Kad je odgojiteljica saznala da će oba roditelja kasniti, javila im se odmah.

Odgojiteljica is a feminine noun meaning educator, caregiver, or very often preschool teacher / kindergarten teacher, depending on context.

It comes from:

• odgojitelj = a male educator
• odgojiteljica = a female educator

So the sentence is talking about a female person, which is why later verb forms are also feminine.

Because the subject, odgojiteljica, is feminine singular.

In Croatian past tense, the main verb agrees with the subject in:

• gender
• number

So:

• masculine singular: saznao, javio
• feminine singular: saznala, javila
• neuter singular: saznalo, javilo

That -la ending is one of the clearest signs that the subject is feminine.

Kad means when.

It introduces a time clause:

• Kad je odgojiteljica saznala... = When the educator found out...

In sentences like this, kad often has the sense of when / once / as soon as depending on context.

Here it means that one action happened after another:

1. she found out
2. she immediately contacted them

This is something learners notice very quickly.

In the first clause, you see the full past form:

• je saznala

In the second clause, Croatian very naturally uses:

• javila im se

Without repeating je.

This is very common, especially in natural narrative style and especially with reflexive verbs like javiti se, vratiti se, dogoditi se.

So javila im se odmah is completely normal Croatian.

Because Croatian does not backshift tense the same way English often does.

So after saznala = found out, Croatian still says:

• da će oba roditelja kasniti
• literally: that both parents will be late

In English, we often prefer:

• that both parents would be late or
• that both parents were going to be late

Croatian normally keeps the future:

• će kasniti

After dva, tri, četiri, and oba, Croatian uses a special counting form.

So you get:

• dva roditelja
• tri učenika
• oba roditelja

With masculine nouns, this form often looks like the genitive singular, even though its function is tied to counting.

So:

• oba roditelja = both parents

This is one of those patterns you mostly need to get used to as a fixed grammar rule.

Kasniti means to be late or to arrive late.

In this sentence:

• oba roditelja će kasniti

means that both parents are not going to be on time.

So depending on context, English might say:

• both parents would be late
• both parents were going to be late
• both parents would arrive late

Javiti se is a reflexive verb meaning:

• to get in touch
• to contact someone
• to call/message/check in

The se is part of the verb expression here. It is not optional.

Compare:

• javiti se nekome = to contact someone / get in touch with someone
• javiti nekome nešto = to inform someone of something

So:

• javila im se = she contacted them / got in touch with them

Im is the dative plural form of the pronoun meaning to them.

The verb pattern is:

• javiti se + dative

So:

• javiti se roditeljima = to contact the parents
• javiti im se = to contact them

That is why Croatian uses im, not an accusative form like ih.

Because Croatian clitics follow a fairly fixed order.

Here both im and se are unstressed clitics, and the normal order is:

• dative pronoun first
• se after it

So:

• javila im se

is correct.

Not:

• javila se im

This is part of Croatian clitic order, which learners usually have to memorize gradually through exposure.

Yes, it could move.

Odmah means immediately / right away, and Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

This sentence uses:

• javila im se odmah

But you could also hear:

• odmah im se javila

Both are natural. The difference is mostly about rhythm and emphasis.

Putting odmah at the end can slightly highlight the immediacy of the action.

Yes, aspect matters here.

• saznala comes from saznati, which is perfective
  → it means a completed event: she found out
• javila se comes from javiti se, also perfective
  → a completed action: she contacted them
• kasniti is imperfective
  → it describes an ongoing situation/state: to be late

So the sentence has a very typical aspect pattern:

• one completed event happens
• then another completed event happens
• both are connected to an ongoing situation of lateness

It has two parts:

1. a subordinate time clause
   Kad je odgojiteljica saznala da će oba roditelja kasniti
2. the main clause
   javila im se odmah

So the structure is basically:

• When X happened, she immediately contacted them.

Inside the first clause, there is also another embedded clause:

• da će oba roditelja kasniti

So this sentence is a good example of layered Croatian clause structure:

• kad clause
• inside it a da clause
• then the main action after the comma