Learn Hardcore Croatian: Mačka sjedi na rubu stola i gleda u sredinu, gdje je juha. - The cat is sitting on the edge of the table and looking into the middle, where the soup is.

Mačka sjedi… → can be “The cat is sitting…” or “A cat is sitting…”, depending on what is already known in the conversation.
If you really need to stress “this particular cat”, you can add a demonstrative:
- Ova mačka sjedi… = This cat is sitting…
- Ta mačka sjedi… = That cat is sitting…

Why is sjedi used for “is sitting”? Is there a different form for “is sitting” vs “sits”?

Croatian does not have a separate continuous tense like English (is sitting, is watching). The simple present covers both:

Mačka sjedi.
- can mean The cat sits (habitually)
- or The cat is sitting (right now).

Context usually makes clear which reading is intended.

Sjedi is:

3rd person singular
present tense
of the verb sjediti (to sit).

What case is rubu in na rubu stola, and why?

Rubu is in the locative singular of rub (edge).

The preposition na (on) can take:

locative = location, no movement
- Mačka sjedi na rubu stola. = The cat is sitting on the edge of the table.
accusative = motion onto
- Mačka skače na rub stola. = The cat is jumping onto the edge of the table.

Since the cat is already on the edge and is just sitting there (no movement onto it), na needs the locative, so rub → na rubu.

Why is it stola and not stol or stolu?

Stola is the genitive singular of stol (table).

The phrase rub stola literally means “the edge of the table”:

rub (čega?) stola – edge (of what?) of the table → genitive.

So inside na rubu stola you have:

na rubu = on the edge (preposition na
- locative rubu)
stola = of the table (genitive, dependent on rub).

You can’t say:

✗ na rubu stol – wrong case
✗ na rubu stolu – this would sound like “on the edge at the table”; stolu is locative, but what you need after rub is genitive (edge of the table).

Can you explain the whole structure of na rubu stola = “on the edge of the table”?

Yes, it’s a layered structure:

rub = edge
stola (genitive) = of the table
- together: rub stola = the edge of the table
na rubu (locative) = on the edge
Combine them: na rubu stola
- literally: on the edge of the table
- grammar:
  - na (+ locative) → rubu
  - rub governs stola (genitive).

Why is it gleda u sredinu and not gleda sredinu or gleda u sredini?

The verb gledati (to look, to watch) works in a few patterns:

gledati + accusative object
- gleda sredinu = she watches the middle (as an object, more like “observes the middle itself”).
gledati u + accusative = direction of gaze
- gleda u sredinu = she is looking into/towards the middle.
  This is what you have in the sentence: direction, not simply observing an object.
gledati u + locative (gledati u sredini) is not standard for this meaning.
- u + locative normally expresses being in a place: u sredini = in the middle.
  But with gledati, the idiomatic pattern for where you are looking is u + accusative.

So:

gleda u sredinu (accusative) correctly expresses direction of looking.
gleda sredinu is grammatically OK but sounds more like she is studying the middle itself.
gleda u sredini is unidiomatic/wrong in standard Croatian for this idea.

What case is sredinu, and how would the meaning change if it were sredini?

sredinu is accusative singular of sredina (middle).
With u + accusative, it expresses a direction:
- gleda u sredinu = she is looking into the middle.

If you said u sredini:

sredini is locative singular.
u + locative usually means “in/inside (a place)”:
- u sredini = in the middle (location).

So:

gleda u sredinu = she points her eyes towards the middle.
je u sredini = “she/it is in the middle.”
(You could say Mačka je u sredini stola. = The cat is in the middle of the table.)

In your sentence, the focus is where she is looking, so accusative is correct: u sredinu.

What exactly does gdje do in gdje je juha? Is it like “where” or “in which”?

Gdje is a question word / relative adverb meaning “where”.

In gdje je juha, it introduces a clause of place:

gdje je juha ≈ where the soup is / where there is soup.

In the full sentence:

…gleda u sredinu, gdje je juha.
- literally: …is looking into the middle, where the soup is.

Here gdje works like English “where” in a relative clause:

the middle, *where the soup is
similar to the place **where the soup is*.

Why is there a comma before gdje je juha?

