Jedna svinja je spavala u blatu, a druga je tražila hranu.

Croatian often leaves out a noun when it is already clear from context.

So:

• jedna svinja = one pig
• druga = the other one / another one, with svinja understood

A fuller version would be:

• Jedna svinja je spavala u blatu, a druga svinja je tražila hranu.

But repeating svinja is unnecessary, so native speakers usually omit it.

Because svinja is a grammatically feminine noun.

In Croatian, adjectives, pronouns, and words like jedan / jedna / jedno and drugi / druga / drugo must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Since svinja is feminine singular, you get:

• jedna svinja
• druga (understood: druga svinja)

That is also why the past-tense forms are feminine:

• spavala
• tražila

It can feel like both.

Literally, jedna is the feminine form of one, but in sentences like this it often works like one in English contrastive expressions:

• One pig was sleeping..., and the other was looking for food.

So here jedna ... a druga ... is best understood as:

• one ... and the other ...

It is not just a simple indefinite a pig. It sets up a contrast between two pigs.

Because Croatian past tense is usually formed with:

• the auxiliary biti (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su)
• plus the past participle

So:

• je spavala = was sleeping / slept
• je tražila = was looking for / looked for

Each clause has its own verb phrase, so each one needs its own auxiliary:

• Jedna svinja je spavala ..., a druga je tražila ...

You cannot normally leave out the second je here.

Those are feminine singular past participle forms.

In Croatian past tense, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Because the subject is feminine singular (svinja), you get:

• spavao = masculine singular
• spavala = feminine singular
• spavalo = neuter singular

and similarly:

• tražio
• tražila
• tražilo

Since both subjects are understood as svinja, both verbs are feminine singular.

Because u can take different cases depending on meaning.

• u + locative = location, in
• u + accusative = motion into something, into

Here the pig is already in the mud, so this is location:

• u blatu = in the mud

Compare:

• Svinja je bila u blatu. = The pig was in the mud.
• Svinja je skočila u blato. = The pig jumped into the mud.

So blatu is the locative singular form of blato.

Because hranu is the accusative singular form, used for the direct object.

The pig was looking for food, and food is what was being sought, so it is the object of tražiti.

• nominative: hrana = food
• accusative: hranu

So:

• tražila hranu = was looking for food

This is very common in Croatian: direct objects often go in the accusative.

A often links two ideas with a mild contrast or comparison.

Here it means something like:

• while
• and
• whereas

So the sentence presents two parallel but different actions:

• one pig was sleeping in the mud,
• a the other was looking for food.

Why not the others?

• i = simple and, with less contrast
• ali = but, usually stronger contrast

So a is the most natural connector here.

In Croatian past tense, the same form can often correspond to either English simple past or past continuous, depending on context.

So je spavala can mean:

• slept
• was sleeping

In this sentence, English often prefers was sleeping because it describes an ongoing background action contrasted with another action:

• One pig was sleeping in the mud, and the other was looking for food.

But grammatically, Croatian does not need a separate form for that distinction here.

Here svinja is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the clause.

The basic dictionary form is:

• svinja = pig

In this sentence:

• Jedna svinja je spavala ...

svinja is the thing doing the action, so nominative is used.

Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English, although some orders sound more natural than others.

The given sentence is neutral and natural:

• Jedna svinja je spavala u blatu, a druga je tražila hranu.

You could also hear variations such as:

• U blatu je spavala jedna svinja, a druga je tražila hranu.

That version puts more emphasis on u blatu.

However, the original order is probably the clearest and most standard for a learner.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• svinja ≈ SVEE-nya
• blatu ≈ BLAH-too
• tražila ≈ TRAH-zhee-lah

A few useful sound notes:

• nj sounds like the ny in canyon
• ž sounds like the s in measure
• stress in Croatian is important, but as a beginner, getting the consonants and vowels clear matters most

So tražila has the ž sound, not a plain English z.

Grammatically, svinja is feminine.

That means words agreeing with it are also feminine, as in this sentence:

• jedna svinja
• spavala
• druga

If you specifically want to refer to a male pig, Croatian often uses a different noun, such as vepar or nerast, depending on context.

But the general noun svinja is grammatically feminine, and that is what controls agreement here.