Nisam te htjela povrijediti.

Because Croatian often drops subject pronouns when they are already clear from the verb form.

Here, nisam already tells you the subject is I:

• nisam = I am not / I did not in this past-tense structure

So Nisam te htjela povrijediti naturally means I didn’t want to hurt you without needing ja.

If you add ja, it usually adds emphasis:

• Ja te nisam htjela povrijediti. = I didn’t want to hurt you.

Nisam is the negative 1st person singular form of the auxiliary verb biti (to be) used in the Croatian past tense.

It breaks down historically like this:

• sam = I am / auxiliary for past tense
• nisam = I am not / negative auxiliary form

In Croatian, the past tense is commonly formed with:

• auxiliary biti
• plus the l-participle

So:

• htjela sam = I wanted (said by a female speaker)
• nisam htjela = I didn’t want

A useful thing to remember: these negative forms are learned as whole forms:

• nisam
• nisi
• nije
• nismo
• niste
• nisu

Because htjela shows that the speaker is female.

In Croatian past tense, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

For htjeti (to want):

• htio = masculine singular
• htjela = feminine singular
• htjelo = neuter singular
• htjeli / htjele = plural

So:

• Nisam te htio povrijediti. = said by a man
• Nisam te htjela povrijediti. = said by a woman

This is one of the big differences from English: Croatian past-tense forms often reveal the speaker’s gender.

Here te means you and it is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of povrijediti.

The verb povrijediti takes a direct object:

• hurt whom?
• te = you

This te is the short/clitic form of the pronoun. The fuller stressed form is tebe.

So:

• te = unstressed you
• tebe = stressed/emphatic you

For example:

• Nisam te htjela povrijediti. = neutral
• Nisam htjela povrijediti tebe. = more emphatic, like I didn’t want to hurt you

Because te is a clitic: a short unstressed word that usually has to stand in an early position in the sentence, not just anywhere.

Croatian clitics often appear near the beginning of the sentence, after the first stressed element or in a clitic cluster. In this sentence, te comes early, which is natural Croatian word order:

• Nisam te htjela povrijediti.

To an English speaker, this may feel unusual because English keeps you directly after the verb:

• I didn’t want to hurt you

But Croatian handles short pronouns differently.

So the placement is mostly about Croatian clitic word order, not about emphasis.

Because Croatian, like English, can use one verb followed by another in the infinitive.

Here:

• htjeti = to want
• povrijediti = to hurt

So the structure is:

• nisam htjela = I didn’t want
• povrijediti = to hurt

Together:

• nisam htjela povrijediti = didn’t want to hurt

This is very similar to English:

• want + to + verb
• Croatian: htjeti + infinitive

Because after htjeti (to want), Croatian normally uses the infinitive of the following verb.

So:

• htjeti jesti = to want to eat
• htjeti ići = to want to go
• htjeti povrijediti = to want to hurt

In your sentence, only the first verb is marked for tense:

• nisam htjela = past
• povrijediti = infinitive

This is normal and expected.

It can mean either, depending on context.

povrijediti can mean:

• to hurt physically
• to hurt someone’s feelings
• to wound, in a general sense

In a sentence like this, especially as an apology, people often understand it as emotional hurt:

• I didn’t want to hurt you / hurt your feelings

If the context were about an accident, it could be physical instead.

So the exact shade of meaning comes from the situation, not from the verb alone.

This is mainly about aspect and nuance.

povrijediti is perfective, so it points to a single completed act or result:

• to hurt someone
• to cause hurt

That fits well here, because the speaker is talking about not wanting to cause that hurt.

By contrast, vrijeđati usually means:

• to insult
• to offend
• sometimes repeated verbal hurting

So:

• Nisam te htjela povrijediti. = I didn’t want to hurt you.
• Nisam te htjela vrijeđati. = I didn’t want to insult/offend you.

They are related, but not the same.

Literally, it means I didn’t want to hurt you.

But in real life, it is often used in a similar situation to English I didn’t mean to hurt you—for example, when apologizing after saying something upsetting.

Still, the most direct Croatian equivalent of I didn’t mean to hurt you would be something like:

• Nisam te namjeravala povrijediti.

That version focuses more on intention.
Your sentence focuses more on desire/wish:

• I didn’t want to hurt you

In many contexts, though, the practical effect is very similar.

No. A man would normally say:

• Nisam te htio povrijediti.

The only change is:

• htjela → htio

That is because the past participle agrees with the speaker’s gender.

So:

• female speaker: Nisam te htjela povrijediti.
• male speaker: Nisam te htio povrijediti.

Yes, but it changes the tone.

• te is the normal unstressed form
• tebe is the stressed/emphatic form

So:

• Nisam te htjela povrijediti. = neutral, everyday
• Nisam htjela povrijediti tebe. = more emphasis on you

Using tebe can suggest contrast, for example:

• not you, specifically
• or you in particular

In ordinary neutral speech, te is the more natural choice here.