Jutros sam na kolodvor stigla s malim koferom, ali mi je prtljaga ipak bila preteška.

Because the speaker is grammatically feminine singular.

In the Croatian past tense, the participle agrees with the subject’s gender and number:

• stigla = a woman speaking
• stigao = a man speaking
• stigli smo = we arrived, masculine/mixed group
• stigle smo = we arrived, all-female group

So Jutros sam ... stigla tells you the speaker is female.

Jutros means this morning, referring to the morning of today.

It is different from ujutro, which usually means in the morning more generally or habitually.

Compare:

• Jutros sam kasnila. = I was late this morning.
• Ujutro pijem kavu. = I drink coffee in the morning.

So jutros is used because the sentence describes a specific event that happened earlier today.

Because sam is a clitic. Croatian clitics usually appear near the beginning of the clause, often in second position.

So:

• Jutros sam ...
• not normally Sam jutros ...

This is a very common Croatian pattern with short forms such as:

• sam, si, je, smo, ste, su
• mi, ti, mu, joj, im
• ga, je, ih, etc.

English learners often want to place these words more freely, but Croatian has fairly strong placement rules for them.

Because na kolodvor shows movement toward a destination, while na kolodvoru shows location.

With verbs of motion, Croatian often uses:

• na + accusative = to / onto / toward
• na + locative = on / at

So here:

• stigla sam na kolodvor = I arrived at/to the station
• bila sam na kolodvoru = I was at the station

Even though English says at the station, Croatian uses the destination form because the verb stići involves arriving somewhere.

Because the preposition s meaning with requires the instrumental case.

So:

• kofer → koferom
• mali kofer → malim koferom

The adjective must agree with the noun in case, gender, and number, so both words change.

That is why you get:

• s malim koferom = with a small suitcase

This is a very important Croatian pattern:

• preposition + required case
• adjective agrees with the noun in that case

They are related, but not the same.

• kofer = suitcase, one specific item
• prtljaga = luggage / baggage, the baggage as a whole

So s malim koferom refers to one suitcase, while prtljaga refers more generally to the speaker’s baggage.

This is similar to English:

• I had a small suitcase
• but my luggage was too heavy

Even if there is only one suitcase, Croatian can still use prtljaga to talk about the baggage in a general sense.

Because prtljaga is a collective noun and is grammatically singular.

So Croatian says:

• prtljaga je bila teška
• not prtljaga su bila teška

This is similar to English luggage, which is also grammatically singular:

• The luggage was heavy
• not the luggage were heavy

So even though the meaning may involve several items, the grammar is singular.

Mi is the dative clitic of ja and here it means something like to me or for me.

So:

• prtljaga mi je bila preteška

literally suggests:

• the luggage was too heavy for me
• or more naturally, my luggage was too heavy

This mi does not directly mean my. It shows the person affected by the situation.

This use is very common in Croatian. It often sounds natural in Croatian even when English would leave it out or translate it more loosely.

Because Croatian clitics have a usual internal order, and the pronoun mi normally comes before the auxiliary je.

So the natural order is:

• mi je

not usually:

• je mi

You do not need to memorize every clitic-order rule at once, but it is useful to notice that short unstressed words in Croatian tend to form a little cluster in a preferred order.

Here the standard order is:

• ali mi je prtljaga ...

Ipak adds the idea of still, nevertheless, or all the same.

It marks a contrast:

• she arrived with a small suitcase
• but even so, the luggage was too heavy

So ipak shows that the second part goes a bit against what you might expect.

Without ipak, the sentence would still make sense, but ipak strengthens the contrast.

This is the normal Croatian past tense.

Croatian commonly forms the past with:

• present-tense auxiliary of biti
• plus the past participle

So:

• je bila = was

In this sentence:

• prtljaga je bila preteška = the luggage was too heavy

Here:

• je = auxiliary
• bila = past participle, feminine singular

It may look unusual to an English speaker, but it is just the normal Croatian way to express the past.

Because they agree with prtljaga, which is a feminine singular noun.

So Croatian marks agreement in the predicate:

• prtljaga je bila preteška

If the noun were masculine, you would get masculine forms; if neuter, neuter forms.

Also, preteška is one word because it is built from:

• teška = heavy
• pre- = too, excessively

So:

• teška = heavy
• preteška = too heavy

This pre- prefix often means that something goes beyond an acceptable limit. So preteška is stronger than simply very heavy.