Moja baka kaže da je orah dobar i u salati.

Moja baka means my grandmother.

• baka = grandmother
• moja = my

Moja is a possessive adjective, and it has to agree with baka in gender, number, and case.

Since baka is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

the correct form is moja.

Kaže means says or is saying.

It is the 3rd person singular present tense form of kazati / reći in the sense of reporting speech.

So:

• moja baka kaže = my grandmother says

Croatian often uses the present tense here just like English does.

Da here means that.

It introduces a subordinate clause:

• Moja baka kaže = My grandmother says
• da je orah dobar = that walnut is good

So the structure is very similar to English:

• She says that...
• Kaže da...

In everyday Croatian, da is extremely common after verbs like say, think, know, believe, and so on.

Because Croatian normally needs the verb to be here.

• je = is

So:

• orah je dobar = the walnut is good

Inside the da clause, the verb is still needed:

• da je orah dobar = that the walnut is good

English learners sometimes want to drop je, but in this kind of sentence it should stay.

Because orah is the subject of the clause, so it is in the nominative singular.

Here:

• orah = walnut
• je dobar = is good

Since one walnut is being talked about in a general sense, the basic dictionary form orah is used.

Other forms would mean different things:

• oraha can be genitive singular or genitive plural, depending on context
• orasi = nominative plural, walnuts

Because dobar is an adjective describing orah, and it must agree with the noun.

Orah is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

That gives dobar.

Compare:

• orah je dobar = the walnut is good
• salata je dobra = the salad is good
• vino je dobro = the wine is good

So dobar / dobra / dobro changes depending on the noun.

Here i is better understood as also or too, not just and.

So:

• orah je dobar i u salati = walnut is good in salad too / also in salad

The idea is that walnut is good in some other ways, and also in salad.

This is a very common use of i in Croatian. It does not always simply connect two nouns or two clauses as and does in English.

Because the preposition u takes the locative case when it means in in the sense of location.

Here it means in salad, so we use locative:

• nominative: salata
• locative: salati

So:

• u salati = in salad

A useful rule:

• u
  • locative = in/at, when something is located somewhere
• u
  • accusative = into, when there is movement

For example:

• Orah je u salati. = The walnut is in the salad.
• Stavljam orah u salatu. = I am putting walnut into the salad.

Yes, Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order, but the original sentence is natural and neutral.

Moja baka kaže da je orah dobar i u salati sounds normal and straightforward.

You might also hear variations such as:

• Moja baka kaže da je i orah dobar u salati
• Moja baka kaže da je orah i dobar u salati

But changing the position of i can slightly change the emphasis.

The original version emphasizes that walnut is good also in salad.

Croatian has no articles, so orah can correspond to:

• a walnut
• the walnut
• walnut in a general sense

In this sentence, it most likely means walnut in general as an ingredient or food.

So a natural English interpretation is something like:

• My grandmother says walnut is also good in salad or
• My grandmother says walnuts are also good in salad

The exact English wording depends on how natural you want the translation to sound, but Croatian itself does not mark this with articles.

It sounds natural in everyday speech.

Nothing in it is especially formal or literary:

• moja baka = everyday
• kaže da... = very common structure
• orah dobar i u salati = normal conversational phrasing

A Croatian speaker could easily say this in ordinary conversation about food.