Djeca više vole pekmez od paštete.

Djeca means children. It is the irregular plural of dijete, which means child.

So:

• dijete = one child
• djeca = children

It does not look like a regular plural, so it is best learned as a special form.

Because the subject is plural: djeca = children.

Vole is the 3rd person plural present-tense form of voljeti.

A few forms are:

• volim = I like
• voliš = you like
• voli = he/she/it likes
• volimo = we like
• volite = you all like
• vole = they like

So we say:

• Dijete voli = The child likes
• Djeca vole = The children like

Here više means more.

With voljeti, it creates the idea of liking something more or preferring something.

So the structure is basically:

• više voljeti X od Y = to like X more than Y

In this sentence, više does not mean several times or any longer. It is specifically the comparative more.

Because pekmez is the direct object of the verb vole.

In Croatian, the direct object usually goes in the accusative case. But pekmez is a masculine inanimate noun, and for many masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: pekmez
• accusative: pekmez

That is why you do not see any ending change here.

Because after od in this kind of comparison, Croatian uses the genitive.

The base form is:

• pašteta = pâté / spread

Its genitive singular is:

• paštete

So:

• od paštete = than pâté

Even though od often means from or of, here it is part of a comparison.

Yes. In comparisons, od can function like than.

This is very common in Croatian:

• veći od mene = bigger than me
• bolji od toga = better than that
• više vole X od Y = they like X more than Y

So in this sentence, od is not expressing origin. It is marking the second part of the comparison.

Yes, you could. That is also a natural sentence.

Two common patterns are:

• više voljeti X od Y
• više voljeti X nego Y

So both of these work:

• Djeca više vole pekmez od paštete.
• Djeca više vole pekmez nego paštetu.

A useful difference for learners:

• with od, the second noun goes into the genitive: paštete
• with nego, you often keep the form that matches the role in the sentence, here the direct object: paštetu

No, Croatian word order is fairly flexible. But this sentence has a very normal, neutral order.

• Djeca = subject
• više vole = verb phrase
• pekmez = first item being compared
• od paštete = second item in the comparison

This order sounds natural and clear. Other orders are possible for emphasis, but as a learner, this is a good pattern to copy.

Because Croatian does not have articles like a and the.

So djeca can mean:

• children
• the children

The exact meaning depends on context.

The same is true for pekmez and pašteta. Croatian usually leaves definiteness to context instead of marking it with articles.

They are similar, but not always exactly the same.

In everyday translation, pekmez is often given as jam. But culturally, pekmez can suggest a more traditional fruit spread, sometimes thicker or more concentrated than džem.

For this sentence, the important thing is just to recognize pekmez as a kind of sweet fruit spread.

A rough English-style guide is:

DYE-tsa VEE-she VO-le PEK-mez od pash-TE-te

A few helpful notes:

• dj in djeca sounds roughly like the start of duke in some English accents, or a soft j/dy sound
• š sounds like sh
• c in djeca sounds like ts
• stress is not usually marked in normal writing, so learners usually just memorize the spoken rhythm from listening