Croatian Tutorial: Basic Croatian Phrases, Vocabulary and Grammar

The Croatian language is a South Slavic language closely related to Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. It is spoken mostly in Croatia by about 5 million people. It is the official language of Croatia and an official language of neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the the Serbian province of Vojvodina. Standard Croatian is based on the dialect Shtokavian but Croats also speak Chakavian and Kajkavian. (Formerly, the languages spoken in the Balkans were known collectively as Serbo-Croatian but this term tends not to be used anymore.)

Thanks to Sven for proofreading this tutorial and the volunteers at Rhinospike for the recordings. If you are interested in authentic uses of language, go to Croatian realia for photos taken in Croatia.

---

 

1. Basic Croatian Phrases

Dobar dan	Hello / Good Day (more formal)
Zdravo / Bok / Ćao	Hello, Hi / Bye
Do viđenja / Zbogom	Goodbye (more formal)
Dobro jutro	Good Morning
Dobra večer	Good Evening
Laku noć	Good Night
Molim	Please
Hvala (lijepa)	Thank you (very much)
Nema na čemu	You're welcome
Dobrodošli	Welcome
Vidimo se kasnije	See you later
Vidimo se uskoro	See you soon
Idemo / Hajdemo	Let's go
Gospođa, gospođica	Madam, Miss
Gospodin	Mister
Da / Ne / Možda	Yes / No / Maybe
Oprosti / Oprostite	Excuse me (informal / formal)
Žao mi je	I'm sorry
Kako ste?	How are you? (formal)
Dobro / Dobro sam	I'm fine
U redu sam	I'm OK
Kako ti ide? / Kako si?	How are you? (informal)
Dobro mi ide	I'm great
Nije mi tako dobro	I'm not so well
Kako se zovete?	What's your name? (formal)
Kako se zoveš?	What's your name? (informal)
Zovem se... / Ime mi je ...	I am... / My name is...
Drago mi je!	Nice to meet you!
Možete li mi pomoći?	Can you help me? (formal)
Možeš li mi pomoći?	Can you help me? (informal)
Odakle ste?	Where are you from? (formal)
Odakle si?	Where are you from? (informal)
Ja sam iz ...	I'm from...
Koliko imate godina?	How old are you? (formal)
Koliko imaš godina?	How old are you? (informal)
Ja imam __ godina.	I am ____ years old.
Govorite li ____? / Znate li ____?	Do you speak ____? (formal)
Govoriš li ____? / Znaš li ____?	Do you speak ____? (informal)
[Ne] Govorim / Znam ...	I [don't] speak ...
Govorim malo... / Znam malo...	I speak a little...
[Ne] razumijem	I [don't] understand.
[Ne] znam	I [don't] know
hrvatski, srpski, engleski, njemački, francuski, ruski, španjolski, portugalski, talijanski, arapski, kineski, japanski, indonezijski Croatian, Serbian, English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian
Možete li to ponoviti?	Could you repeat that? (formal)
Što ste rekli?	What does that mean?
Kako se kaže ___ na hrvatskom?	How do you say ___ in Croatian?
Slobodno?	May I?
Htio / Htjela bih ___.	I would like ___. (male / female)
Nije važno.	It doesn't matter.
[Ne] slažem se.	I [don't] agree.
Gdje je ___?	Where is ___ ?
Koliko je to?	How much is this?
Gladan / Gladna sam.	I'm hungry. (male / female)
Žedan / Žedna sam.	I'm thirsty. (male / female)
Izgubio sam se / Izgubila sam se	I'm lost. (male / female)
Trenutak.	Just a moment.
Izvoli / Izvolite!	Here you go. (informal / formal)
Požuri / Požurite!	Hurry up! (informal / formal)
Šta ima novoga?	What's new?
Ništa novog.	Nothing much.
Sretno!	Good luck!
Čestitam!	Congratulations!
Nazdravlje!	Bless you! (after sneeze)
Ne brini!	Don't worry!
Upomoć!	Help!
Živjeli!	Cheers!
Sretan put!	Have a nice trip!
Slatki snovi!	Sweet dreams!
Sviđaš mi se.	I like you.
Volim te.	I love you.
Sretan rođendan!	Happy birthday!
Sretan Božić!	Merry Christmas!
Sretna nova godina!	Happy New Year!
Sretni praznici/blagdani!	Happy Holidays!
Hvala, također!	Thanks, same to you!
Dobar tek!	Enjoy your meal!

