Nitko nije znao dokle će trajati kiša, pa smo ostali u kafiću.

Because in Croatian, nitko (nobody / no one) normally goes together with a negative verb.

So:

• Nitko nije znao = Nobody knew
• literally, Croatian uses a kind of double negation, which is completely normal

This is different from standard English, where Nobody didn't know would be wrong. In Croatian, however, nitko + negative verb is the correct pattern.

Yes. Nitko means no one / nobody, so it refers to people.

Compare:

• nitko = nobody
• ništa = nothing

So in this sentence, Nitko nije znao... means No one knew...

Znao is the past active participle of znati (to know), and nije is the negative form of je (is/has, used here as an auxiliary).

Together, nije znao forms the past tense:

• znao je = he knew
• nije znao = he did not know

Because nitko is grammatically singular, Croatian uses the singular masculine form znao.

Even though nitko means nobody, the verb stays singular:

• Nitko nije znao = Nobody knew

Good question. Croatian often uses the masculine singular form as a kind of default grammatical form when the subject is something like nitko.

So:

• Nitko nije znao is standard
• the masculine form does not mean the sentence is specifically about men

This is just how agreement works with words like nitko.

Here dokle means something like until when / how long (up to what point).

In this sentence:

• Nitko nije znao dokle će trajati kiša
• = Nobody knew how long the rain would last

So dokle is asking about the end point in time.

It is related to:

• do = up to, until
• dokle = up to where / until when / how far

In everyday translation, English usually says how long, even though Croatian literally uses something closer to until when here.

Often, yes, but the nuance is a little different.

• dokle će trajati kiša = until when will the rain last / how long will it last
• koliko dugo će trajati kiša = how long will the rain last

Both can be understood, but dokle feels more focused on the endpoint, while koliko dugo focuses on the duration.

In many contexts, both are natural, but with weather and waiting situations, dokle is very common.

This is the future tense.

Croatian future is often formed with:

• a form of htjeti (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će)
• plus the infinitive

So:

• će trajati = will last

Here:

• trajati = to last
• će trajati = will last

Because the subject is kiša (rain, singular), the sentence uses će:

• kiša će trajati = the rain will last

In subordinate clauses, the order can be:

• dokle će trajati kiša

That word order is perfectly normal.

Croatian word order is much more flexible than English word order.

English strongly prefers:

• how long the rain will last

Croatian can say:

• dokle će trajati kiša

Placing kiša after the verb sounds natural here, especially in an indirect question. You could also hear:

• dokle će kiša trajati

But dokle će trajati kiša is very idiomatic and smooth.

Here pa means something like:

• so
• and so
• therefore

So:

• ..., pa smo ostali u kafiću.
• = ..., so we stayed in the café.

It links the first idea to the consequence:

• nobody knew how long the rain would last,
• so we stayed in the café.

Croatian pa is very common and can have several meanings depending on context, but here it is a simple result/consequence connector.

Both are possible, but Croatian clitics (short unstressed words like sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) usually take the second position in a clause.

After pa, the clitic smo comes early:

• pa smo ostali u kafiću

This is a very normal word order.

You may also see ostali smo in other contexts, especially when it starts a clause:

• Ostali smo u kafiću. = We stayed in the café.

But after pa, pa smo ostali... is the most natural pattern.

Yes. Ostali is from the verb ostati, which means:

• to stay
• to remain

Here:

• smo ostali = we stayed / we remained

This is the past tense, formed with:

• smo = we are/have (auxiliary)
• ostali = past participle plural masculine

Because the subject is we, the plural form is used.

The form agrees with the subject.

For mixed groups or groups of males, Croatian uses the masculine plural as the default:

• mi smo ostali

If the speakers were an all-female group, you could have:

• mi smo ostale

So ostali often works as the general/default plural form for we unless the group is explicitly all female.

It is the locative case.

The preposition u can take different cases depending on meaning:

• u + accusative = movement into something
  
  • Idemo u kafić. = We are going into the café.
• u + locative = being in something
  
  • Ostali smo u kafiću. = We stayed in the café.

Since the sentence describes location rather than movement, Croatian uses the locative:

• kafić → u kafiću

Because the base noun is:

• kafić = café

After u with the meaning in, masculine nouns like this commonly change to:

• u kafiću

So:

• nominative: kafić
• locative singular: kafiću

This is a regular pattern for many masculine nouns in Croatian.

No, it is an indirect question embedded inside a larger sentence.

The full sentence is:

• Nitko nije znao [dokle će trajati kiša]

The part in brackets is what nobody knew.

Compare:

• direct question: Dokle će trajati kiša? = How long will the rain last?
• indirect question: Nitko nije znao dokle će trajati kiša. = Nobody knew how long the rain would last.

So the word order looks question-like, but the whole sentence is still a statement.

Yes, that is close to the Croatian structure, but it sounds less natural in English.

More natural English would be:

• Nobody knew how long the rain would last, so we stayed in the café.

That is a good example of how Croatian and English can express the same idea with slightly different wording:

• Croatian: dokle
• natural English: how long

Yes: it is a very common Croatian pattern combining:

1. a negative statement

   • Nitko nije znao = Nobody knew

2. an indirect question

   • dokle će trajati kiša = how long the rain would last

3. a result clause

   • pa smo ostali u kafiću = so we stayed in the café

So this sentence is useful because it shows several important Croatian features at once:

• normal double negation
• future tense
• flexible word order
• clitic placement
• locative after u for location