Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.

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.

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.

Pečem is the 1st person singular present tense form of the verb peći.

So it means:

• I bake
• I roast
• in context here, more naturally I make/cook

Croatian present-tense verb endings show the subject, so you do not need to say ja.

• pečem = I bake / I cook
• not he/she bakes, not we bake

That is why there is no separate word for I in the sentence.

In Croatian, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

• pečem already means I am baking / I bake
• nosim already means I wear / I am wearing

So ja is unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

Compare:

• Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču. = neutral
• Kad ja pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču. = more emphatic, like when I’m the one making pancakes...

English usually needs the pronoun, but Croatian often does not.

Because palačinke is the plural form, and here it is also in the accusative plural.

The basic singular noun is:

• palačinka = a pancake / a crêpe

Plural nominative:

• palačinke = pancakes

After the verb peći in this sentence, palačinke is the direct object, so accusative is needed. For this noun, the nominative plural and accusative plural happen to look the same:

• palačinke

So the sentence means I make pancakes, not I make a pancake.

Because pregaču is the accusative singular form of pregača.

• pregača = apron (dictionary form, nominative singular)
• pregaču = apron as a direct object

In the sentence, nosim takes a direct object:

• nosim pregaču = I wear an apron

This is a very common pattern with feminine nouns ending in -a:

• nominative singular: pregača
• accusative singular: pregaču

Other examples:

• imam knjigu from knjiga
• vidim sestru from sestra

Here, nosim means wear.

The verb nositi can mean several related things depending on context:

• to carry
• to wear
• sometimes to bear / bring

Because the object is pregaču (an apron), the natural meaning is wear:

• nosim pregaču = I wear an apron

If the object were something else, the meaning could change:

• Nosim torbu. = I’m carrying a bag.
• Nosim kaput. = I’m wearing a coat.

So context tells you which English translation fits.

Uvijek means always, and in Croatian adverbs like this often go before the verb.

So:

• uvijek nosim pregaču = I always wear an apron

That is the most natural neutral order here.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, so you may also see:

• Kad pečem palačinke, nosim uvijek pregaču.
• Pregaču uvijek nosim kad pečem palačinke.

But these alternatives may sound marked, less neutral, or emphasize different parts of the sentence. For a learner, uvijek + verb is a very good default pattern.

Good question. Croatian peći covers a wider range than English bake.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• bake
• roast
• cook by heat
• sometimes what English would naturally express as fry for foods like pancakes

So pečem palačinke is normal Croatian, even though in English we usually say make pancakes or fry/cook pancakes, not bake pancakes.

This is a case where you should not translate word-for-word too strictly.

It mainly expresses a habit.

The clues are:

• kad = when
• uvijek = always
• present tense verbs: pečem, nosim

Together they mean something like:

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

So this is not mainly about one action happening at this exact moment. It describes what the speaker generally does.

Yes, but the nuance changes a little.

• Kad pečem palačinke = when / whenever I make pancakes
• Dok pečem palačinke = while I am making pancakes

So:

• Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.
  This sounds like a general habit.

• Dok pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.
  This emphasizes the time during the activity itself: while I’m making pancakes...

Both can work, but kad is the more natural choice for a general whenever meaning.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker:

• pečem ≈ PEH-chem
• palačinke ≈ pah-lah-CHEEN-keh
• pregaču ≈ preh-GAH-choo

A few useful sound notes:

• č sounds like ch in church
• c sounds like ts in cats
• j sounds like English y
• Croatian vowels are usually clear and short, not reduced like English unstressed vowels

So palačinke has:

• pa-la-čin-ke
• with č = ch
• and c in other words would be ts, but there is no plain c in palačinke

Yes, absolutely.

Both are natural:

• Kad pečem palačinke, uvijek nosim pregaču.
• Uvijek nosim pregaču kad pečem palačinke.

The meaning is basically the same. The difference is mostly about focus and style:

• starting with Kad pečem palačinke foregrounds the situation
• starting with Uvijek nosim pregaču foregrounds the main statement

Croatian allows this kind of reordering more freely than English, as long as the grammar is correct.