---

2. Pronunciation

Letter	IPA	English example	Letter	IPA	English example
a	[a]	father	l	[l]	love
b	[b]	big	lj	[ʎ]	million
c	[ʦ]	fits	m	[m]	mom
ć	[ʧ]	chat (softer sound)	n	[n]	no
č	[ʨ]	church (harder sound)	nj	[ɲ]	onion
d	[d]	do	o	[o]	hope
đ	[ʤ]	jungle (harder sound)	p	[p]	pull
dž	[ʥ]	jumbo (softer sound)	r	[r]	right (rolled)
e	[e]	bed	s	[s]	son
f	[f]	fan	š	[ʃ]	shed
g	[g]	good	t	[t]	table
h	[h / x]	happy / Bach	u	[u]	shoot
i	[i]	eat	v	[v]	vault
j	[j]	you	z	[z]	zero
k	[k]	kite	ž	[ʒ]	pleasure

 

Vowels in Croatian are pure. There is no extra gliding sound such as at the end of the English words play, now, high, etc.

Stress: Words with two or more syllables are never stressed on the last syllable (except in some dialects). However, in most cases It can be difficult to guess where the stress should be in polysyllabic words so you will have to learn them individually.

---

3. Croatian Alphabet

a	ah	l	luh
b	buh	lj	ljuh
c	tsuh	m	muh
ć	chuh	n	nuh
č	chuh	nj	njuh
d	duh	o	oh
đ	dzhuh	p	puh
dž	dzhuh	r	ruh
e	uh	s	suh
f	fuh	š	shuh
g	guh	t	tuh
h	huh	u	oo
i	ee	v	vuh
j	yuh	z	zuh
k	kuh	ž	zhuh

 

---

4. Croatian Nouns and Demonstratives

Croatian nouns have three genders:  masculine, feminine or neuter.  In general, masculine nouns end in a consonant, feminine nouns end in -a, and neuter nouns end in either -o or -e.  Some exceptions: večer (evening) and noć (night) are feminine.

There are seven noun cases in the singular and in the plural. The cases show the grammatical function of a noun in a sentence.

Case	Function
Nominative	who, what	tko, što
Genitive	whose, of what (possession, origins)	koga, čega
Dative	to whom, to what (indirect object)	komu, čemu
Accusative	whom, what (direct object)	koga, što
Vocative	(calling / talking directly to someone)	dozivanje
Instrumental	with whom/what	s kim, čim
Locative	about	o komu, o čemu

 

Notice that locative forms are the same as the dative forms. The difference is that the locative always goes with prepositions: o (about), u (in), na (on), po (over), pri (near), and prema (according to), while the dative stands alone or goes with the preposition k / ka (toward).

Each noun in Croatian changes according to its case. Notice how the word for teacher (učitelj) changes in each of the following sentences:

Singular Examples
Nominative	A teacher had a book.	Učitelj je imao knjigu.
Genitive	The teacher's book was big.	Knjiga učitelja je bila velika.
Dative	We went to the teacher.	Otišli smo učitelju.
Accusative	And we asked the teacher.	I upitali smo učitelja.
Vocative	Teacher, is your book big?	Učitelju, je li vaša knjiga velika?
Instrumental	After our conversation with the teacher.	Poslije našeg razgovora sa učiteljem.
Locative	We know more about the teacher.	Znamo više o učitelju.

Besides possession, the genitive also answers the questions "From whom?" and "From where?". Thus a possible genitive example could be Dobio sam knjigu od učitelja. (I got the book from the teacher.)

Plural Examples
Nominative	Some teachers had books.	Neki učitelji su imali knjige
Genitive	The teachers' books were big.	Knjige ucitelja su bile velike
Dative	We went to the teachers.	Otišli smo učiteljima.
Accusative	And we asked the teacher.	I upitali smo učitelje.
Vocative	Teachers, are your books big?	Učitelji, jesu li vaše knjige velike?
Instrumental	After the conversation with the teachers.	Poslije razgovora sa učiteljima.
Locative	We know more about teachers.	Znamo više o učiteljima.

