Learn Hardcore Croatian: Koliko god je hrvatski ponekad težak, svaki mali korak mi daje novo društvo, nove šale i nove prilike da ostanem motiviran. - However difficult Croatian is sometimes, every small step gives me new company, new jokes and new opportunities to stay motivated.

Koliko god here means “however much / no matter how” and introduces a concessive clause (something like English “however difficult Croatian may be”).

Structure:

Koliko god + (auxiliary) verb + subject + predicate
It expresses: “even if it’s very X / no matter how X it is”.

So:

Koliko god je hrvatski ponekad težak ≈ “However difficult Croatian sometimes is / No matter how difficult Croatian sometimes is”.

You can use it with other adjectives too:

Koliko god je posao naporan, isplati se.
“However exhausting the job is, it’s worth it.”

Why is it Koliko god je hrvatski ponekad težak and not Koliko god hrvatski je ponekad težak?

The position of je is the key. Je is a clitic form of the verb biti (“to be”), and clitics in Croatian usually go in second position in the clause.

In Koliko god je hrvatski ponekad težak:

Koliko god = first element
je = second element (the clitic)
everything else follows

Koliko god hrvatski je ponekad težak sounds unnatural because:

hrvatski is not a clitic, so putting je after it breaks the usual clitic rule.

More natural variations:

Koliko god je hrvatski težak ponekad
Koliko god je ponekad hrvatski težak

…but the given word order is the most natural and neutral.

Why is just hrvatski used instead of hrvatski jezik, and why is it not capitalized?

In Croatian:

Language names can be expressed with the adjective alone, used as a noun:
- hrvatski = “Croatian (language)”
- engleski = “English (language)”
Saying hrvatski instead of hrvatski jezik is completely normal in context and very common in speech.

Capitalization:

Hrvatski jezik as a full term for the language is usually written with capital H on Hrvatski when it’s the official name.
But adjectives like hrvatski in normal text are typically lowercase:
- učim hrvatski – “I’m learning Croatian”
- govorim engleski – “I speak English”

So je hrvatski… težak is simply “Croatian (as a language) is difficult”.

Why is it težak and not teško?

Because težak is an adjective describing the noun hrvatski (understood as “the Croatian language”), so it must agree in gender and number.

hrvatski (language) = masculine singular
Therefore the adjective is masculine singular: težak (“difficult”).

Teško is the neuter form (and also the adverb form) and wouldn’t agree with hrvatski here.

Compare:

Hrvatski je težak. – “Croatian is difficult.” (adjective)
Teško govorim hrvatski. – “I speak Croatian with difficulty.” (adverb)

What is the role of mi in svaki mali korak mi daje? Why dative here?

Mi is the short (clitic) dative form of meni = “to me / for me”.

svaki mali korak – subject: “every small step”
daje – verb: “gives”
mi – indirect object in dative: “to me”

So literally: “every small step gives me new company, new jokes and new opportunities…”

Dative marks the indirect recipient/beneficiary:

On mi daje snagu. – “He gives me strength.”
Svaka pobjeda mi znači puno. – “Every win means a lot to me.”

Could we say svaki mali korak daje novo društvo and just leave out mi?

Yes, you can omit mi grammatically:

Svaki mali korak daje novo društvo, nove šale i nove prilike da ostanem motiviran.

This becomes more general: “every small step gives (someone/people) new company…” without explicitly saying it’s to me.

Including mi:

makes the sentence more personal,
emphasizes the effect on the speaker: “gives me new company, new jokes…”

What exactly does društvo mean here? Is it “society” or “company”?

Društvo can mean:

Society (in a broad, abstract sense)
- hrvatsko društvo – Croatian society
Company / group of people you hang out with
- Volim tvoje društvo. – “I like your company.”
- Bili smo u dobrom društvu. – “We were in good company.”

In this sentence, with novo društvo, nove šale, it clearly means:

“new company, new people to hang out with / new social circle.”

Why is it novo društvo, nove šale i nove prilike and not the same form of the adjective each time?

Adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun in:

gender (masculine/feminine/neuter),
number (singular/plural),
case.

Here:

novo društvo
- društvo = neuter singular nominative
- → adjective: novo (neuter singular nominative)
nove šale
- šale = feminine plural nominative
- → adjective: nove (feminine plural nominative)
nove prilike
- prilike = feminine plural nominative
- → adjective: nove (feminine plural nominative)

So the changes in novo / nove come from grammatical agreement, not from a change in meaning.

What does da ostanem motiviran literally mean, and why is da used here?

Literally:

da ostanem motiviran = “that I stay motivated”.

In Croatian, da + present tense is often used where English might use:

“to” + verb, or
“(so) that I… / in order to…”.

So nove prilike da ostanem motiviran ≈

“new opportunities to stay motivated”
“new opportunities for me to stay motivated”.

Grammar:

ostanem = 1st person singular, present of ostati (perfective “to stay/remain”), used in a “subjunctive-like” way after da.
motiviran = predicate adjective, masculine singular, agreeing with the implied ja (I).

This da + present construction is extremely common in speech and writing.

Why is it ostanem and not ostajem?

Croatian verbs have aspect:

ostati – perfective (focus on result / completion)
ostajati – imperfective (focus on ongoing process / repetition)

Ostanem (perfective) in da ostanem motiviran emphasizes:

the goal / result: that I remain motivated, that my motivation does not disappear.

Ostajem motiviran would be more like:

“I am staying / I keep staying motivated” (describing an ongoing action), and is not the usual choice after da in this purpose/goal context.

So da ostanem motiviran is the idiomatic way to say “to stay motivated”.

Why is it motiviran and not motivirana or motivirano?

Motiviran agrees with the implied subject ja (“I”), and that subject is assumed to be masculine in this sentence.

If the speaker is male:
- …da ostanem motiviran.
If the speaker is female:
- …da ostanem motivirana.

Neuter motivirano would not be used for a person here.

So this sentence, as written, is spoken/written from a male perspective. A female speaker would naturally change it to motivirana.

Could we use iako instead of koliko god? What’s the difference?

You can say:

Iako je hrvatski ponekad težak, svaki mali korak mi daje…
“Although Croatian is sometimes difficult, every small step gives me…”

Differences in nuance:

iako = “although / even though”
- Presents a simple contrast: Croatian is sometimes difficult, but…
koliko god = “however much / no matter how”
- Sounds slightly stronger and more emphatic:
  - It suggests: even if it’s very difficult / no matter how difficult it gets.

So koliko god adds a sense of “in spite of any degree of difficulty”, while iako is a more neutral “although”.