Doktorica kaže da ne smijem jesti bombone kad me boli grlo.

Doktorica is the feminine form, so it refers to a female doctor. If the doctor were male, you would normally say doktor.

In Croatian, profession words often have masculine and feminine forms:

• doktor = male doctor
• doktorica = female doctor

So this sentence tells you the speaker is talking about a woman doctor.

Croatian does not have articles like the or a/an. So doktorica can mean:

• the doctor
• a doctor
• sometimes even my doctor, if the context makes that obvious

Croatian relies much more on context than English does.

Kaže means says, and da introduces the following clause, like English that.

So:

• Doktorica kaže = The doctor says
• da ne smijem jesti bombone = that I must not eat candy

After verbs like reći / kazati / misliti / znati, Croatian very often uses da + a finite verb, where English sometimes uses that and sometimes leaves it out.

So this is completely normal:

• Kaže da... = She says that...

Not exactly. Ne smijem comes from smjeti, which means to be allowed to.

So:

• smijem = I may / I’m allowed to
• ne smijem = I must not / I’m not allowed to

In this sentence, the meaning is about permission or prohibition, not ability.

Compare:

• Ne smijem jesti bombone. = I mustn’t eat candy.
• Ne mogu jesti bombone. = I can’t eat candy.
  This would suggest inability, not a rule or instruction.

Because the doctor is giving advice or a restriction, ne smijem is the natural choice.

Smijem is the 1st person singular present tense of smjeti.

That means it corresponds to I may / I am allowed to.

A few common forms are:

• smijem = I may
• smiješ = you may
• smije = he/she/it may
• smijemo = we may
• smijete = you all / you formal may
• smiju = they may

In the negative:

• ne smijem = I mustn’t
• ne smiješ = you mustn’t
• etc.

Because after modal verbs like smjeti, Croatian uses the infinitive.

So:

• smijem jesti = I may eat
• ne smijem jesti = I must not eat

This works much like English modal verbs:

• can eat
• must eat
• should eat

There is no extra word like English to here.

Because bombone is the accusative plural, used for the direct object of jesti (to eat).

The noun is:

• bombon = a candy
• bomboni = candies, nominative plural
• bombone = candies, accusative plural

Since the candies are the thing being eaten, Croatian uses the accusative:

• Jesti što? → bombone

So:

• Bomboni su na stolu. = The candies are on the table.
  nominative plural
• Jedem bombone. = I’m eating candies.
  accusative plural

In standard Croatian, the direct object normally stays in the accusative, even in negative sentences.

So:

• Jedem bombone. = I eat candies.
• Ne jedem bombone. = I do not eat candies.

That is why ne smijem jesti bombone still uses bombone.

You may sometimes see other case choices in special styles or meanings, but for normal modern Croatian, the accusative here is the standard form.

Literally, it works more like:

when the throat hurts me

That sounds strange in English, but it is very normal in Croatian.

The structure is:

• kad = when
• me = me
• boli = hurts
• grlo = throat

Croatian often expresses physical pain this way:

• Boli me glava. = My head hurts. / literally The head hurts me
• Boli me grlo. = My throat hurts.

So kad me boli grlo means when my throat hurts.

Because the verb boljeti takes the person who feels the pain in the accusative, not the dative.

So:

• me = accusative of ja
• mi = dative/locative of ja

With boljeti, you say:

• boli me = it hurts me
• not boli mi for this meaning

So:

• kad me boli grlo = correct
• kad mi boli grlo = not correct for standard Croatian

Grlo is the subject of boli, so it is in the nominative.

In Croatian, body-part expressions often do not use a possessive adjective if ownership is obvious.

So instead of saying:

• my throat hurts

Croatian commonly says:

• boli me grlo

The idea of my is already understood from me.

You can add moje for emphasis or contrast:

• Boli me moje grlo would sound unnatural in most normal situations.
• Baš me moje grlo boli, a ne nos. could work in a contrastive context, but that is unusual.

So the simple natural form is just boli me grlo.

Because me is a clitic, and Croatian clitics usually go in the second position in their clause.

Here the clause begins with kad, so the clitic comes right after it:

• kad me boli grlo

That is why kad boli me grlo sounds wrong.

This second-position pattern is very common in Croatian:

• Kaže da ne smijem...
• Kad me boli...
• Ako mi kažeš...

Clitics such as me, te, ga, je, mi, ti, se often behave this way.

Yes. Kad and kada both mean when.

• kad is shorter and very common in everyday speech
• kada is a bit fuller and can sound slightly more formal or careful

So both are correct:

• kad me boli grlo
• kada me boli grlo

In this sentence, kad sounds perfectly natural.