Putnica je preko razglasa saznala da vlak za Rijeku kasni skoro sat vremena.

Putnica means female passenger. Croatian nouns usually show grammatical gender, and for people this often matches biological sex.

• putnik = male passenger
• putnica = female passenger

So this sentence specifically tells you the passenger was a woman.

This is the Croatian perfect tense:

• je = auxiliary verb (is/has, from biti)
• saznala = past participle-like form of saznati (to find out, learn)

Together, je saznala means found out / learned.

The form saznala ends in -la because the subject putnica is feminine singular.

Compare:

• Putnik je saznao = The male passenger found out
• Putnica je saznala = The female passenger found out

They are not the same.

• znati = to know
• saznati = to find out / come to know

So:

• Znala je... = She knew...
• Saznala je... = She found out...

In this sentence, the idea is that she received new information, so saznala is the right verb.

It means over the loudspeaker / over the public-address system.

• preko can mean over, via, through
• razglas is a PA system / loudspeaker system

So preko razglasa is an idiomatic way to say the information was announced over a station or building speaker system.

Because the preposition preko normally takes the genitive case.

So:

• nominative: razglas
• genitive: razglasa

This is very common in Croatian:

• preko mosta = over the bridge
• preko telefona = by phone / over the phone
• preko razglasa = over the PA system

Croatian clitics, including je, usually go in the second position of the clause.

So in:

• Putnica je preko razglasa saznala...

the first element is Putnica, and the clitic je comes right after it.

This is a normal Croatian word-order rule. It does not always mean “after the second word” in a mechanical sense; more accurately, it comes after the first phrase/unit.

Da introduces a subordinate clause and here means that.

So:

• saznala da... = found out that...

Croatian usually keeps da in this kind of sentence, where English may sometimes omit that:

• She found out that the train was late.
• She found out the train was late.

In Croatian, da is the normal choice here.

After nouns like vlak (train), autobus (bus), let (flight), Croatian often uses za + accusative to show the destination:

• vlak za Rijeku = train to Rijeka
• autobus za Split = bus to Split
• let za London = flight to London

So za here does not mean for in the English sense; it means bound for / going to.

Because za here requires the accusative case.

• base form: Rijeka
• accusative: Rijeku

So:

• vlak za Rijeku
• autobus za Rijeku

This is a normal case change after za when it marks destination.

Because Croatian does not backshift tenses as strictly as English often does.

• Putnica je saznala... = past event: she found out
• ...da vlak za Rijeku kasni... = the content of what she found out: the train is late

Croatian often uses the present tense in the subordinate clause when the situation is presented as current or ongoing at that moment.

English often says:

• she found out that the train was late

But Croatian naturally says:

• saznala da ... kasni

If you used a past form there, it would shift the perspective more strongly to a completed past situation.

It means almost an hour.

Breakdown:

• skoro = almost / nearly
• sat vremena = an hour (of time)

The phrase sat vremena is a very common Croatian duration expression. Literally it is something like an hour of time, where:

• sat = hour
• vremena = genitive of vrijeme (time)

So Croatian often says:

• sat vremena = an hour
• dva sata vremena = two hours

In natural English you usually just say almost an hour, but Croatian often uses this fuller time-expression structure.

Yes. Skoro and gotovo can both mean almost / nearly here.

So both are possible:

• skoro sat vremena
• gotovo sat vremena

Both are natural. Skoro is very common in everyday speech.

It can correspond to both, depending on context.

• Vlak kasni. = The train is late.
• In English, this is often translated as The train is delayed, especially in travel situations.

So in this sentence, kasni skoro sat vremena means the train is running almost an hour late or is delayed by almost an hour.