Dala sam joj ga bez žurbe, a ona mi ga je vratila odmah.

Because Croatian past participles agree with the subject in gender and number.

• dala sam = I gave (spoken by a woman)
• dao sam = I gave (spoken by a man)
• ona je vratila = she returned
• on je vratio = he returned

So this sentence tells you that the speaker is female, and the other person referred to by ona is also female.

They are auxiliary forms of biti (to be) used to form the Croatian past tense, often called the perfect.

So:

• dala sam = literally something like given am, meaning I gave / I have given
• je vratila = literally has returned, meaning she returned / she has returned

This is the normal way to talk about completed past actions in Croatian.

They are short unstressed pronouns, often called clitic pronouns.

• joj = to her → dative singular
• mi = to me → dative singular
• ga = him / it → accusative singular, here functioning as the direct object

So in grammar terms:

• joj and mi are indirect objects
• ga is the direct object

That is why the sentence has both a person receiving something and the thing being given/returned.

Because Croatian clitic pronouns usually follow a fixed order, and the dative pronoun normally comes before the accusative pronoun.

So:

• joj ga = normal
• mi ga = normal

This is one of those patterns learners usually need to get used to by repetition. In sentences with these short pronouns, Croatian does not arrange them as freely as English does.

Because Croatian clitics like sam, je, mi, ga, joj usually cannot stand at the very beginning of a clause. They tend to come in the second position area of the clause.

That is why:

• Dala sam joj ga... is normal
• Sam dala joj ga... is not normal

And in the second clause:

• a ona mi ga je vratila... is normal
• a je ona mi ga vratila... is not

Also, clitics have their own internal ordering, so learners often need to memorize whole patterns rather than build them word by word.

Croatian often leaves subject pronouns out because the verb form already shows the person.

• dala sam already tells you I
• vratila with context and auxiliary can show she

But ona is included here for contrast:

• I gave it to her..., and she returned it to me...

So ona is not required just for grammar; it adds emphasis and contrast after a.

Here a links the two clauses and shows a mild contrast or switch of perspective.

Depending on context, it can feel like:

• and
• while
• but

In this sentence it is something like:

• ..., and she...
• or ..., while she...

It is not a strong contradiction, just a contrast between the two actions and the two people.

Because the preposition bez (without) takes the genitive case.

So:

• bez
  • genitive
• žurba → žurbe in the genitive singular

Literally, bez žurbe means without hurry, and more naturally it means without rushing or unhurriedly.

Odmah is an adverb meaning immediately / right away.

In this sentence it modifies je vratila: she returned it immediately.

Yes, adverbs like odmah can often move around:

• a ona mi ga je vratila odmah
• a ona ga mi je vratila odmah → not good because the clitics are wrong
• a ona mi ga je odmah vratila → also natural
• a odmah mi ga je vratila → possible with emphasis

So the adverb is movable, but the clitics are much less flexible.

It is repeated because each verb needs its own direct object.

• Dala sam joj ga... = I gave it to her
• ...a ona mi ga je vratila = and she returned it to me

In English, we sometimes omit repeated objects more easily, but in Croatian the pronoun is normally stated again with the second verb if it is the object of that verb too.

The tense is the perfect (the usual Croatian past tense), and the verbs dati and vratiti are perfective.

That means the sentence presents both actions as completed whole events:

• she gave it
• the other woman returned it

If you wanted to focus on an ongoing or repeated action, Croatian would normally choose different verb forms, often using imperfective verbs instead.