Nisam mogla podići ništa, jer bankomat nije radio.

Mogla is the feminine singular past form of moći (to be able to / can).

So:

• nisam mogao = I couldn't (said by a male speaker)
• nisam mogla = I couldn't (said by a female speaker)

The sentence shows that the speaker is female.

In Croatian, the past tense is usually formed with:

• the present tense of biti (to be), and
• the active past participle of the main verb.

But with modal verbs like moći, you get:

• sam mogao / mogla = I could / was able
• nisam mogao / mogla = I couldn’t / wasn’t able

So nisam mogla is literally something like I was not able, but in natural English it is simply I couldn’t.

Literally, podići often means to lift, to raise, or to pick up. But in banking contexts, it commonly means to withdraw money.

So in this sentence:

• podići ništa means withdraw anything

A learner might first think it means lift anything, but with bankomat nearby, the financial meaning is the natural one.

Because after moći, Croatian normally uses the infinitive.

So the pattern is:

• mogu doći = I can come
• nisam mogla podići = I couldn’t withdraw

Here:

• mogla is the past form of moći
• podići stays in the infinitive

You do not usually say nisam mogla podigla.

Yes, and in Croatian that is normal and required.

Croatian uses negative concord, which means multiple negative words appear together in the same clause:

• nisam vidio ništa = I didn’t see anything
• literally: I didn’t see nothing, but the meaning is standard negative, not a positive

So:

• nisam mogla podići ništa = I couldn’t withdraw anything

Using a non-negative word here would be wrong:

• nisam mogla podići nešto does not mean the same thing

Here ništa is the direct object of podići, and in this sentence it is in the accusative. Conveniently, ništa looks the same in nominative and accusative, so there is no visible change.

So:

• podići što? → ništa

That is why the form stays ništa.

Yes. The verb raditi can mean:

• to work in the sense of to function
• to work in the sense of to do work / have a job

With machines, raditi usually means to function / to be operating.

So:

• bankomat nije radio = the ATM wasn’t working

The form radio is the masculine singular past participle, because bankomat is a masculine noun.

Because the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

• bankomat is masculine singular
• therefore: radio

Compare:

• Mašina nije radila. = The machine wasn’t working.
  (mašina is feminine)
• Svjetlo nije radilo. = The light wasn’t working.
  (svjetlo is neuter)

So the ending changes depending on the noun.

Both can mean because.

• jer = common, simple, neutral
• zato što = also very common, sometimes a bit more explicit or emphatic

So this sentence could also be:

• Nisam mogla podići ništa, zato što bankomat nije radio.

Both are natural. Jer is shorter and very typical in everyday speech.

In standard Croatian spelling, a clause introduced by jer is separated by a comma.

So:

• Nisam mogla podići ništa, jer bankomat nije radio.

This is normal punctuation when one clause explains the reason for another.

Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English, though some orders sound more neutral than others.

The given sentence is very natural:

• Nisam mogla podići ništa, jer bankomat nije radio.

You could also hear:

• Jer bankomat nije radio, nisam mogla podići ništa.

That puts more focus on the reason first.

However, you cannot move everything freely without affecting emphasis or sounding unnatural. The original version is a safe, standard choice.

Both are possible.

• nisam mogla podići ništa
• nisam mogla ništa podići

Both mean the same thing: I couldn’t withdraw anything.

The version with ništa after the infinitive is perfectly natural. Putting ništa before the infinitive is also common and may sound slightly more conversational to some speakers. This is mostly a word-order preference, not a grammar difference.

Podići is perfective, while podizati is imperfective.

Here, the idea is a single completed action that the speaker was unable to do: withdraw money from the ATM. For that, Croatian normally uses the perfective infinitive after moći:

• nisam mogla podići novac = I couldn’t withdraw the money

If you used podizati, it would suggest a more repeated, ongoing, or habitual action, which does not fit as well here.

Yes, but the style changes.

• bankomat nije radio = the normal, everyday way to say the ATM wasn’t working
• bankomat nije bio u funkciji = more formal, more like the ATM was not in service / not operational
• bankomat tada nije radio = adds at that time / then

So the original sentence is the most natural everyday phrasing.

A male speaker would say:

• Nisam mogao podići ništa, jer bankomat nije radio.

Only mogla changes to mogao. The rest stays the same.