Poljubit ću djecu prije spavanja.

Ću is the 1st person singular form of the auxiliary verb htjeti when it is used to make the future tense.

So:

• ću = I will
• poljubit ću = I will kiss

This is the Croatian future I tense.

A quick comparison:

• ja ću = I will
• ti ćeš = you will
• on/ona/ono će = he/she/it will
• mi ćemo = we will
• vi ćete = you will
• oni/one/ona će = they will

So the sentence is talking about a future action: I will kiss the children before sleep / before bedtime.

This is a very common learner question.

The full infinitive is poljubiti = to kiss.
But in Croatian future tense, when the infinitive comes before the auxiliary ću, the final -i of the infinitive is usually dropped:

• poljubiti + ću → poljubit ću

So this is the normal written form.

Compare:

• Ja ću poljubiti djecu.
• Poljubit ću djecu.

Both mean the same thing, but in the second pattern the infinitive loses its final -i.

Yes. That is completely correct.

Croatian allows both patterns:

• Ja ću poljubiti djecu prije spavanja.
• Poljubit ću djecu prije spavanja.

They both mean the same thing.

The main difference is word order and focus:

• Ja ću... explicitly includes I
• Poljubit ću... sounds a bit more natural in many everyday contexts when the subject is already clear

Croatian often omits subject pronouns because the verb form already shows the person.

Because Croatian is a pro-drop language, which means the subject pronoun is often left out.

The form ću already tells you the subject is I, so ja is not necessary.

• Ja ću poljubiti djecu. = I will kiss the children.
• Poljubit ću djecu. = also I will kiss the children.

You would include ja only if you want emphasis, contrast, or clarity:

• Ja ću poljubiti djecu, a ti pospremi stol.
  I’ll kiss the children, and you clear the table.

Because djecu is the accusative form, and it is the direct object of the verb poljubiti.

The basic dictionary form is:

• djeca = children

But after a transitive verb like poljubiti (to kiss), Croatian uses the accusative case:

• djeca → nominative
• djecu → accusative

So:

• Djeca spavaju. = The children are sleeping.
• Poljubit ću djecu. = I will kiss the children.

In meaning, it is plural: it means children.

So even though it may look unusual to English speakers, you should treat it as referring to more than one child.

In this sentence:

• djecu = the children

This is just the object form of djeca.

Prije spavanja means before sleeping, before going to sleep, or more naturally in many contexts, before bedtime.

It is made of:

• prije = before
• spavanja = sleeping / sleep / going to bed in this structure

So the phrase can be understood as:

• before sleep
• before going to sleep
• before bedtime

The most natural translation depends on context.

Because prije usually requires the genitive case, and spavanja is the genitive form of spavanje.

So:

• spavanje = sleeping / sleep
• prije spavanja = before sleeping / before bedtime

This is a common pattern:

• prije ručka = before lunch
• prije škole = before school
• prije spavanja = before sleeping

Spavanje is a verbal noun formed from the verb spavati (to sleep).

So:

• spavati = to sleep
• spavanje = sleeping / sleep

Croatian often uses these verbal nouns after prepositions:

• nakon jela = after eating / after the meal
• bez razmišljanja = without thinking
• prije spavanja = before sleeping

This is one reason the phrase may feel more noun-like than the English before sleeping.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Croatian verbs.

• poljubiti is perfective
• ljubiti is imperfective

Here, poljubiti means a completed single action: to give a kiss / to kiss once.

That fits the sentence well:

• Poljubit ću djecu prije spavanja.
  = I’ll kiss the children before bedtime.

If you used ljubiti, it would suggest a more ongoing or repeated action, which would sound different.

So in this sentence, poljubiti is the natural choice because the speaker means a specific completed act.

Usually, yes: it suggests a completed act of kissing, often a single kiss or a brief affectionate gesture.

In this sentence, it most naturally means something like:

• I’ll give the children a kiss before bedtime
• I’ll kiss the children before they go to sleep

That is why poljubiti works better than a more ongoing verb.

It can be understood generally as before bedtime / before sleeping, and the exact interpretation depends on context.

In real life, with djecu in the sentence, many people would naturally understand it as:

• before the children go to sleep
• or more loosely before bedtime

But grammatically, prije spavanja itself does not explicitly say whose sleeping it is. Context usually makes that clear.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible.

Possible versions include:

• Poljubit ću djecu prije spavanja.
• Djecu ću poljubiti prije spavanja.
• Prije spavanja poljubit ću djecu.
• Ja ću poljubiti djecu prije spavanja.

These all keep roughly the same core meaning, but the emphasis changes:

• starting with prije spavanja emphasizes when
• starting with djecu emphasizes whom
• adding ja emphasizes who

A few sounds may be unfamiliar to English speakers:

• lj in poljubit is a single soft sound, somewhat like the lli in million for many English speakers
• ć in ću is a soft ch-like sound
• dj in djecu is pronounced like a soft j/dy sound
• j in prije is like English y

A rough English approximation would be:

polyoo-bit choo dyetsu pree-ye spava-nya

That is only approximate, but it can help as a first step.

Yes, very natural.

It sounds like something a parent might say, for example:

• Poljubit ću djecu prije spavanja.
  I’ll kiss the children before bedtime.

It is simple, idiomatic Croatian and uses very common grammar:

• future tense
• object in the accusative
• prije + genitive
• a perfective verb for a completed action