Kad je dijete tužno, zagrljaj mu pomaže više od riječi.

Kad means when.

Yes, kad and kada usually mean the same thing. The difference is mostly style:

• kad = very common, everyday, conversational
• kada = a bit more formal or emphatic

So in this sentence, Kad je dijete tužno... is completely natural.

Also, here kad means when, not if. For if, Croatian normally uses ako.

Because je is a clitic: a short, unstressed word that normally goes in second position in the clause.

So Croatian prefers:

• Kad je dijete tužno

not

• Kad dijete je tužno

This second-position pattern is very common with short forms like:

• je = is
• sam, si, smo...
• mu, joj, ga, ih...

So the word order here is normal Croatian word order, even if it feels unusual to an English speaker.

Because dijete is a neuter noun in Croatian.

That means the adjective has to agree with it in gender and number:

• tužan = masculine singular
• tužna = feminine singular
• tužno = neuter singular

So:

• dijete je tužno = the child is sad

Even if the child is biologically a boy or a girl, the noun dijete itself is grammatically neuter, so the adjective is neuter too.

It is in the nominative singular.

In the clause je dijete tužno, dijete is the subject, so nominative is exactly what you would expect.

Its basic dictionary form is also dijete, so what you see here is the normal base form.

Because Kad je dijete tužno is a subordinate clause, and the rest of the sentence is the main clause:

• Kad je dijete tužno, = subordinate clause
• zagrljaj mu pomaže više od riječi. = main clause

In Croatian, when a subordinate clause comes first, it is normally separated by a comma.

So the comma is standard punctuation here.

Mu means to him, to her, or more naturally here to the child.

It is the short unstressed dative form of the pronoun. In this sentence:

• zagrljaj mu pomaže = a hug helps the child

In natural English, you would usually translate it as helps him/her or simply helps the child.

One thing that can confuse learners: dijete is grammatically neuter, but mu is still possible here. Croatian often uses mu in a general sense for a child, especially when no specific female child is being singled out. If the child were clearly a girl, you could also hear joj.

Again, this is because mu is a clitic.

In the main clause, Croatian puts clitics near the beginning, typically in second position:

• zagrljaj mu pomaže

not usually

• zagrljaj pomaže mu

So the structure is:

• zagrljaj = first full word
• mu = clitic in second position
• pomaže = main verb

This is a very typical Croatian pattern.

Because the verb pomagati / pomoći works differently from English help.

In English, we say:

• A hug helps the child

where the child is a direct object.

In Croatian, help normally takes the dative:

• Pomažem djetetu = I help the child
• Zagrljaj mu pomaže = A hug helps him/her

So mu is there because Croatian grammar requires the person being helped to be in the dative.

Pomaže is the present tense of the imperfective verb pomagati.

That is the natural choice here because the sentence expresses a general truth or a usual effect:

• when a child is sad, a hug helps

If you used pomogne, that would come from the perfective verb pomoći, which is more about a single completed helping event. That is less natural for a general statement like this.

So:

• pomaže = helps, is helpful, generally helps
• pomogne = helps on one occasion / manages to help

It means more than words.

The structure is:

• više = more
• od = than / from
• riječi = words

With comparisons like this, Croatian very often uses:

• više od + genitive

So od riječi is the comparison phrase: than words.

This is a very common pattern:

• više od svega = more than anything
• više od novca = more than money
• više od riječi = more than words

It is genitive plural, because it comes after od in a comparison.

That can be confusing because the form riječi looks the same as some other forms of the noun riječ.

But in this sentence, after od, you should analyze it as genitive plural:

• riječ = word
• riječi = words / of words, depending on context
• od riječi = than words

So the form is ambiguous by itself, but the preposition od tells you what case it is.

Because Croatian has no articles.

English says:

• the child
• a hug
• the words

Croatian usually just says:

• dijete
• zagrljaj
• riječi

Whether you understand it as a child, the child, a hug, or the hug depends on context.

So in this sentence:

• dijete can mean a child or the child
• zagrljaj can mean a hug
• riječi means words

That is completely normal in Croatian.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, especially for emphasis.

For example, you could also say something like:

• Kad je dijete tužno, zagrljaj mu pomaže više nego riječi.
• Kad je dijete tužno, više mu pomaže zagrljaj nego riječi.

These versions are close in meaning, but they may shift emphasis slightly.

The original sentence is natural and smooth. It presents zagrljaj as the subject and then compares it to riječi in a simple, balanced way.