Jučer smo dobili pozivnicu za vjenčanje moje sestre.

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

Here smo tells you the subject is we. So Jučer smo dobili... is a complete sentence by itself.

You can add mi if you want emphasis or contrast:

• Mi smo jučer dobili... = We got it yesterday
• without mi = neutral, everyday wording

This is the normal Croatian past tense, called perfekt.

It is made with:

• a present-tense form of biti (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su)
• plus the past participle of the main verb

So here:

• smo = the auxiliary, we have
• dobili = past participle of dobiti

Together, smo dobili means we got / we received.

Because smo is a clitic, an unstressed little word that usually goes in second position in the clause.

So in:

• Jučer smo dobili...

the first element is Jučer, and the clitic smo comes right after it.

This is very typical in Croatian word order. You cannot place smo just anywhere.

The past participle agrees with the subject in number and, in the plural, also gender.

Here dobili is masculine plural, which is also the default plural form for:

• a mixed group of men and women
• a group whose gender is not specified

If the speakers were all female, it would be:

• Jučer smo dobile pozivnicu...

Compare:

• dobio = one male
• dobila = one female
• dobili = plural masculine / mixed
• dobile = plural feminine

Because pozivnicu is the accusative singular form.

The noun pozivnica is feminine:

• nominative: pozivnica
• accusative: pozivnicu

It changes because it is the direct object of dobili — it is the thing that was received.

So:

• dobili smo što? → pozivnicu

After za, the noun here is in the accusative.

So vjenčanje is accusative singular. But vjenčanje is a neuter noun, and in neuter singular the nominative and accusative are often the same.

That is why it looks unchanged:

• nominative: vjenčanje
• accusative: vjenčanje

In this sentence, za vjenčanje means something like for the wedding — the invitation concerns that event.

With pozivnica, Croatian often uses za in this kind of phrase:

• pozivnica za rođendan
• pozivnica za vjenčanje

You may also hear pozivnica na vjenčanje, especially when the emphasis is on being invited to attend the event. So na is also possible in many real-life contexts.

A simple way to remember it:

• pozivnica za vjenčanje = a wedding invitation
• ići na vjenčanje = to go to a wedding

Because Croatian uses the genitive here to express possession or relationship.

Literally, vjenčanje moje sestre means:

• the wedding of my sister

So sestra changes from nominative to genitive:

• nominative: moja sestra
• genitive: moje sestre

The pronoun changes too, so it agrees with sestre:

• moja → moje

Because svoj normally refers back to the subject of the sentence.

Here the subject is we, but the possessor is my sister, not necessarily our sister. So moje sestre is correct for my sister.

If the wedding were for our sister, you would normally say:

• naše sestre

If the subject and possessor were the same in a reflexive sense, svoj could be used:

• Dobio sam pozivnicu za vjenčanje svoje sestre.

But in your sentence, moje clearly matches the English idea my sister.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, because endings show grammatical relationships.

For example, these are possible:

• Jučer smo dobili pozivnicu za vjenčanje moje sestre.
• Pozivnicu za vjenčanje moje sestre smo dobili jučer.
• Mi smo jučer dobili pozivnicu za vjenčanje moje sestre.

The meaning stays basically the same, but the focus changes. The original version is a very natural neutral sentence.

The main thing to watch is the clitic smo, which still wants to stay in second position.

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

So pozivnicu can mean:

• an invitation
• the invitation

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, English naturally uses an invitation, but Croatian does not need a separate word for that.

Yes, dobiti is a perfective verb. It presents the action as completed: you receive something, and the event is finished.

That fits jučer very well, because the sentence describes one completed event in the past.

An imperfective verb would suggest repetition, duration, or habit. So dobiti is the natural choice here.

A related imperfective verb is dobivati.

Very roughly:

• dobiti = to get / receive once, as a completed event
• dobivati = to be getting / to get repeatedly / habitually

So:

• Jučer smo dobili pozivnicu... = one completed action yesterday

But dobivali would sound more like:

• we were getting invitations
• we used to get invitations
• we kept receiving them

That does not match the idea of one specific invitation received yesterday.

They overlap, but there is a slight difference in feel.

• vjenčanje often refers more to the wedding itself, especially the ceremony or formal event
• svadba often refers more to the wedding celebration, party, or feast

In everyday speech, people do use them loosely, and sometimes they are almost interchangeable. But in this sentence, vjenčanje is a very natural choice.