Kum će dočekati goste kod ulaza.

Kum is a culturally important word in Croatian. Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• best man at a wedding
• godfather
• sometimes a broader ceremonial sponsor/witness role

So it is not just any male friend. It usually refers to a specific formal relationship. In this sentence, it is the subject and is in the nominative singular form: kum.

This is the Croatian future I tense.

It is formed with:

• a clitic form of htjeti = ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će
• plus the infinitive of the main verb

So here:

• će = he/she/it will
• dočekati = infinitive, to welcome / to meet upon arrival

Together, će dočekati means will welcome or will meet on arrival.

Because će is a clitic, and Croatian clitics usually go in the second position in the sentence or clause.

So:

• Kum će dočekati goste kod ulaza.

Here, Kum is the first element, so će comes right after it.

You can also see a form like:

• Dočekat će goste kod ulaza.

When the infinitive comes before će, the final -i of the infinitive is usually dropped in writing: dočekat će, not dočekati će.

Because dočekati and čekati are not the same.

• čekati = to wait
• dočekati = to receive, greet, meet when someone arrives

So dočekati goste means something like:

• welcome the guests when they arrive
• be there to receive them
• meet them at the entrance

Also, dočekati is perfective, which fits a completed event: the welcoming of the guests as they arrive.

Because goste is the accusative plural, and it is used here as the direct object of the verb dočekati.

• gosti = nominative plural = guests as the subject
• goste = accusative plural = guests as the object

So:

• Gosti dolaze. = The guests are arriving.
• Kum će dočekati goste. = The best man/godfather will welcome the guests.

A learner should notice that Croatian changes noun forms depending on their role in the sentence.

Ulaza is in the genitive singular.

That is because the preposition kod requires the genitive.

So:

• dictionary form: ulaz = entrance
• after kod: kod ulaza = by/near/at the entrance

This is a very common pattern in Croatian:

• kod kuće
• kod škole
• kod prijatelja
• kod ulaza

Not exactly.

• kod ulaza usually means by the entrance, near the entrance
• na ulazu usually means at the entrance or on the entry point itself

In many situations, both could sound natural, but the nuance is slightly different:

• kod ulaza = location near it
• na ulazu = more directly at the entrance itself

So kod ulaza feels a bit like by the doorway / near the entrance area.

Because Croatian does not have articles like a and the.

So Croatian simply says:

• kum
• goste
• ulaza

Whether English translates these as a, the, or sometimes no article at all depends on context.

Croatian usually expresses definiteness through:

• context
• word order
• stress/emphasis
• sometimes demonstratives like taj, ovaj, onaj if needed

So learners should not look for a separate word matching English the in every sentence.

Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible because case endings show who is doing what.

For example, these are all possible with slightly different emphasis:

• Kum će dočekati goste kod ulaza.
• Kum će kod ulaza dočekati goste.
• Goste će kum dočekati kod ulaza.

The basic meaning stays similar, but the focus changes:

• starting with Kum emphasizes who
• starting with Goste emphasizes whom
• moving kod ulaza earlier can emphasize where

However, the clitic će still follows the usual second-position rule.