U čekaonici nije bilo mjesta, ali mi je jedna žena ipak dala svoje sjedalo.

Because after u meaning in, Croatian normally uses the locative case.

• čekaonica = waiting room
• u čekaonici = in the waiting room

So čekaonici is the locative singular form of čekaonica.

Čekaonica means waiting room or waiting area.

It comes from the verb čekati = to wait. So it is literally a place for waiting.

This is a very common Croatian structure.

bilo je / nije bilo is an impersonal way to say there was / there wasn’t.

So:

• bilo je mjesta = there was room / there was space
• nije bilo mjesta = there wasn’t room / there wasn’t space

Here bilo stays in the neuter singular because the construction is impersonal, not tied to a specific subject the way English is.

Yes. In nije bilo mjesta, mjesta is in the genitive.

After there is / there was expressions in Croatian, especially with negation, nouns often appear in the genitive:

• Ima vremena. = There is time.
• Nema vremena. = There is no time.
• Bilo je mjesta. = There was room.
• Nije bilo mjesta. = There was no room.

So mjesta here means room/space in a general sense, not a specific place.

In this sentence, mjesto means room or space in a general sense.

So nije bilo mjesta means:

• there was no room
• there was no space
• there were no free places

Then later the sentence becomes more specific with sjedalo, which means seat.

So:

• mjesto = room/space/place
• sjedalo = seat

Mi is the unstressed dative form of ja and means to me.

So:

• dala mi je = she gave me
• mi je dala = she gave me

In this sentence:

• ali mi je jedna žena ipak dala svoje sjedalo
• literally: but to me a woman nevertheless gave her seat

Natural English: but a woman still gave me her seat.

Because mi and je are clitics in Croatian. Clitics are short unstressed words that usually appear near the beginning of the clause, in a fixed order.

Here:

• mi = to me
• je = is/has, here the auxiliary used in the past tense

So Croatian naturally puts them early:

• ali mi je jedna žena ipak dala svoje sjedalo

A learner may want to say something more like English word order, but Croatian prefers clitic placement.

Because the subject is jedna žena, which is feminine singular.

In the Croatian past tense, the main participle agrees with the subject:

• dao = masculine singular
• dala = feminine singular
• dalo = neuter singular

So:

• jedna žena je dala = a woman gave

Grammatically, yes, jedna means one. But in many sentences like this, it works much like English a or one when introducing someone not previously mentioned.

So jedna žena can mean:

• a woman
• one woman

Here it most naturally means a woman.

Croatian has no articles like a or the, so words like jedan / jedna / jedno are sometimes used to give that kind of indefinite sense.

Ipak means something like:

• still
• nevertheless
• all the same
• even so

It adds a contrast. Even though there was no room, the woman still gave up her seat.

So:

• ali ... ipak ... = but ... still/nevertheless ...

Because Croatian usually uses the reflexive possessive svoj when the possessor is the same as the subject.

Here the subject is jedna žena, and the seat belongs to that same woman. So:

• dala svoje sjedalo = she gave her own seat

If you said njeno sjedalo, it could suggest the seat belonged to some other female person, not necessarily the subject.

So svoje is the natural and correct choice here.

It is in the accusative singular because it is the direct object of dala.

• sjedalo = seat
• dala svoje sjedalo = gave her seat

Since sjedalo is a neuter noun, its nominative and accusative singular forms are the same, so it looks unchanged.

Sometimes mjesto can mean spot, place, or even seat/place available, depending on context. For example, ima mjesta can mean there’s room or there are seats available.

But in this sentence, the writer uses both words:

• nije bilo mjesta = there was no room / no space / no available place
• dala svoje sjedalo = gave her seat

Using sjedalo in the second part makes the meaning very concrete.

Formally, it uses a singular genitive noun, but the meaning is often broad and uncountable, like there was no room.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• there was no room
• there was no space
• there were no places/seats available

So Croatian is not focusing on countable plural seats here, but on the general lack of available space.

Yes:

• U = in
• čekaonici = waiting room
• nije = is not / was not
• bilo = been / there was, part of the impersonal past construction
• mjesta = room, space, place
• ali = but
• mi = to me
• je = auxiliary for the past tense
• jedna = one / a
• žena = woman
• ipak = still / nevertheless
• dala = gave
• svoje = her own
• sjedalo = seat

Natural whole meaning: There was no room in the waiting room, but a woman still gave me her seat.