You must know that Croatian is very hard to learn because most of the words can have different forms and then sound like other ones. But you're in for a pleasant surprise.
Croatian is well suited for the Roman alphabet, and its pronunciation is therefore quite easy to master. It does possess noun cases, and the verbs inflect rather liberally, but the learner will get used to these new concepts rather quickly.
Vocabulary and Useful Phrases
| English | Croatian |
|---|---|
| I | Jâ |
| You (sing.) | Tî |
| He | Ôn |
| She | Òna |
| It | Òno |
| We | Mî |
| You (pl.) | Vî |
| They | Òni (òne, òna) |
| Good morning | Dobro jutro |
| Good afternoon | Dobar dan |
| Good evening | Dobra večer |
| Good night | Laku noć (Easy night) |
| Thanks | Hvala |
| Goodbye (formal) | Zbogom, Doviđenja ('till seeing) |
| You're welcome | Nema na čemu |
| Here you are | Izvoli |
| You're welcome | Molim* |
| Bye | Bok, Ciao (from Italian) |
| Dog | Pas |
| Cat | Mačka |
| Man | Muškarac |
| Woman | Žena (also means: wife) |
| Yes | Da |
| No | Ne |
| My name is... | Zovem se... (lit. I call myself) or more rarely Ime mi je... |
| Water | Voda |
| Food | Hrana |
| I love you | Volim te |
| Next | Sljedeći |
| Fool | Budala or Glupan |
| Hello, hi | Zdravo (also means healthy), bok |
*"Molim" can also mean "what?" or "please"
The nominative case of Masculine and Feminine nouns
Singular/Jednìna
Masculine nouns in the nominative case usually do not have a fixed ending. Student, Pilot, Profesor are all Masculine nouns.
Feminine nouns have a fixed ending. If the Student is female, the noun would change to Studentica. The fixed ending is ica, or occasionally, just an a is there, like Škola/Plaža.
Neuter nouns end with -o or -e. Neuter nouns can't be changed to Masculine or Feminine usually.
| Muški rod (Masculine) | Ženski rod (Feminine) | Srednji rod (Neuter) |
|---|---|---|
| Stùdent | Student + ica = Stùdentica | Víno |
| Pròfesor | Profesor + ica = Profesòrica | Jáje |
Plural/Množina
Masculine nouns when plural, add -i onto the end of the word, although if masculine nouns of one syllable ending end with a "hard consonant", -ovi is added instead of -i, like Gradovi (towns). The singular is Grad (towns)
Feminine nouns when plural, replace the -a, and add -e onto the end of the word.
Neuter nouns when plural replace the -o or -e and add -a onto the end of the word. Some nouns insert -en- between the stem and the plural, like ramena (shoulders). Also, some nouns in Neuter only exist in plural form, such as Vrata (door), Novine (newspaper). Finally, some nouns have an irregular plural, meaning they don't always end with -a in plural form, such as Uho (ear) = Uši (ears) or Oko (eye) = Oči (eyes)
| Muški rod (Masculine) | Ženski rod (Feminine) | Srednji rod (Neuter) |
|---|---|---|
| Student + i = Studenti | Student + ica - a + e = Studentice | Vino - o + a = Vina |
| Profesor + i = Profesori | Profesor + ica - a + e = Profesorice | Jaje - e + a = Jaja |
| Pìlōt + i = Piloti | Škôl + a - a + e (Škol + e = Škole) | Ȉme + na = Imena |