Profesorica nam često preporučuje kratke romane na hrvatskom.

Profesorica is the feminine form, so it means female professor/teacher. Croatian often marks the gender of professions directly in the noun:

• profesor = a male professor/teacher
• profesorica = a female professor/teacher

So this sentence tells us the teacher is a woman.

Nam means to us. It is the dative form of the pronoun mi.

Here the verb preporučuje works like recommend in English:

• recommend something = direct object
• recommend something to someone = indirect object

So in this sentence:

• nam = to us
• kratke romane = short novels

Because nam is a clitic. In Croatian, clitics are short unstressed words that usually go in the second position of the sentence or clause.

So:

• Profesorica nam često preporučuje...

This placement is very natural in Croatian. English speakers often expect pronouns to stay closer to the verb, but Croatian clitics follow their own word-order rule.

Često means often.

Its position is fairly natural here:

• Profesorica nam često preporučuje... = The professor often recommends...

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but not random. Često commonly appears near the verb, and this sentence sounds very normal.

Preporučuje is 3rd person singular present tense, meaning he/she recommends.

It agrees with profesorica, which is singular:

• ja preporučujem = I recommend
• ti preporučuješ = you recommend
• on/ona preporučuje = he/she recommends

Here it expresses a habitual action, not just something happening once: she often recommends these books.

Because this is the direct object of the verb, so it must be in the accusative plural.

The noun roman means novel. Its forms are:

• nominative plural: romani
• accusative plural: romane

The adjective must agree with the noun, so:

• nominative plural: kratki romani = short novels
• accusative plural: kratke romane = short novels as the object of the verb

Since the professor is recommending the novels, Croatian uses the accusative: kratke romane.

Yes. This is a very common vocabulary point because it can look misleading to English speakers.

• roman = novel
• romansa = romance
• Roman with a capital letter can also mean a Roman

So kratke romane definitely means short novels, not short Romans and not necessarily romance novels.

This is a fixed and very common expression for languages.

• na hrvatskom = in Croatian
• na engleskom = in English
• na njemačkom = in German

It is really a shortened version of:

• na hrvatskom jeziku = in the Croatian language

So hrvatskom is in the locative singular, because it follows na in this meaning.

Not necessarily. Na hrvatskom means they are written in Croatian or available in Croatian.

That is different from saying they are Croatian by origin.

Compare:

• romani na hrvatskom = novels in Croatian
• hrvatski romani = Croatian novels

So this sentence focuses on the language of the books, not their national origin.

It is locative singular.

That is because of the expression na hrvatskom (jeziku). The noun jeziku is often omitted, but the adjective stays in the form that would agree with it:

• na hrvatskom jeziku
• shortened: na hrvatskom

So even though you do not see the noun jeziku, the case is still locative.

Because Croatian does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So kratke romane can mean:

• short novels
• the short novels
• some short novels

The exact meaning depends on context. Croatian usually leaves that unstated unless it really needs to be made clear in another way.

Yes, to some extent. Croatian word order is flexible, but there are still rules, especially for clitics like nam.

For example, these are possible with different emphasis:

• Profesorica nam često preporučuje kratke romane na hrvatskom.
• Često nam profesorica preporučuje kratke romane na hrvatskom.
• Kratke romane na hrvatskom profesorica nam često preporučuje.

But the original sentence is a very neutral and natural way to say it.