Domar nam je pokazao gdje su podrum i zajednički sandučići.

Domar usually means a caretaker, janitor, or building superintendent, depending on context. In a sentence like this, it is most naturally the person responsible for the building and its common areas.

It is a masculine singular noun.

Nam means to us.

It is the dative form of the pronoun mi (we). In this sentence, it marks the people who received the action of showing:

• pokazati nekome = to show someone

So:

• nam je pokazao = he showed us

Je is the auxiliary verb to be, used here to form the perfect tense, which is the normal past tense in Croatian for this kind of sentence.

The pattern is:

• je pokazao = has showed / showed

So the sentence uses:

• je
  • pokazao

This is how Croatian commonly forms the past:

• on je pokazao = he showed
• ona je pokazala = she showed

Pokazao agrees with the subject domar, which is masculine singular.

Croatian past participles change according to gender and number:

• pokazao = masculine singular
• pokazala = feminine singular
• pokazalo = neuter singular
• pokazali = masculine mixed plural
• pokazale = feminine plural

Because domar is one male person, pokazao is the correct form.

This is because nam and je are both clitics in Croatian. Clitics are short unstressed words that usually go near the beginning of the sentence, typically in the second position.

So:

• Domar nam je pokazao... is natural and correct.

Putting je or nam later in the sentence usually sounds wrong or much less natural.

This is a very common Croatian pattern, and learners often need time to get used to it.

Because the subject of that clause is actually two things together:

• podrum
• zajednički sandučići

These are linked by i (and), so together they form a plural subject. That is why the verb is plural:

• gdje su podrum i zajednički sandučići = where the basement and the shared mailboxes are

Even though podrum is singular, the full subject is plural because it includes both nouns.

They are in the nominative.

That is because they are the subject of the clause:

• gdje su podrum i zajednički sandučići

In other words, Croatian is saying:

• where the basement and shared mailboxes are

Since they are the things that are somewhere, nominative is used.

Croatian does not have articles like English a and the.

So podrum can mean:

• a basement
• the basement

And zajednički sandučići can mean:

• shared mailboxes
• the shared mailboxes

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, the context makes it clear that these are specific places in the building, so English naturally uses the.

Zajednički means shared, common, or communal.

Sandučići is the plural of sandučić, which literally means small box, but in this kind of context it commonly means mailbox or letter box.

So zajednički sandučići means something like:

• the shared mailboxes
• the communal mailboxes

The adjective zajednički agrees with sandučići in gender, number, and case:

• masculine plural
• nominative

Because of how the phrase is built:

• podrum i zajednički sandučići

This means:

• the basement and the shared mailboxes

The adjective zajednički is attached only to sandučići. It does not describe podrum.

If the speaker wanted the adjective to apply to both nouns, the sentence would need to be worded differently.

Gdje means where in the sense of location.

Kamo means where to, in the sense of destination or movement toward a place.

Here the caretaker showed the location of things, so gdje is correct:

• gdje su podrum i zajednički sandučići = where the basement and shared mailboxes are

If the meaning were where to go, then kamo might be appropriate in another sentence.

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, but not completely free. In this sentence, the main limits come from the clitics nam and je, which usually need to stay near the beginning.

The original sentence:

• Domar nam je pokazao gdje su podrum i zajednički sandučići.

is very natural.

Some rearrangements are possible for emphasis, but they can sound more marked. For example, moving domar or the whole subordinate clause may change the focus. However, learners should treat the original version as a very good standard model.

So the short answer is:

• the sentence can sometimes be rearranged
• but nam je should normally stay in its clitic position