Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.

The noise in the city bothers me in the evening.

Breakdown of Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.

• grad: city
• u: in
• mi: me
• navečer: in the evening
• smetati: to bother
• buka: noise

Questions & Answers about Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.

Why is it u gradu and not u grad?

Because Croatian uses cases, and after the preposition u (in) you usually need the locative case when talking about being in a place (not moving into it).

• grad = city (nominative, dictionary form)
• u gradu = in the city (locative singular)

So:

• Buka u gradu = Noise in the city
• If you were talking about motion into the city, you’d get u grad with the accusative:
  
  • Idem u grad. = I’m going to the city.

Here, the meaning is clearly a location, not motion, so u gradu is correct.

What does mi mean here, and why is it used?

In this sentence, mi means “to me” and is the dative singular of ja (I).

• ja = I (nominative)
• me / mene = me (accusative, direct object)
• mi / meni = to me (dative, indirect object)

The verb smetati (“to bother, to annoy, to disturb”) very often uses the dative for the person who is bothered:

• Buka mi smeta. = The noise bothers me (literally: Noise to-me bothers).

So mi here answers: To whom is the noise bothersome? → to me.

Why is mi in the middle of the sentence and not at the beginning or the end?

Short pronouns like mi, ti, mu, joj, ga, je, se are clitics in Croatian. Clitics have a special behavior: they usually want to be in the second position in the clause, not at the start or at the end.

In Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer:

1. Buka (1st element)
2. u gradu (2nd element)
3. Now the clitic mi tries to appear as early as it can, so it comes here.
4. smeta
5. navečer

You can also say:

• Buka u gradu smeta mi navečer.
• Navečer mi smeta buka u gradu.

but you normally don’t start the sentence with clitic Mi smeta… in standard Croatian. Its position is mainly driven by this “second position” rule, and only secondarily by emphasis.

Why is it smeta and not something like smetam or smetaju?

Smeta is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb smetati.

The subject of the sentence is buka (noise), which is feminine singular:

• buka smeta = the noise bothers …

So:

• (ja) smetam – I bother
• (ti) smetaš – you bother
• (on/ona/ono) smeta – he/she/it bothers
• (oni/one/ona) smetaju – they bother

Since we’re talking about buka (one singular thing), we use smeta, not smetam (I bother) and not smetaju (they bother).

Could we say Buka u gradu me smeta navečer instead of mi smeta?

You may hear me (accusative) with smetati in some speech, but for a learner it’s safer to stick to mi (dative), because:

• Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer is fully standard and very natural.
• It literally means “The noise in the city is bothersome to me in the evening.”

Traditional grammar notes smetati can take both an accusative object (smetati koga/što) and a dative person (smetati komu). In everyday standard usage with “noise bothers me”, mi (dative) is extremely common and unproblematic:

• Smeta mi buka.
• Ta glazba mi smeta.

So: use mi here; it sounds natural and aligns with what natives normally say.

Could we leave out mi and just say Buka u gradu smeta navečer?

Yes, grammatically you can, but the meaning changes:

• Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.
  = The noise in the city bothers *me in the evening.*

• Buka u gradu smeta navečer.
  = The noise in the city is bothersome in the evening (in general; it bothers people, or it’s a problem, but the sentence doesn’t say whom).

Without mi, the sentence becomes more general and impersonal. If you want to express my personal discomfort, you need mi (or meni) in some form:

• Buka u gradu meni smeta navečer. (with stressed meni, for emphasis: “It’s me it bothers.”)

How flexible is the word order? Can we move parts of the sentence around?

Croatian word order is relatively flexible, especially for showing emphasis. All of these are possible and natural, with slightly different focus:

• Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.
  (Neutral: topic = “the noise in the city”, new info = it bothers me in the evening.)

• Navečer mi smeta buka u gradu.
  (Emphasis on navečer: It’s in the evenings that it bothers me.)

• Buka mi u gradu smeta navečer.
  (Extra focus on u gradu – as opposed to somewhere else.)

• Smeta mi buka u gradu navečer.
  (Verb-first; can sound a bit explanatory: “What bothers me…? The city noise in the evening.”)

The two things that are quite stable:

1. buka is still the subject.
2. The clitic mi tries to stay in that early “second position” area, usually right after the first stressed word or phrase.

What exactly is navečer, and how is it different from večer or večeras?

Navečer is an adverb meaning “in the evening / in the evenings”.

It comes historically from na večer (“on the evening”) but is now written as one word and used like a time adverb.

Useful contrasts:

• večer – evening (noun)

  • Ova večer je lijepa. = This evening is nice.

• navečer – in the evening (in general, a habitual time)

  • Navečer čitam knjige. = I read books in the evening(s).

• večeras – this evening, tonight

  • Večeras idem u kino. = I’m going to the cinema this evening/tonight.

In Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer, the idea is typically habitual: noise in the city bothers me in the evenings (as a rule), not just on one specific evening.

Why is there no word for “the” in Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer?

Croatian does not have articles like English the or a/an. The noun buka can mean “noise”, “a noise”, or “the noise” depending on context.

So:

• Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer.

can be translated as:

• The noise in the city bothers me in the evening.
• City noise bothers me in the evening.

Croatian relies on context, word order, and sometimes demonstratives (like ta = that) to convey specificity:

• Ta buka u gradu mi smeta navečer. = That noise in the city bothers me in the evening.

What gender is buka, and does that affect anything in this sentence?

Buka is feminine singular (its dictionary form ends in -a, like many feminine nouns).

Gender matters mainly for:

1. Adjective agreement (not present in this sentence, but e.g.):

   • Jaka buka = loud noise (both jaka and buka are feminine singular).

2. Past tense and participles, which would match the subject’s gender and number:

   • Buka mi je smetala navečer.
     (feminine singular past participle smetala agrees with buka.)

In the present tense smeta, the verb form only shows person and number, not gender, so we just use 3rd person singular because the subject is one thing (buka).

How would the sentence change if I wanted to say “Noises in the city bother me in the evening” (plural)?

You would pluralize buka and adjust the verb:

• Buke u gradu mi smetaju navečer.

Changes:

• buka → buke (plural: “noises”)
• smeta → smetaju (3rd person plural present)

Everything else stays the same:

• Buke u gradu mi smetaju navečer.
  = The noises in the city bother me in the evening.

Is mi here the same word as mi meaning “we”?

They look the same in writing but function differently.

1. Mi as a full, stressed pronoun = we (1st person plural nominative):

   • Mi živimo u gradu. = We live in the city.

2. mi as a clitic pronoun = to me (1st person singular dative):

   • Buka u gradu mi smeta navečer. = Noise in the city bothers me in the evening.

You can usually tell which one it is from:

• Position:

  • Subject Mi (“we”) often comes at the beginning: Mi radimo.
  • Dative mi (“to me”) appears in the clitic “second position”: Danas mi je hladno.

• Meaning and verb agreement:

  • With “we”, the verb is plural: Mi smetamo. (We are bothering someone.)
  • With “to me”, the verb agrees with something else: Buka mi smeta. (Noise is bothering me.)