Policajac će zaustaviti auto ako vozač ne vidi pješake.

Croatian commonly forms the future with:

present of htjeti + infinitive

So here:

• će = will (3rd person singular)
• zaustaviti = to stop

Together, će zaustaviti means will stop.

In a neutral sentence, the short form će usually comes after the first word or phrase in the clause:

• Policajac će zaustaviti auto.

You may also see a version like:

• Zaustavit će auto.

In that pattern, the infinitive zaustaviti loses its final -i before će.

After ako (if), Croatian normally uses the present tense for a real future condition:

• ako vozač ne vidi pješake = if the driver doesn’t see the pedestrians

This is actually very similar to English. English also usually says:

• If the driver doesn’t see...

  not

• If the driver won’t see...

So this structure is very natural in Croatian.

This is a question of aspect, which is very important in Croatian.

• zaustaviti = perfective → one complete action
• zaustavljati = imperfective → repeated, ongoing, or habitual action

Here the idea is that the policeman will perform one complete act of stopping the car, so zaustaviti fits better.

So:

• će zaustaviti = will stop (one completed action)

If you used zaustavljati, it would sound more like repeated or ongoing stopping, which does not match this sentence as well.

Because pješake is in the accusative plural, which is needed here because it is the direct object of vidi (sees).

Forms of this noun:

• pješak = pedestrian (singular nominative)
• pješaci = pedestrians (plural nominative)
• pješake = pedestrians (plural accusative)

In the sentence, the driver is seeing (or not seeing) the pedestrians, so Croatian uses the object form:

• vozač ne vidi pješake

Because auto often keeps the same form in everyday Croatian, especially in sentences like this.

Here it is the direct object of zaustaviti, but it still appears as:

• auto

This is normal.

Also, many learners first meet auto as a common everyday word, while the more formal word is:

• automobil

If you used automobil here, it would also look the same in the singular accusative:

• Policajac će zaustaviti automobil.

So in this particular sentence, the object form does not visibly change.

Because the sentence has two clauses, and each clause has its own verb.

1. Policajac će zaustaviti auto

   • policajac is the subject of će zaustaviti

2. ako vozač ne vidi pješake

   • vozač is the subject of ne vidi

So the structure is:

• main clause: the policeman will stop the car
• if-clause: if the driver does not see the pedestrians

Even though both nouns are in nominative form, each belongs to a different clause and a different verb.

Because Croatian does not have articles.

So Croatian usually does not use separate words for:

• a
• an
• the

Whether something is definite or indefinite is understood from:

• context
• word order
• the situation
• sometimes a demonstrative such as taj (that) if needed

So policajac, auto, vozač, and pješake appear without articles.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible because case endings and verb forms help show the relationships.

The given sentence is a very natural, neutral order:

• Policajac će zaustaviti auto ako vozač ne vidi pješake.

But you could also say:

• Ako vozač ne vidi pješake, policajac će zaustaviti auto.

This puts the if-clause first and sounds completely normal.

You can also change word order for emphasis, but then the sentence may sound more marked or stylistic.

One important point: će is a clitic, so it tends to appear in second position in its clause.

In Croatian, negation with most verbs is formed by putting ne before the verb as a separate word:

• vidi = sees
• ne vidi = does not see

So this is the regular pattern.

Some negative forms in Croatian are fused into one word, such as:

• nemam = I do not have
• nisam = I am not

But with vidjeti in this form, you say:

• ne vidi

These letters are very important in Croatian pronunciation.

• š sounds like sh in shoe
• č sounds roughly like ch in church, but often a bit harder
• ć is softer than č; English does not have a perfect equivalent

In this sentence:

• vozač → the final č is the harder ch-like sound
• pješake → š sounds like sh
• će → ć is the softer sound

A rough English-friendly approximation might be:

• Policajac → po-lee-TSA-yats
• će → something like tyeh or a very soft cheh
• vozač → VO-zach
• pješake → PYE-sha-keh

These are only approximations, but they can help at the start.

Yes, policajac is the masculine form and usually refers to a male police officer.

The feminine form is:

• policajka

So if you wanted a female subject, you could say:

• Policajka će zaustaviti auto ako vozač ne vidi pješake.

Croatian often marks gender directly in nouns like this, so it is useful to learn masculine and feminine pairs when possible.