Learn Hardcore Croatian: Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic, smijemo se manje nego prošli put. - Every time he tells the same joke, we laugh less than the last time.

Gender: put is masculine.
Form in the sentence: svaki put is masculine singular accusative, but for many masculine nouns the nominative and accusative look the same, so you just see put.
Function: It is an adverbial of time: svaki put = every time / each time.

So the structure is:

svaki – masculine singular accusative of svaki (every)
put – masculine singular accusative (time, occasion)

Together: svaki put = every time.

What is the difference between kad and kada?

Kad and kada mean the same thing: when.

Kad is the short, very common everyday form.
Kada is a bit longer / more formal or used for emphasis, but you can use it in normal speech too.

In this sentence you could say either:

Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic…
Svaki put kada ispriča isti vic…

Both are correct. Often speakers use kad after svaki put, because it flows more naturally.

Why is the verb ispriča used here, and what tense/aspect is it?

Ispriča comes from ispričati (to tell to the end, to finish telling – perfective).

Tense: present tense, 3rd person singular (on/ona ispriča = he/she tells (to completion)).
Aspect: perfective.

In Croatian:

Imperfective aspect (e.g. pričati) focuses on ongoing / repeated / habitual action.
- Kad priča viceve, smijemo se. – When he tells jokes (in general), we laugh.
Perfective aspect (e.g. ispričati) focuses on the completed event.
- Kad ispriča vic, smijemo se. – When he has (finished) telling the joke, we laugh.

In Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic…, the idea is:

Each time, once he has finished telling that same joke, we laugh less than the previous time.

Even though it’s the present tense, the perfective verb in this kind of kad-clause can be used for repeated events, as long as each event is viewed as a complete whole (“each time he finishes telling…”).

Why is it isti vic, and what case is vic in?

Vic means joke (masculine noun).

isti – masculine singular accusative of isti (same)
vic – masculine singular accusative of vic

The verb ispričati takes a direct object in the accusative: ispričati (što?) vic.

So isti vic = the same joke in accusative case: he tells the same joke.

You do not use genitive (e.g. istog vica) here, because there is no preposition and ispričati normally governs the accusative direct object.

What is going on with smijemo se? Why do we need se, and what does it mean?

The verb is smijati se = to laugh.

It is a reflexive verb, and it always comes with se in this meaning.
smijemo se = we laugh
- smijemo – 1st person plural present
- se – reflexive pronoun (clitic)

So se here does not mean ourselves in a literal way; it’s just part of the verb pattern: smijati se (nekome / nečemu) = to laugh (at someone / something).

Conjugation (present, for reference):

ja se smijem
ti se smiješ
on/ona/ono se smije
mi se smijemo
vi se smijete
oni/one/ona se smiju

Why is the word order smijemo se manje, and can it also be manje se smijemo?

Both orders are possible:

smijemo se manje
manje se smijemo

Differences:

smijemo se manje – very neutral word order; adverb manje (less) comes after the verb phrase.
manje se smijemo – still correct; here manje is put earlier, so it can sound a bit more emphatic on the amount: we laugh less.

In everyday speech, you will hear both, and neither sounds wrong in this sentence. Croatian word order is relatively flexible, especially with short adverbs like više / manje.

Why is it manje nego prošli put and not something like manje od prošlog puta?

Manje means less, and for comparisons you can use:

manje nego
- clause or noun
manje od
- genitive noun

In this sentence:

manje nego prošli put = less than (the) last time

Here nego introduces the standard of comparison (prošli put). This is very normal after comparative adverbs/adjectives:

više nego prije – more than before
manje nego jučer – less than yesterday

You could say manje nego prošli put or manje nego što smo se smijali prošli put (more explicit clause).

Manje od prošlog puta is not wrong grammatically, but it sounds a bit less natural here. With prošli put in this kind of expression, Croatian speakers strongly prefer nego:

Smijemo se manje nego prošli put. – natural
Smijemo se manje od prošlog puta. – possible, but unusual in this meaning.

Why is it prošli put and not prošlog puta? What case is that?

Prošli put literally is (the) last time.

prošli – masculine singular accusative (same form as nominative) of prošli (last)
put – masculine singular accusative

In time expressions, Croatian often uses the accusative with an adjective + noun to mean “this/last/next time”:

prošli put – last time
sljedeći put – next time
ovaj put – this time

So in the sentence, prošli put is again an accusative time expression behaving adverbially.

You will also see:

od prošlog puta – since the last time / from the last time (here od requires genitive, so prošlog puta).

But without a preposition, in this idiomatic phrase “last time”, Croatian uses prošli put (accusative).

Why is there a comma before kad: Svaki put, kad ispriča isti vic… or Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic…? Which is correct?

The normal and recommended punctuation is without a comma:

Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic, smijemo se manje nego prošli put.

Explanation:

When kad (or kada) introduces a subordinate time clause directly attached to a phrase like svaki put, they often form one unit and no comma is used between them.
The comma goes before the main clause boundary, i.e., before smijemo se.

So:

✅ Svaki put kad ispriča isti vic, smijemo se manje nego prošli put.
❌ Svaki put, kad ispriča isti vic, smijemo se… – the comma after put is not standard here.

The subject “he” and “we” are not written. How do we know who is doing what?

Croatian is a pro-drop language: personal subject pronouns (on, ona, mi, vi etc.) are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

In the sentence:

ispriča – 3rd person singular
- implicit subject: on / ona (he / she)
- kad ispriča isti vic = when he/she tells the same joke
smijemo se – 1st person plural
- implicit subject: mi (we)
- smijemo se manje = we laugh less

You would only add on or mi for emphasis or contrast:

On svaki put kad ispriča isti vic, mi se smijemo manje nego prošli put.
– He, every time he tells the same joke, we laugh less than the last time.

In neutral sentences, speakers just rely on the verb endings.