Learn Hardcore Croatian: Redatelj i njegova glumica zajedno stoje na pozornici i pozdravljaju publiku. - The director and his actress stand together on the stage and greet the audience.

In Croatia, redatelj is the standard word for an artistic director (of a film, play, etc.).
You might also see režiser in some other ex-Yugoslav countries; in Croatian it’s less common but understandable.
Direktor in Croatian usually means a manager, head of a company, principal etc., not a film/theatre director.

So in this sentence, Redatelj i njegova glumica… means “The director and his actress…” (the artistic director, not a company boss).

Why is there no word for “the” in this Croatian sentence?

Croatian has no articles like “a/an” or “the”.

Redatelj on its own can mean “a director” or “the director”, depending on context.
Pozornici can mean “(on) a stage” or “(on) the stage”.
Publiku can mean “(the) audience”.

Definiteness is understood from the situation, from context, or sometimes from word order. If you really want to stress that it’s a specific person, you can use a demonstrative:

taj redatelj – that (particular) director
ona glumica – that (particular) actress

What does njegova glumica literally mean, and why is it njegova and not njegov?

Njegova glumica literally means “his actress.”

njegov = his (basic dictionary form)
In Croatian, possessive pronouns agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe, just like adjectives.

Glumica (actress) is:

feminine
singular
nominative (subject form)

So njegov has to take the feminine singular nominative form:

njegov – masculine (e.g. njegov redatelj – his director)
njegova – feminine (e.g. njegova glumica – his actress)
njegovo – neuter (e.g. njegovo dijete – his child)

That’s why it is njegova glumica, not njegov glumica.

Why are the verbs stoje and pozdravljaju in the plural, when redatelj is singular?

Because the subject is actually plural:

Redatelj i njegova glumica = “The director and his actress” = they

Whenever the subject is made of two or more people/things joined by “and” (i), the verb must be 3rd person plural.

Redatelj stoji na pozornici. – The director stands on the stage. (singular)
Glumica stoji na pozornici. – The actress stands on the stage. (singular)
Redatelj i glumica stoje na pozornici. – The director and the actress stand on the stage. (plural)

So we get:

stoje – they stand
pozdravljaju – they greet

What are the infinitives of stoje and pozdravljaju, and how do they conjugate?

The forms in the sentence are:

stoje – 3rd person plural present
pozdravljaju – 3rd person plural present

Their infinitives:

stajati – to stand
Present tense (singular/plural):
- (ja) stojim
- (ti) stojiš
- (on/ona/ono) stoji
- (mi) stojimo
- (vi) stojite
- (oni/one/ona) stoje
Note the stem change (staj- → stoj-) in the present.
pozdravljati – to greet (habitually/ongoing)
Present tense:
- (ja) pozdravljam
- (ti) pozdravljaš
- (on/ona/ono) pozdravlja
- (mi) pozdravljamo
- (vi) pozdravljate
- (oni/one/ona) pozdravljaju

There is also a perfective verb pozdraviti (“to greet once / finish greeting”), but in this sentence the imperfective pozdravljati is used, suggesting an ongoing action: they are in the process of greeting the audience.

Which cases are pozornici and publiku, and why are they different?

pozornici (in na pozornici) is locative singular.
publiku is accusative singular.

Why locative for “pozornici”?

The preposition na can take:

locative when it means location – on / at (where?)
accusative when it means direction – onto / to (where to?)

In this sentence:

stoje na pozornici – they stand on the stage → where? → locative: pozornici

If we talked about movement onto the stage, we would use accusative:

Idu na pozornicu. – They are going onto the stage. → where to? → accusative: pozornicu

Why accusative for “publiku”?

pozdravljaju publiku – they greet the audience
Publiku is the direct object of the verb (whom do they greet?), so it takes the accusative.

What does zajedno mean, and can it go in a different position in the sentence?

Zajedno means “together” (an adverb).

In the sentence zajedno stoje na pozornici = “they stand together on the stage.”

Word order with adverbs like zajedno is fairly flexible. These are all natural:

Redatelj i njegova glumica zajedno stoje na pozornici.
Redatelj i njegova glumica stoje zajedno na pozornici.
Na pozornici redatelj i njegova glumica zajedno stoje.

The meaning stays the same; different orders just slightly shift the emphasis (for example, starting with Na pozornici… emphasizes the location).

Why is it publiku and not publika?

Publika is the nominative form (subject form), while publiku is accusative (direct object).

Basic singular declension of publika (audience):

Nominative (who/what?): publika – Publika je zadovoljna. – The audience is satisfied.
Genitive (of): publike
Dative (to/for): publici
Accusative (whom/what?): publiku – Pozdravljaju publiku. – They greet the audience.
Locative (about/in): publici
Instrumental (with): publikom

In pozdravljaju publiku, publiku is the object of the verb (“they greet whom?”), so it must be accusative.

Could you say na sceni instead of na pozornici? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Redatelj i njegova glumica zajedno stoje na sceni i pozdravljaju publiku.

Both na sceni and na pozornici can translate as “on the stage.”

Nuances:

pozornica – literally “stage” (the physical stage in a theatre)
scena – “scene, stage,” can also mean a scene in a play or film, a segment of a performance, or the theatre world in general (e.g. glazbena scena – music scene)

In everyday speech, for this context, na sceni and na pozornici are very close in meaning; both are fine.

Why is it glumica and not glumac? Does Croatian always mark male/female like this?

Glumica means “actress” (female), while glumac means “actor” (male).

Croatian strongly marks grammatical gender, and many professions have distinct masculine and feminine forms. Common pattern: masculine base + -ica for the feminine:

glumac → glumica
učenik (pupil, m.) → učenica (f.)
učitelj (teacher, m.) → učiteljica (f.)
direktor (director/manager, m.) → direktorica (f.)

So njegova glumica tells you clearly it’s a female actor.

What does the second i do in the sentence?

There are two different “i” in the sentence, each with a different role:

Redatelj i njegova glumica
Here i joins two nouns: the director and his actress.
…stoje na pozornici i pozdravljaju publiku.
Here i joins two verbs/verb phrases: they stand on the stage and they greet the audience.

So the structure is:

[Redatelj i njegova glumica] [zajedno stoje na pozornici] i [pozdravljaju publiku].
→ The director and his actress stand together on the stage and greet the audience.

How do you pronounce redatelj, especially the lj at the end?

Redatelj is pronounced roughly like:

RE-da-tely (with a soft “ly” sound at the end)

Details:

Stress is usually on the first syllable: RE-da-telj.
lj is a single sound, similar to the “lli” in British English “million” or the “ll” in Spanish “calle”. In IPA: [ʎ].
It’s not pronounced as two separate sounds “l” + “y”; it’s one palatalized “l”.

So:

redatelj ≈ [ˈrɛ.datɛʎ]

Can we drop njegova and just say Redatelj i glumica…? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Redatelj i glumica zajedno stoje na pozornici i pozdravljaju publiku.

This would mean “The director and the actress stand together on the stage and greet the audience.”

Difference in meaning:

Redatelj i njegova glumica… – emphasizes that the actress is “his” (connected to him in some way: his lead actress, someone he works with closely, or possibly his partner – context decides).
Redatelj i glumica… – just “the director and an/the actress”, without explicitly stating their relationship.

So grammatically both are correct; njegova simply adds the possessive/relational nuance.