Breakdown of Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali i omiljena.
Questions & Answers about Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali i omiljena.
Za nju literally means “for her”.
- za is a preposition that normally means for, and it requires the accusative case.
- ona is the basic (nominative) form of “she”.
- The accusative of ona is nju.
So:
- ona = she (subject form)
- nju = her (object form, after prepositions like za)
Because za always takes accusative, you must say za nju, not za ona and not just ona.
Yes, you can say:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža…
- Njoj je ova uloga najteža…
Both are correct, but there is a nuance.
- za nju (accusative) = for her, as far as she is concerned / in relation to her
- njoj (dative of ona) = to her (indirect object, often “in her experience / from her perspective”)
In many contexts they overlap and both can be translated as: > “For her, this role is the hardest …” / “To her, this role is the hardest …”
Subtly:
- Za nju can sound a bit more like an evaluation in a wider context (“among all her roles, this one is the hardest for her”).
- Njoj focuses slightly more on her internal experience (“to her it feels the hardest”).
In everyday speech, people may use either without a strong difference.
Yes, Croatian word order is quite flexible. All of these are possible:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali i omiljena.
- Ova uloga je za nju najteža, ali i omiljena.
- Ova je uloga za nju najteža, ali i omiljena.
They all mean essentially the same thing.
The difference is in emphasis:
- Starting with Za nju emphasizes “as far as she is concerned / for her specifically”.
- Starting with Ova uloga emphasizes “this role” as the topic first.
In spoken Croatian, moving elements to the beginning is a common way to highlight what’s important in the sentence, similar to saying in English:
- “For her, this role is the hardest…” vs.
- “This role is the hardest for her…”
Uloga (role) is a feminine noun.
The demonstrative pronouns ovaj / ova / ovo mean “this”, but they change to agree with the gender of the noun:
- ovaj – masculine (e.g. ovaj film – this movie)
- ova – feminine (e.g. ova uloga – this role)
- ovo – neuter (e.g. ovo mjesto – this place)
Since uloga is feminine, you must say ova uloga, not ovo uloga.
The base adjective is:
- težak – hard, difficult (masculine)
- teška – feminine
- teško – neuter
The degrees are:
- positive: težak / teška / teško – hard
- comparative: teži / teža / teže – harder
- superlative: najteži / najteža / najteže – hardest
You form the superlative by adding naj- to the comparative stem:
- teži → najteži
- Then you still need to match the gender and number:
- najteži (masc. sg.)
- najteža (fem. sg.)
- najteže (neut. sg.)
In the sentence, uloga is feminine singular, so the correct form is najteža.
Najteža is an adjective used as a predicate (part of the “is X” construction) and it must agree with the subject of the sentence.
- Subject: ova uloga (this role) – feminine, singular, nominative.
- Predicate adjective: najteža – therefore also feminine, singular, nominative.
So the structure is:
- Ova uloga (subject, fem. sg.)
- je najteža (verb “to be” + predicate adjective, fem. sg.)
Croatian predicate adjectives normally agree in gender, number, and case with the subject.
Omiljena is the basic (non-comparative) adjective meaning “favorite”.
- omiljen / omiljena / omiljeno – favorite
- najomiljeniji / najomiljenija / najomiljenije – most favorite / absolute favorite
- najdraži / najdraža / najdraže – dearest, also often used as “favorite”
In the sentence:
- najteža – the hardest (superlative)
- omiljena – (her) favorite
The idea is: “For her, this role is the hardest, but also (her) favorite.”
Croatian often omits “her” (njezina) when it’s obvious from context.
You could say:
- …najteža, ali i najomiljenija.
- …najteža, ali i najdraža.
Those would be grammatically fine but slightly change the nuance to “the most favorite”. The original sentence simply states it is a favorite (effectively “her favorite”), without explicitly marking it as the most favorite with naj-.
- ali = but
- i = and / also
Together ali i functions as “but also”, adding and contrasting at the same time.
So:
- najteža, ali i omiljena ≈ “the hardest, but also (her) favorite.”
This pattern is very common in Croatian to emphasize that the second quality is somewhat surprising in contrast with the first one. It mirrors English structures like:
- “the hardest, but also the most rewarding”
- “very expensive, but also very good”
In Croatian, as in English, a comma is normally placed before ali when it introduces a new clause or a contrasted part of the sentence.
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali i omiljena.
Here the comma separates two coordinated parts:
- (je ova uloga) najteža
- (je ova uloga) i omiljena
The second je ova uloga is understood but omitted. The comma marks the break between “hardest” and “also favorite” linked by ali.
Croatian often omits repeated verbs when it’s clear from context, especially with je (the 3rd person singular of biti, “to be”).
Full version would be:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali je i omiljena.
Omitting the second je is natural and very common:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža, ali i omiljena.
Both are correct. The sentence without the second je is just a bit more compact and stylistically smoother, but the meaning is identical.
Both are grammatical and mean “this role is the hardest”.
- Ova uloga je najteža.
- Ova je uloga najteža.
The version ova je uloga is slightly more typical in neutral / written style, because Croatian often likes to place je right after the first stressed element (ova in this case). But in everyday speech both orders are used, and the difference in meaning is minimal to nonexistent.
In the original sentence, because there is also za nju, the word order is rearranged for emphasis:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža…
Here za nju means “for her personally / in her case / as far as she is concerned”, not “for her benefit” in the sense of giving her an object.
za + accusative can have several meanings, for example:
- Kupio sam knjigu za nju. – I bought a book for her (for her benefit / as a gift).
- Za njega je to teško. – For him that is difficult (in his case, from his perspective).
In the sentence:
- Za nju je ova uloga najteža…
it is the second type:
- among all roles, this one is the hardest in her case / for her personally.