The Croatian language does NOT use definite or indefinite articles (a, an, the), but it does use demonstratives (this, that, these, those). These demonstratives, like adjectives in Croatian, agree with the noun they precede, depending on gender (masculine or feminine), number (singular or plural), and case. Demonstratives can either act as adjectives (modifying a noun) or pronouns (replacing the noun), and the nuances between the three forms for this/that or these/those refers to the location of the object about which one is speaking.

this / that	masculine	feminine	neuter
close by	ovaj	ova	ovo
in between	taj	ta	to
further away	onaj	ona	ono
these / those
close by	ovi	ove	ova
in between	ti	te	ta
further away	oni	one	ona

---

5. General Vocabulary

and	a; i	friend (male)	prijatelj
but	but; nego	friend (female)	prijateljica
only	samo, jedino	man	muškarac
now	sad	woman	žena
always	uvijek	boy	dječak
never	nikad	girl	djevojčica
something	nešto	child	dijete
nothing	ništa	book	knjiga
also / too	također	pencil	olovka
again	opet, iznova, još jednom	paper	papir
almost	za malo	dog	pas
of course	pá dá; naravno	cat	mačka

---

6. Subject Pronouns

Singular		Plural
ja	I	mi	we
ti	you (familiar)	vi	you (formal)
on	he	oni	they (masc.)
ona	she	one	they (fem.)
ono	it	ona	they (neut.)

 

Vi is used when addressing a stranger, someone you do not know, or a person of authority and can be used in the singular or plural sense.  Ti is used with family members and animals and shows familiarity with the person.  Vi can also be used with family members and animals in the plural sense, but not the singular. It is also used in the formal sense.

---

7. To Be & To Have / Biti & imati

Subject pronouns are not used very often, except when you want to show emphasis. The conjugations of biti (to be) are a little confusing because there are two forms: short and long. The short forms are never stressed and a sentence cannot begin with them, except je when it begins a question. The long forms are used to ask questions, to answer a question with a short reply and to affirm an answer.

 

biti - to be

short forms
(ja) sam	I am	(mi) smo	we are
(ti) si	you are	(vi) ste	you are
(on/a/o) je	he/she/it is	(oni/e/a) su	they are

long forms
(ja) jesam	I am	(mi) jesmo	we are
(ti) jesi	you are	(vi) jeste	you are
(on/a/o) jest	he/she/it is	(oni/e/a) jesu	they are

 

 

Ja sam dobar student. I am a good student. Student sam. I am a student. Dobar sam student. I am a good student. Je li on student? Is he a student?

Jesam li u pravu? Am I right? Jesi. Yes (you are). Jeste li gladni? Are you hungry? Jesam. Yes (I am.)

 

imati - to have

(ja) imam	I have	(mi) imamo	we have
(ti) imaš	you have	(vi) imate	you have
(on/a/o) ima	he/she/it has	(oni/e/a) imaju	they have

 

The negative of biti and imati use different conjugated forms, unlike English where we insert not or do not.

 

Negatives

negative of biti - to not be
(ja) nisam	I am not	(mi) nismo	we are not
(ti) nisi	you are not	(vi) niste	you are not
(on/a/o) nije	he/she/it is not	(oni/e/a) nisu	they are not

negative of imati - to not have
(ja) nemam	I do not have	(mi) nemamo	we do not have
(ti) nemaš	you do not have	(vi) nemate	you do not have
(on/a/o) nema	he/she/it does not have	(oni/e/a) nemaju	they do not have

---

8. Questions / Pitanja

what	što	why	zašto
who	tko	how	kako
where	gdje	how much/many	koliko
where to	kamo	how long	koliko dugo
where from	otkud / odakle	which	koji
when	kad / kada	which way	kuda

To ask a yes or no question in Croatian, use the verb and then the particle li:

Do you understand Croatian? Razumijete li hrvatski?
Can you swim? Znate li plivati?
Can you play football? Znate li igrati nogomet?

