Moja sestra zna šivati haljine, a ja samo gledam je li šav dobar.

Moja sestra means my sister.

• sestra = sister
• moja = my

The possessive adjective moja agrees with sestra in gender, number, and case:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

Croatian often leaves out words that are clear from context, so sestra alone could be possible in some situations. But here moja sestra is completely natural and explicitly means my sister.

Here znati + infinitive means to know how to do something.

So:

• zna šivati = she knows how to sew

This is different from just knowing a fact. Croatian uses znati both for:

• knowing information
• knowing how to do something

Examples:

• Znam odgovor. = I know the answer.
• Znam plivati. = I know how to swim.

So in this sentence, zna šivati haljine means she knows how to sew dresses.

Both šivati and šiti relate to sewing.

For a learner, the simplest takeaway is:

• šiti = to sew
• šivati = to sew, often with a more ongoing/habitual nuance

In many contexts, they are very close in meaning. In this sentence, zna šivati haljine sounds natural because it refers to a skill or activity.

So you do not need to overthink the difference here: the sentence simply means that the sister knows how to sew dresses.

Haljine is the accusative plural of haljina (dress).

Here it is the direct object of šivati:

• šivati što? = to sew what?
• haljine = dresses

For many feminine nouns ending in -a, the nominative plural and accusative plural look the same:

• singular: haljina
• plural nominative: haljine
• plural accusative: haljine

So here haljine means dresses as the thing being sewn.

Here a is not a simple neutral and. It often means something like:

• and
• while
• whereas
• but

depending on context.

In this sentence, a introduces a contrast:

• Moja sestra zna šivati haljine, a ja samo gledam...
• My sister knows how to sew dresses, while/as for me, I only look/check...

So a is linking the two parts, but it also highlights the difference between my sister and me.

Yes, Croatian often drops subject pronouns because the verb already shows the person:

• gledam already means I look / I watch / I check

So technically ja is not necessary.

It is included here for contrast:

• Moja sestra does the sewing,
• a ja only check the seam.

So ja adds emphasis, something like:

• whereas I...
• and I, on the other hand...

Samo means only or just.

So:

• a ja samo gledam... = and I just/only look/check...

It suggests limitation: the speaker is saying they do not do the sewing themselves; they only inspect the result.

That is a very natural question. The basic meaning of gledati is:

• to look
• to watch

But in context it can also mean:

• to look and see whether
• to check
• to inspect

Here:

• gledam je li šav dobar

literally feels like:

• I look to see whether the seam is good

So in natural English, I just check whether the seam is good may sound smoother than a very literal I only watch whether the seam is good.

Je li is a standard way to introduce a yes/no question or an embedded whether/if clause.

Here it means:

• whether
• if

So:

• gledam je li šav dobar
• I check whether the seam is good

You can think of je li as roughly equivalent to is ...? in a question structure, but here it appears inside a larger sentence.

Because standard Croatian writes it as je li.

This is the standard form:

• Je li šav dobar? = Is the seam good?

When this question is embedded inside another sentence, it stays:

• gledam je li šav dobar

Learners may also hear informal spoken forms like jel or jel', but those are conversational and not the standard written form. For correct standard writing, use je li.

In everyday speech, many speakers do use da li in similar situations. But je li is generally preferred in standard Croatian, especially in careful writing.

So:

• gledam je li šav dobar = standard and natural
• gledam da li je šav dobar = also understandable and common in speech, but less preferred in formal standard Croatian

A learner should recognize both, but je li is an excellent model to learn.

Šav is in the nominative singular.

That is because in the clause:

• je li šav dobar

šav is the subject of the verb je (is).

So:

• šav = seam
• dobar = good

Both are nominative singular masculine:

• šav = nominative masculine singular
• dobar = nominative masculine singular adjective agreeing with šav

Because dobar here is not simply describing the noun inside a noun phrase. It is part of the predicate after je.

Compare:

• dobar šav = a good seam

  • adjective directly modifying the noun

• šav je dobar = the seam is good

  • predicate adjective after the verb to be

In the sentence:

• je li šav dobar = whether the seam is good

So dobar comes after the noun because it belongs to the predicate, not because it is being used as a simple pre-noun modifier.

It is an embedded yes/no question.

The main clause is:

• a ja samo gledam = and I only look/check

Then the embedded question tells us what the speaker is checking:

• je li šav dobar = whether the seam is good

So the structure is basically:

• I check [whether the seam is good].

This is very common in Croatian:

• Ne znam je li došao. = I don’t know whether he came.
• Pitam je li sve u redu. = I ask whether everything is okay.

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, but the given sentence is natural and clear.

For example:

• Moja sestra zna šivati haljine, a ja samo gledam je li šav dobar.

This sounds normal.

Some parts could move for emphasis, but not all versions sound equally natural. For instance:

• Ja samo gledam je li šav dobar puts a bit more emphasis on I
• Samo ja gledam... would change the meaning to Only I check...

So yes, Croatian allows flexibility, but word order often affects emphasis, not just grammar. The original sentence is a good neutral model.