Dvaput sam se probudila noćas zbog grmljavine.

Yes. Dvaput means twice, and it is essentially the same as dva puta.

• dvaput = twice
• dva puta = literally two times

Both are common, and both sound natural. Dvaput is a bit more compact; dva puta may feel slightly more conversational to some speakers.

Croatian often places short unstressed words, called clitics, in the second position of the sentence or clause.

In this sentence:

• Dvaput = first element
• then come the clitics sam and se

So:

• Dvaput sam se probudila = natural word order

You can also say Probudila sam se dvaput noćas..., but the version with sam se after the first element is very typical Croatian syntax.

Sam is the 1st person singular present of biti (to be) and is used as an auxiliary to form the past tense.

So:

• probudila = past participle
• sam = auxiliary am / have in effect, though Croatian past tense is built with to be, not to have

Together:

• sam probudila se / sam se probudila = I woke up

Se marks the verb as reflexive here.

The verb is:

• probuditi se = to wake up
• compare with probuditi nekoga = to wake someone up

So:

• Probudila sam se = I woke up
• Probudila sam dijete = I woke the child up

In English, wake up can be used without a reflexive pronoun, but in Croatian se is required for the intransitive/reflexive meaning.

Probudila shows that the speaker is female.

In Croatian past tense, the participle agrees with the subject’s gender and number:

• probudila sam se = I woke up (female speaker)
• probudio sam se = I woke up (male speaker)

So this sentence was said by a woman.

It is the past tense (more specifically, the standard Croatian perfect).

It is formed with:

• auxiliary sam
• past participle probudila

So probudila sam se means I woke up.

Even though grammatically it is called perfect, in normal usage it often simply corresponds to the English simple past.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Croatian.

• probuditi se = perfective → to wake up, as a completed event
• buditi se = imperfective → to be waking up / to wake up habitually / repeatedly as a process

Since the sentence talks about two completed events during the night, the perfective verb is the natural choice:

• Dvaput sam se probudila noćas = I woke up twice tonight

If you used budila se, it would sound more like focusing on the repeated process or ongoing action.

Noćas means tonight or last night, depending on context.

More literally, it refers to this night / during the night connected to the speaker’s time frame.

In this sentence, because the action is in the past, noćas is understood as something like:

• during the night tonight
• or in natural English, often last night

Context tells you which English translation sounds best.

The preposition zbog means because of, and it requires the genitive case.

So:

• grmljavina = thunder, thunderstorm noise
• genitive singular: grmljavine

That is why you get:

• zbog grmljavine = because of the thunder

This is a very common pattern:

• zbog kiše = because of the rain
• zbog buke = because of the noise
• zbog vjetra = because of the wind

Not exactly.

• grom = thunderbolt / thunder / lightning strike, depending on context
• grmljavina = thunder, rumbling thunder, thunderstorm noise

In this sentence, grmljavina is a natural choice because it refers to the noise that woke the speaker up.

So:

• zbog grmljavine = because of the thunder
• zbog groma might suggest a specific thunderclap or strike

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, although not completely free.

Possible alternatives include:

• Noćas sam se dvaput probudila zbog grmljavine.
• Zbog grmljavine sam se noćas dvaput probudila.
• Probudila sam se dvaput noćas zbog grmljavine.

These all keep basically the same meaning, but the emphasis changes:

• Dvaput first = emphasizes twice
• Noćas first = emphasizes tonight / last night
• Zbog grmljavine first = emphasizes the cause

The original sentence sounds very natural.

Not strongly, but dvaput can feel slightly more compact or polished in some contexts. Dva puta is extremely common in everyday speech.

So both are safe:

• Dvaput sam se probudila noćas...
• Dva puta sam se probudila noćas...

A learner can use either one.

No, not in standard Croatian here.

You need:

• probudila sam se = I woke up

Without se:

• probudila sam sounds incomplete, and it suggests I woke someone/something up, with the object omitted

So if you mean I woke up, keep se.