Mislim da ti crvena haljina stoji bolje od plave haljine.

Ti is the dative singular form of ti (you, informal singular).

In the expression stajati nekome when talking about clothes, the person who is being suited takes the dative:

• Haljina ti stoji dobro. = The dress looks good on you.
• literally: The dress stands to you well.

So in Mislim da ti crvena haljina stoji bolje..., ti means to/ on you, not you as a subject.

Yes, the basic meaning of stajati is to stand. But with clothes, colors, hairstyles, etc., Croatian often uses stajati to mean:

• to suit someone
• to look good on someone

So:

• Crvena haljina ti stoji dobro. = The red dress suits you / looks good on you.
• Ta boja mi ne stoji. = That color doesn’t suit me.

This is a very common idiomatic use.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but some words strongly prefer certain positions.

Here, ti is a clitic-like short pronoun form, and these short unstressed forms usually appear near the beginning of the clause, often in second position.

So:

• Mislim da ti crvena haljina stoji bolje... sounds natural.

  You may also hear different word orders for emphasis, but this one is the most neutral and standard.

Yes. In this sentence, da introduces a subordinate clause and works much like English that:

• Mislim da... = I think that...

So:

• Mislim da ti crvena haljina stoji bolje...
• I think (that) the red dress suits you better...

Just like in English, that is often optional in translation, but in Croatian da is normally used here.

Because bolje here is an adverb, not an adjective.

It modifies the verb stoji:

• stoji dobro = looks good
• stoji bolje = looks better

Compare:

• dobar / bolji = adjective (good / better)
• dobro / bolje = adverb (well / better)

Since the idea is looks better, Croatian uses the adverb bolje.

After od in comparisons, Croatian uses the genitive.

So:

• bolje od plave haljine = better than the blue dress

Here:

• plava haljina = nominative
• plave haljine = genitive

This is because Croatian commonly forms comparisons like this:

• veći od kuće = bigger than the house
• bolji od mene = better than me
• ljepša od sestre = prettier than the sister

So od + genitive is the key pattern.

Sometimes Croatian can omit a repeated noun if the meaning is obvious, but with this sentence the full form:

• od plave haljine

is the clearest and most standard for learners.

In casual speech, native speakers may sometimes shorten repeated phrases if context is very clear, but you should first learn and use the full version.

Because they agree with haljina in the case required by the sentence.

First phrase:

• crvena haljina
• nominative singular feminine

This is the subject of stoji.

Second phrase:

• plave haljine
• genitive singular feminine

This is required by od in the comparison.

So the adjective changes because the noun changes case:

• crvena haljina = red dress
• od plave haljine = than the blue dress

Yes. The subject is crvena haljina.

That is why the verb is stoji = it stands / suits (3rd person singular), agreeing with the singular noun haljina.

So the structure is roughly:

• Mislim = I think
• da = that
• ti = to you / on you
• crvena haljina = the red dress
• stoji bolje = looks better / suits better
• od plave haljine = than the blue dress

Croatian does not have articles like English a and the.

So crvena haljina can mean:

• a red dress
• the red dress

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English naturally uses the because we are comparing two specific dresses, but Croatian does not need a separate word for that.

Sometimes stajati with clothes can overlap with the idea of fitting well, but its main meaning here is more like:

• suits you
• looks good on you

If you want to emphasize physical fit/size more strongly, Croatian often uses other expressions too, depending on context.

So in this sentence, the most natural understanding is about appearance, not just size or cut.

Because ti is the informal singular form of you.

If you were speaking formally to one person, or to more than one person, you would use vam:

• Mislim da vam crvena haljina stoji bolje od plave haljine.

So the original sentence is addressed to:

• one person
• in an informal way

Not in this sentence. Here Mislim means I think in the sense of I believe / in my opinion.

So:

• Mislim da... = I think that...

If you wanted I am thinking in the sense of being engaged in thought, English and Croatian would usually express that differently depending on context.

In this sentence, it is clearly an opinion.

Here are the main forms:

• misliti = to think
• ti = you (informal singular); ti here is the dative form
• crven = red
• haljina = dress
• stajati = to stand; with clothes, to suit / look good on
• dobro / bolje = well / better
• od = from; in comparisons, than
• plav = blue

This is useful because Croatian words often change form depending on case, gender, number, and sentence role.