Mojoj kćeri curi nos i boli je grlo, pa danas ne ide u školu.

Because mojoj kćeri is in the dative singular, not the nominative.

Croatian often uses the dative for the person affected in sentences about body parts, pain, or physical conditions. So here it is literally something like:

To my daughter, the nose is running and the throat hurts her.

If you used moja kći, that would be the nominative form, used when my daughter is the subject, for example:

Moja kći danas ne ide u školu.
My daughter isn’t going to school today.

In this sentence, though, the immediate grammatical subjects are nos and grlo, not kći.

Because kći is an irregular noun, and in the dative singular its form is kćeri.

So:

• kći = daughter, nominative
• kćeri = to/for the daughter, dative

The adjective mojoj also changes to match it in gender, number, and case:

• moja kći = my daughter
• mojoj kćeri = to my daughter

This is a very common pattern in Croatian: adjectives must agree with the noun they describe.

Literally, it means the nose is leaking/running.

The verb curiti means to leak, drip, run. So:

• curi = is leaking / is running
• nos = nose

Croatian expresses to have a runny nose differently from English. Instead of saying she has a runny nose, it often says something closer to:

Her nose is running.

So curi nos is a very natural Croatian way to describe that symptom.

Here je means her.

It is a short unstressed pronoun, and in this sentence it refers to my daughter. So:

• boli = hurts
• je = her
• grlo = throat

Literally, the structure is:

The throat hurts her.

That is the normal Croatian way to say her throat hurts or she has a sore throat.

Because Croatian clitic pronouns like je usually go in the second position in their clause.

In boli je grlo:

• the first element is boli
• the clitic je comes right after it

That is why je boli grlo sounds wrong in standard word order.

Croatian word order is flexible, though, so you may also see:

Grlo je boli.

That is also possible, but it puts a bit more focus on grlo. The version in your sentence is a very natural neutral order.

Because Croatian usually avoids possessive adjectives with body parts when the owner is already clear.

So instead of saying:

njezino grlo boli
literally her throat hurts

Croatian very often says:

boli je grlo
literally the throat hurts her

This is more idiomatic and natural in everyday Croatian. The same thing happens with many body-part expressions.

Here pa means something like so, and so, or therefore.

It links the first part of the sentence with the consequence:

• Mojoj kćeri curi nos i boli je grlo = My daughter has a runny nose and her throat hurts
• pa danas ne ide u školu = so she isn’t going to school today

It is very common in spoken and written Croatian and often sounds a bit more conversational than a heavier connector like stoga or zato.

Yes, ide is present tense, but Croatian often uses the present tense for something happening now, today, or in the immediate practical future.

So danas ne ide u školu means:

• she isn’t going to school today
• or more literally she does not go to school today

This is completely natural. English often prefers isn’t going, but Croatian does not need a special progressive form here.

Because u školu shows movement toward a place, while u školi shows location in a place.

Croatian uses:

• u + accusative for going into/to
• u + locative for being in

So:

• ide u školu = she goes to school
• je u školi = she is at school / in school

Here the verb ide expresses movement or destination, so školu is in the accusative.

Because Croatian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So nouns like nos, grlo, and školu appear without any article. Whether the meaning is a nose, the nose, a throat, the throat, and so on is understood from context.

That is why Croatian can say simply:

• curi nos
• boli je grlo
• ide u školu

without needing anything equivalent to English articles.