The comma separates the main clause from a dependent clause introduced by gdje.

Main clause: Mačka sjedi na rubu stola i gleda u sredinu
Dependent clause of place: gdje je juha

The part gdje je juha adds extra information about the middle (which middle? the one where the soup is). In Croatian, such relative/where-clauses are usually preceded by a comma, especially when they feel like extra descriptive information.

So:

…u sredinu, gdje je juha.
…into the middle, where the soup is.

Why is it gdje je juha and not gdje juha je? What is the normal word order in such clauses?

In Croatian statements, the neutral word order is usually Subject–Verb–Object, similar to English:

Juha je topla. = The soup is hot.

In a clause with gdje (where), like gdje je juha:

gdje comes first
then standard S–V order:
- gdje je juha = where the soup is

You can say gdje juha je, but:

it sounds marked/poetic/emphatic, not neutral.
Standard, natural sentence order for everyday speech is gdje je juha.

Why is juha in the form juha and not juhu?

Juha is in the nominative singular, because in gdje je juha it is the subject of the verb je (is).

The pattern is:

X je Y → both X and Y are in nominative (subject and predicate nominative).
- Juha je vruća. = The soup is hot.
- Ovo je juha. = This is soup.

In gdje je juha, you can imagine the underlying statement:

Juha je (tamo). = The soup is (there).

So juha must be nominative, not accusative (juhu).
Accusative juhu would be used as a direct object:

Vidim juhu. = I see the soup.

Would it be correct to say Mačka sjedi na rub stola with rub in the accusative? What’s the difference?

Mačka sjedi na rub stola is not natural here.

Reason:

na + accusative expresses movement onto something:
- Mačka skače na rub stola. = The cat is jumping onto the edge of the table.
- Stavljam knjigu na stol. = I am putting the book onto the table.

But sjedi (is sitting) describes a static position, not movement. So you need:

na + locative → na rubu stola = on the edge of the table.

So:

Mačka sjedi na rubu stola. ✅ (she is already on the edge)
Mačka skače na rub stola. ✅ (she is moving onto the edge)

Could I move parts of the sentence around, like Na rubu stola sjedi mačka i gleda u sredinu? Does that change the meaning?

You can reorder many parts; Croatian word order is relatively flexible. Some common variants:

Mačka sjedi na rubu stola i gleda u sredinu, gdje je juha. (original)
- Neutral: starts with the subject (the cat).
Na rubu stola sjedi mačka i gleda u sredinu, gdje je juha.
- Now the location (on the edge of the table) is emphasized first.
- Meaning is essentially the same; nuance: you highlight where the action happens.
Mačka na rubu stola sjedi i gleda u sredinu, gdje je juha.
- Now mačka na rubu stola is a tight phrase: the cat on the edge of the table.

All are grammatically correct. The differences are about emphasis and style, not about basic meaning.

Is mačka always feminine? What if the cat is male?

Grammatically, mačka is feminine (ends in -a, like most feminine nouns).

In terms of biological sex:

mačka can mean “cat” in general (any sex), but also specifically a female cat.
A male cat is usually called mačak.

So:

Mačka sjedi na rubu stola.
- grammatically feminine, but in everyday speech could refer to a cat of unknown/irrelevant sex.
Mačak sjedi na rubu stola.
- clearly a male cat (tomcat), grammatically masculine.

Are sjedi and gleda in any particular aspect (imperfective/perfective)? How would it change with different verbs?

Yes, both verbs are imperfective:

sjediti (imperfective) = to sit (as an ongoing or habitual state)
- Mačka sjedi. = The cat is sitting.
gledati (imperfective) = to look / to watch (continuously)
- Mačka gleda u sredinu. = The cat is looking into the middle.

Imperfective aspect is used for:

ongoing actions/states
repeated/habitual actions
descriptions (like in your sentence).

If you used perfective counterparts:

sjesti = to sit down (take a seat)
- Mačka je sjela na rub stola. = The cat sat down on the edge of the table.
pogledati = to take a look / to look once
- Mačka je pogledala u sredinu. = The cat (briefly) looked into the middle.

So your sentence uses imperfectives (sjedi, gleda) to describe a current, ongoing scene, which is exactly what you want.