kao izvorni govornik.
- Ipak vjeruje da će, uz uporan rad, njegovo malo otkriće biti to da može govoriti tečno kao izvorni govornik.

So your sentence is decipherable and mostly correct, but a native speaker would typically simplify the structure, especially around “njegovo malo otkriće biti da…”, to make it sound more natural.