---

9. Cardinal & Ordinal Numbers / Glavni & redovni brojevi

zero	nula
one	jedan	first	prvi
two	dva	second	drugi
three	tri	third	treći
four	četiri	fourth	četvrti
five	pet	fifth	peti
six	šest	sixth	šesti
seven	sedam	seventh	sedmi
eight	osam	eighth	osmi
nine	devet	ninth	deveti
ten	deset	tenth	deseti
eleven	jedanaest	eleventh	jedanaesti
twelve	dvanaest	twelfth	dvanaesti
thirteen	trinaest	thirteenth	trinaesti
fourteen	četrnaest	fourteenth	četrnaesti
fifteen	petnaest	fifteenth	petnaesti
sixteen	šesnaest	sixteenth	šesnaesti
seventeen	sedamnaest	seventeenth	sedamnaesti
eighteen	osamnaest	eighteenth	osamnaesti
nineteen	devetnaest	nineteenth	devetnaesti
twenty	dvadeset	twentieth	dvadeseti
twenty-one	dvadeset jedan	twenty-first	dvadeset prvi
twenty-two	dvadeset dva	twenty-second	dvadeset drugi
thirty	trideset
fourty	četrdeset
fifty	pedeset
sixty	šezdeset
seventy	sedamdeset
eighty	osamdeset
ninety	devedeset
one hundred	sto / stotina
one hundred one	sto jedan / stotinu jedan
two hundred	dvjesto / dvjesta / dvije stotine
one thousand	tisuću
million	milijun
billion	milijarda

Jedan (one) and dva (two) behave like adjectives - they have gender and declension (cases):Jedan bik (one bull), jedna krava (one cow), jedno tele (one calf), dva bika, dvije krave, dva teleta...

The counted noun is in nominative singular with jedan; genitive singular with dva, tri, četiri; and genitive plural with pet and higher: Pet bikova, deset krava...

For ordinal numbers, masculine ends in -i, feminine ends in -a, and neuter ends in -o, which you simply add to the cardinal number (except for prvi, drugi, treći, četvrti). Note that sedam and osam lose their -a before adding the endings.

---

10. Days / Dani

Monday	ponedjeljak	tonight / this evening	večeras
Tuesday	utorak	birthday	rođendan
Wednesday	srijeda	holiday	praznik
Thursday	četvrtak	tomorrow	sutra
Friday	petak	yesterday	jučer
Saturday	subota	day before yesterday	prekjučer
Sunday	nedjelja	day after tomorrow	prekosutra
day	dan	week	tjedan
today	danas	weekend	vikend
morning	jutro	this week	ovaj tjedan
evening	večer	next week	idući tjedan
afternoon	poslije podne	last week	prošli tjedan
night	noć	every week	svakog tjedna
last Saturday	prošle subote	in two weeks	za dva tjedna
next Thursday	idući četvrtak	two weeks ago	pred dva tjedna

What day is today? Koji dan je danas?
Today is Friday. Danas je petak.

---

11. Months / Mjeseci

January	siječanj	month	mjesec
February	veljača	year	godina
March	ožujak	decade	desetljeće
April	travanj	century	stoljeće
May	svibanj	millenium	milenijum
June	lipanj	this month	ovog mjeseca
July	srpanj	next month	idući mjesec
August	kolovoz	last month	prošli mjesec
September	rujan	every month	skavog mjeseca
October	listopad	in a year	u toku godine
November	studeni	for a year	za godinu dana
December	prosinac	three years ago	natrag tri godine

What's the date? Koji je datum?
It is the 12th of January. Ovo je dvanaesti siječnja.

---

12. Seasons / Godisnja doba

spring	proljeće	in the spring	u proljeće
summer	ljeto	in the summer	u ljetu
winter	zima	in the winter	u zimi
fall	jesen	in the fall	u jesen

---

13. Directions / Smjer

 

right	desno	north	sjever
left	lijevo	south	jug
straight	ravno	east	istok
this/that way	ovim/onim putom	west	zapad

 

---

14. Colors & Shapes / Boje & oblika

black	crn	circle	krug
blue	plav	square	kvadrat
dark blue	modri	rectangle	pravokutnik
brown	smeđ	triangle	trokut
green	zelen	oval	ovalan
orange	narančast	diamond	dijamant
purple	ljubičast	sphere	sfera
red	crven	cube	kocka
pink	ružičast	pyramind	piramida
white	bijel	cone	konus
yellow	žut	cylinder	cilindar
grey	siv

 

Colors are placed before nouns in Croatian, just as in English. Because colors are adjectives, they must agree with the noun they are modifying. If the noun is feminine, add -a, and if the noun is neuter, add -o. For example, smeđa is the feminine form of brown, plavo is the neuter form of blue.

