Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.

when

Breakdown of Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.

• uvijek: always
• nositi: to wear
• peći: to bake

Questions & Answers about Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.

Why does the sentence start with Kad? Does it mean when?

Yes. Kad means when here.

In this sentence, Kad pečem palačinke means When I’m making pancakes or When I bake/fry pancakes. It introduces a time clause.

A very common pattern in Croatian is:

Kad + clause, main clause.

So:

• Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.
• When I make pancakes, I always wear an apron.

Croatian also has kada, which usually means the same thing. Kad is just shorter and very common in everyday speech.

Why is there a comma after palačinke?

Because Kad pečem palačinke is a subordinate clause placed before the main clause.

Croatian normally separates this kind of clause with a comma:

• Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.

This is similar to English when we write:

• When I make pancakes, I always wear an apron.

If the order were reversed, you would often still see the comma before the kad clause:

• Uvijek nosim pregaču kad pečem palačinke.

What form is pečem?