Ne znam koliko će sastanak još trajati.

Koliko means how much / how long depending on context. In this sentence, it refers to duration, so it means how long.

Croatian often uses koliko for time length:

• Ne znam koliko će trajati. = I don’t know how long it will last.

You may also hear koliko dugo, which is a more explicit how long:

• Ne znam koliko dugo će sastanak trajati.

Both are correct. In this sentence, koliko alone is completely natural.

Će is the clitic form of the verb htjeti used to form the future tense.

So:

• će trajati = will last

In Croatian, the future is often formed with:

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

Here:

• trajati = to last
• će trajati = will last

Because sastanak is he/it grammatically, the form is će.

This is normal in Croatian. Će is a clitic, which means it usually takes the second position in the clause.

So in the clause:

• koliko će sastanak još trajati

the će appears early, after the first word koliko, not directly next to trajati.

That is very typical Croatian word order. Compare:

• Sastanak će još trajati.
• Ne znam koliko će sastanak još trajati.

The future marker does not always sit right in front of the infinitive the way will often does in English.

Because sastanak is the subject of trajati.

The sentence is about the meeting being the thing that will last. Subjects are normally in the nominative case.

So:

• sastanak = nominative singular
• it is the thing doing the action of lasting

There is no preposition or verb here forcing another case.

Here još means still / yet / any longer, depending on how you translate it naturally into English.

So:

• koliko će sastanak još trajati = how much longer the meeting will last

It adds the idea that the meeting is already happening and will continue for some additional time.

Compare:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = How long will the meeting last?
• Koliko će sastanak još trajati? = How much longer will the meeting last?

So još gives the sense of from now onward.

Yes, Croatian word order is flexible, but some positions sound more natural than others.

The sentence:

• Ne znam koliko će sastanak još trajati.

is very natural.

You might also hear:

• Ne znam koliko će još sastanak trajati.

That is also understandable, but koliko će sastanak još trajati sounds smoother and more standard to many speakers in neutral usage.

With clitics like će, word order is guided by clitic placement, while words like još can move around somewhat for emphasis.

Because in Croatian future tense, after ću / ćeš / će / ćemo / ćete / će, the main verb is often in the infinitive.

So:

• će trajati = will last

The infinitive form is trajati = to last

This is the basic dictionary form of the verb.

Yes, but it is small.

• koliko će sastanak još trajati = how much longer the meeting will last
• koliko dugo će sastanak još trajati = also how much longer/how long the meeting will last

Adding dugo makes the idea of length of time more explicit. Without dugo, Croatian still understands duration very naturally from koliko.

In everyday speech, both are possible. The shorter version is very common.

It is understandable, but it sounds less natural because of clitic placement and rhythm.

In standard Croatian, clitics like će tend to come early, usually in second position. The most natural version here is:

• Ne znam koliko će sastanak još trajati.

If you move još before će, the sentence may sound awkward or non-standard to many speakers:

• Ne znam koliko još će sastanak trajati.

So for learners, it is best to stick with:

• koliko će sastanak još trajati

Ne znam means I don’t know.

It comes from the verb znati = to know.

Present tense:

• ja znam = I know
• ti znaš = you know
• on/ona/ono zna = he/she/it knows
• mi znamo = we know
• vi znate = you know
• oni znaju = they know

With negation:

• ne znam = I do not know

So the sentence begins with the first person singular:

• Ne znam = I don’t know

Yes. The part:

• koliko će sastanak još trajati

is an indirect question, because it is embedded inside a larger sentence:

• Ne znam ... = I don’t know ...

Compare:

Direct question:

• Koliko će sastanak još trajati? = How much longer will the meeting last?

Indirect question:

• Ne znam koliko će sastanak još trajati. = I don’t know how much longer the meeting will last.

In Croatian, indirect questions usually keep the normal statement punctuation, so the whole sentence ends with a period, not a question mark.

Će is pronounced roughly like cheh, but with a softer ć sound than English ch.

A few notes:

• ć is softer than č
• e is like e in met, not like English ee

For an English speaker, će is approximately:

• tyeh or soft cheh

You do not pronounce it like see or kay.

The structure is:

• Ne znam = I don’t know
• koliko = how long / how much
• će = future marker
• sastanak = the meeting
• još = still / longer / yet
• trajati = to last

So literally it is something like:

• I don’t know how much the meeting will still last

Natural English:

• I don’t know how much longer the meeting will last.

This is a good example of how Croatian and English can use slightly different word order while expressing the same idea.