Learn Hardcore Croatian: Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer, pa učim hrvatski bez stresa. - Today I am more motivated than yesterday, so I study Croatian without stress.

The base adjective is motiviran = motivated.
To form the comparative of most adjectives, Croatian adds -iji / -ji to the stem:
- sretan → sretniji (happier)
- brz → brži (faster)
- motiviran → motiviraniji (more motivated)

So motiviraniji = comparative masculine singular form of motiviran.
It agrees in gender and number with the (understood) subject ja (I), which is masculine here by default. For a female speaker, the form of the adjective stays motiviraniji because the subject pronoun ja does not show grammatical gender in the sentence; you’d only know it from context, not from ending changes in this particular sentence.

Could I say više motiviran instead of motiviraniji? Are both correct?

Yes, both are grammatically correct, but motiviraniji is more natural here.

motiviraniji = the “built-in” comparative form.
više motiviran = literally “more motivated”, using the adverb više (more) + the positive adjective motiviran.

In practice:

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer. — Fully natural.
Danas sam više motiviran nego jučer. — Also correct; slightly more emphatic or “analytical”.

For everyday speech, if there is a standard comparative form (brži, sretniji, pametniji, motiviraniji), that form is usually preferred.

Why is sam placed right after Danas and not after motiviraniji?

Because sam is a clitic (an unstressed short word) and Croatian has a strong rule that most clitics must go very early in the clause, usually in second position.

Basic pattern:

1st position: usually the first stressed word/phrase (Danas)
2nd position: clitic(s) (sam)
Then the rest of the sentence (motiviraniji nego jučer)

So:

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer. ✔️
Danas motiviraniji sam nego jučer. ❌ sounds wrong.

Other examples:

Jučer sam bio umoran.
Sutra ću učiti.

Why is there no “ja” (I) in Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer?

Croatian is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona…) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person.

sam = “am” but also clearly indicates 1st person singular (“I am”).
So Danas sam motiviraniji already means “Today I am more motivated”.

You can say Ja sam danas motiviraniji nego jučer, but:

It adds emphasis to ja (“I am more motivated today (maybe others are not)”) or
It sounds more contrastive.

Neutral, most common form is without ja.

What does nego mean in this sentence, and can I use od instead?

Nego is the standard word for than in comparisons using the comparative form:

motiviraniji nego jučer = more motivated than yesterday
bolji nego prije = better than before
brži nego on = faster than him

Od can also be used after comparatives, especially with nouns:

veći od brata = bigger than (my) brother
bolji od drugih = better than others

With adverbs like “jučer” (yesterday), nego is more natural:

motiviraniji nego jučer ✔️
motiviraniji od jučer — possible but much less usual; can sound awkward.

So in this exact sentence, nego is the best choice.

What exactly does pa mean here, and how is it different from i or jer?

In this sentence, pa roughly means “so / and so / and therefore”.
It often links two clauses where the second follows as a consequence or natural continuation of the first.

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer, pa učim hrvatski bez stresa.
= Today I’m more motivated than yesterday, *so I’m learning Croatian without stress.*

Compare:

i = and (just adds something, no clear cause)
- Danas sam motiviraniji, i učim hrvatski. (And I’m learning Croatian – weaker link)
jer = because (introduces a reason)
- Učim hrvatski bez stresa, jer sam danas motiviraniji.
  = I’m learning Croatian without stress because I’m more motivated today.

Pa is looser and very common in speech, often between and and so in meaning.

Why is there a comma before pa?

In Croatian, when pa connects two independent clauses, it is normally preceded by a comma.

Clause 1: Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer
Clause 2: učim hrvatski bez stresa
Linker: pa

So you write:

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer, pa učim hrvatski bez stresa. ✔️

This is a standard punctuation rule: coordinating conjunctions like a, ali, nego, pa generally get a comma when they join full clauses.

Why is it učim hrvatski and not something like učim hrvatskog or hrvatski jezik?

In Croatian, when you say you are learning a language, you typically use:

učiti + [language adjective in masculine singular accusative]

The masculine singular accusative for inanimate nouns/adjectives often looks the same as the nominative:

hrvatski (nom.) → hrvatski (acc.)
(same form)

So:

Učim hrvatski. = I’m learning Croatian.
Učim engleski / njemački / talijanski.

You can also say:

Učim hrvatski jezik. = I’m learning the Croatian language.

But hrvatski alone, as in the sentence, is completely standard and very common.

Učim hrvatskog would be wrong here, because učiti takes the accusative, not the genitive.

What case is stresa in bez stresa, and why is that form used?

Stresa is in the genitive singular.

The preposition bez (without) always requires the genitive:

bez šećera = without sugar
bez problema = without problems
bez novca = without money
bez stresa = without stress

The noun stres is masculine:

Nominative: stres
Genitive: stresa

So bez stresa literally means “without of‑stress”, i.e. without stress.

What aspect or nuance does učim have here? How is it different from naučim or učim se?

Učim is the imperfective present of učiti, meaning an ongoing activity:

učim hrvatski = I’m learning / I study Croatian (process, not completed result).

Other related forms:

naučiti (perfective) → naučim in present form (used for future-like meaning)
- Naučit ću hrvatski. = I will learn Croatian (reach the end state of knowing it).
učiti se = to learn something in a reflexive way or “be taught” in some contexts, but for languages it’s much less common than učiti without se.
- Učim hrvatski. is the normal way to say I’m learning Croatian.

So in this sentence učim correctly focuses on the ongoing activity: I am (in general/nowadays) learning Croatian without stress.

Can I move danas or jučer to other positions in the sentence?

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, especially for adverbs of time, but clitics (like sam) still need to be near the beginning.

Possible variants:

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer, pa učim hrvatski bez stresa. ✔️ (neutral)
Sam danas motiviraniji nego jučer... ❌ (sam can’t start the sentence)
Motiviraniji sam danas nego jučer, pa učim hrvatski bez stresa. ✔️ (emphasis on more motivated today)
Danas učim hrvatski bez stresa, jer sam motiviraniji nego jučer. ✔️ (different structure but good Croatian)

The important constraint is placement of sam, not so much danas or jučer.

If the speaker is female, would motiviraniji change to motiviranija?

In this exact sentence, motiviraniji typically stays the same for both male and female speakers, because the subject is ja (I), which doesn’t show grammatical gender.

Adjective agreement in Croatian is with the grammatical gender of the noun/pronoun. But:

The pronoun ja has no gender form difference (unlike on / ona / ono).
With first person singular, the adjective often appears in masculine form by default, and gender is understood from context, not the ending.

In everyday speech, many women would still say:

Danas sam motiviranija nego jučer.
This is also heard and not “wrong” in spoken language; it reflects natural gender agreement as they feel it.

So you may encounter:

Danas sam motiviraniji nego jučer. (formally fine for any speaker)
Danas sam motiviranija nego jučer. (common for female speakers in practice)

Textbooks often ignore this nuance and just teach the masculine form with ja.