Bosiljak voli vodu i sunce.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

bo-SEE-lyak VO-lee VO-doo ee SOON-tseh

A few helpful sound notes:

• j is pronounced like English y
• lj is a soft sound, roughly like lli in some pronunciations of million
• c is always ts, never k or s
• u is like oo in food
• i is like ee in see

Voli is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb voljeti, meaning to love or to like.

So:

• ja volim = I like / love
• ti voliš = you like / love
• on/ona/ono voli = he/she/it likes / loves

Since bosiljak is singular, the verb is also singular: voli.

It can mean either, depending on context.

With people, voljeti often means to love.
With things, habits, or conditions, it often translates more naturally as to like.

So in this sentence, English usually prefers:

• Basil likes water and sun

Even though the Croatian verb is the same one also used for love.

Because vodu is the accusative singular form of voda.

The verb voljeti takes a direct object, and direct objects are usually put in the accusative case in Croatian.

So:

• voda = nominative singular, the dictionary form
• vodu = accusative singular, used here as the object of voli

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

• nominative -a
• accusative -u

Sunce is also a direct object here, so it is in the accusative too.
But for many neuter singular nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are the same.

So:

• nominative: sunce
• accusative: sunce

That is why you can see the case change clearly in vodu, but not in sunce.

Bosiljak is masculine.

You can often tell because many masculine nouns in Croatian end in a consonant in the dictionary form, and bosiljak does.

That masculine gender affects agreement in other contexts, for example with adjectives.

Croatian does not normally use articles like English the and a/an.

So Bosiljak voli vodu i sunce can mean:

• Basil likes water and the sun
• Basil likes water and sun
• sometimes even more generally Basil likes water and sunlight

The exact interpretation depends on context.

Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English because cases help show what each noun is doing.

The sentence Bosiljak voli vodu i sunce is the most neutral, straightforward order:

• subject + verb + object

But other orders are possible for emphasis, such as putting vodu i sunce first. That would sound more marked or stylistic, not the basic textbook order.

I means and.

It joins the two objects:

• vodu = water
• sunce = sun

So both things are objects of voli.

Yes, very possibly.

In a sentence about plants, sunce often means exposure to the sun, sunshine, or sunlight in a practical sense. So the idea is not that basil has feelings about the sun as an object in space, but that basil grows well with plenty of water and sun.

You would need both a plural subject and a plural verb.

Singular:

• Bosiljak voli vodu i sunce.

Plural:

• Bosiljci vole vodu i sunce.

Changes:

• bosiljak → bosiljci
• voli → vole

The objects vodu and sunce stay the same here because they are still singular and still direct objects.