---

15. Telling Time / Kako reci vrijeme

What time is it?	Koliko je sati?
It's...	Sada je...
01:00	jedan sat
03:05	tri i pet
06:10	šest i deset
04:15	četiri i četvrt / četiri i petnaest
07:30	sedam i trideset / pola osam
12:45	četvrt do jedan
midnight	ponoć
noon	podne
second	sekunda
hour	sat
minute	minuta
half hour	pola sata
quarter hour / 15 minutes	četvrt sata

Official time, such as at train stations and for television programs, uses the 24-hour clock.

Notice that if you use pola (half), you need to use the number that follows the current hour: 7:30 is half eight (pola osam).

---

16. Weather / Vrijeme

What's the weather like today?	Kakvo je vrijeme? / Kako je vani?
Today it's...	Danas je...
sunny	sunčano
overcast	oblačno
cool	hladno
warm	toplo
hot	vruće
cold	studeno
humid	vlažno
foggy	maglovito
windy	puše vjetar
It's raining	Pada kiša
It's snowing	Pada snijeg

---

17. Family / Obitelj

family	obitelj	grandmother	baka
relatives	rodbina	grandfather	djed, djedica
mother	majka	granddaughter	unuka
father	otac	grandson	unuk
mom	mama	cousin (male)	bratić
dad	tata	cousin (female)	sestrična
baby	beba	niece	nećakinja
child / children	dijete / djeca	nephew	nećak
daughter	kći, kćer, kćerka	spouse (male)	suprug
son	sin	spouse (female)	supruga
sister	sestra	wife	žena
brother	brat	husband	muž

 

The translations for aunt and uncle depend on the family relationship in Croatian:

aunt (mother's/father's sister)	teta
uncle (mother's/father's sister's husband)	tetak
uncle (father's brother)	stric
aunt (father's brother's wife)	strina
uncle (mother's brother)	ujak
aunt (mother's brother's wife)	ujna

 

---

18. To Know People & Facts / Poznavati & znati

poznavati - to know people		znati - to know facts
poznajem	poznajemo	znam	znamo
poznaješ	poznajete	znaš	znate
poznaje	poznaju	zna	znaju

 

When you talk about people, you should use the verb poznavati, but it is not necessarily a mistake to use znati.  Similarly, you should use znati when talking about knowing things or facts, but it it not a mistake to use poznavati.

To make a verb negative, simply put ne in front of it.

Ne znam. I don't know.

---

19. Formation of Plural Nouns

The plural of animate masculine nouns is formed by adding -i, -evi, or -ovi.  The masculine inanimate nouns with hard endings end in -ovi, while the soft endings end in -evi.  A few masculine nouns drop the final -n in the plural. Feminine plural nouns end in -e, unless they have a consonant ending, then they will end in -i.  All neuter nouns end in -a in the plural.

 

	singular		plural
Masc: add -i	mjesec	month	mjeseci	months
Masc: add -evi	broj	number	brojevi	numbers
Masc: add -ovi	trag	rail / track	tragovi	rails / tracks
Masc: drop -n	građanin	citizen	građani	citizens
Fem: change to -e	ruka	hand	ruke	hands
Fem: add -i	laž	lie	laži	lies
Neuter: change to -a	polje	field	polja	fields

 

Some words insert -et- or -en- between the base and the plural ending. For example, ime (name) becomes imena (names).

---

20. Possessive Adjectives

	masc.	fem.	neuter	masc. plural	fem. plural	neut. plural
my	moj	moja	moje	moji	moje	moja
your	tvoj	tvoja	tvoje	tvoji	tvoje	tvoja
his / its	njegov	njegova	njegovo	njegovi	njegove	njegova
her	njezin	njezina	njezino	njezini	njezine	njezina
our	naš	naša	naše	naši	naše	naša
your	vaš	vaša	vaše	vaši	vaše	vaša
their	njihov	njihova	njihovo	njihovi	njihove	njihova

 

Please keep in mind that the above forms are in the nominative case, which means these particular words are only used in the subject of the sentence. For other cases, there are slight changes to the words.

---

Most of this tutorial has been checked by a native speaker of Croatian from Zagreb, but if you are a native speaker and see a mistake on this page, please let me know.