Veterinar je rekao da je njezina njuška topla, ali da je krzno čisto.

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

So:

• Veterinar can mean the veterinarian or a veterinarian
• krzno can mean the fur or just fur

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Je rekao is the Croatian perfect tense, which is the normal way to talk about a completed past action.

It is made from:

• je = auxiliary verb (is/has as part of the tense)
• rekao = past participle of reći (to say)

So Veterinar je rekao = The veterinarian said.

Also, je is a clitic, so it normally appears near the beginning of the clause: Veterinar je rekao, not usually Veterinar rekao je in neutral standard word order.

Because it is doing two different jobs.

1. In Veterinar je rekao, je is an auxiliary used to form the past tense.
2. In da je njezina njuška topla and da je krzno čisto, je is the present tense of biti (to be).

So the sentence contains:

• je rekao = said
• je topla = is warm
• je čisto = is clean

Same form, different grammatical function.

Because both parts are being presented as things the veterinarian said.

• da je njezina njuška topla
• ali da je krzno čisto

Repeating da after ali makes it clear that the second clause also depends on rekao.

In other words, the veterinarian said:

• that her muzzle was warm,
• but that the fur was clean.

This repetition is very natural in Croatian and often clearer than leaving the second da out.

Croatian does not follow English-style tense backshifting as strictly as English does.

English often says:

• He said that it was warm

But Croatian can naturally say:

• Rekao je da je topla

literally He said that it is warm, even though the reporting verb is in the past.

This is normal when reporting what someone said about a state or condition. Croatian often keeps the tense that belongs to the original statement.

If you wanted to make the pastness more explicit, you could use:

• da je njezina njuška bila topla
• da je krzno bilo čisto

But the version with present je is very natural.

Yes, both are possible.

• njezina = more standard/careful
• njena = shorter and very common in everyday speech

In this sentence, njezina agrees with njuška, which is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So you get njezina njuška.

If the noun were neuter, you would need a neuter form:

• njezino krzno

If it were masculine:

• njezin rep

Because adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Here:

• njuška is feminine singular, so the adjective is topla
• krzno is neuter singular, so the adjective is čisto

So:

• njuška topla
• krzno čisto

This kind of agreement is one of the most important things to watch in Croatian.

They are both in the nominative.

That is because each one is the subject of a clause:

• njezina njuška je topla
• krzno je čisto

The predicate adjectives (topla, čisto) also match the nominative subject.

So even inside a da clause after rekao, the nouns are still nominative because they are subjects, not objects.

Because Croatian often leaves out possessives when they are already obvious from context.

After njezina njuška, it is clear that krzno belongs to the same animal, so krzno by itself is enough.

Both are possible:

• ... ali da je krzno čisto
• ... ali da je njezino krzno čisto

The version without the possessive is often more natural when there is no risk of confusion.

Usually, yes.

Veterinar is a masculine noun and normally refers to a male veterinarian.

If the veterinarian were female, you would usually say:

• Veterinarka je rekla...

So:

• veterinar je rekao = a male vet said
• veterinarka je rekla = a female vet said

Also notice the participle changes too:

• rekao for masculine
• rekla for feminine

Yes, Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but not completely free.

This sentence uses a very neutral, standard order:

• Veterinar je rekao da je njezina njuška topla, ali da je krzno čisto.

You can move some elements for emphasis, but clitics like je have special placement rules and usually stay near the beginning of their clause.

For example, changing the order too much can sound marked, literary, or unnatural. So for a learner, the sentence as given is a very good model to follow.

Njuška usually means an animal’s muzzle, snout, or nose/mouth area.

So in this sentence it refers to the animal’s muzzle, not just the nose alone.

A useful extra note: when used about a person, njuška can sound rude or slangy, like saying mug or face in a rough way. But here it is a normal literal animal word.