Croatian Phrases

Going to Croatia on holiday? Get some all important Croatian phrases here!

Croatian is a southern variant of the Slavonic languages such as Serbian, Bosnian and Slovene. Croatian and Serbian are similar, sharing many pronouns and cases, and they are mutually understandable. There are however some differences in vocabulary and syntax. Due to the Balkan conflict, the different national groups established their own official languages, and the term Croatian is used to describe the official language of Croatia. The language used to be referred to as Serbo-Croat. As a result of the conflict, statistics on the number of speakers are inexact, but it is estimated that there are approximately 4,800,000 speakers of Croatian in Croatia. In total, 21 million people throughout the world speak a variation of the formerly shared Serbo-Croat language.

Pronunciation

We have tried to keep the transliteration of Croatian words as accurate as possible. However, the following letters do differ.

c: like the 'ts' in cats
dj: the like 'du' in verdure
dz: like the 'j' in 'just'
j: like the 'y' in young
lj: like the 'lli' in million
nj: like the 'ny' in canyon
sj: like the 's' in pleasure

Basics

Hello: zdravo
Goodbye: dovidjenja
Yes: da
No: ne
Please: molim
Thank you: hvala
Many thanks: puno hvala
Excuse me: oprostite
Sorry: pardon
I  don't understand: je ne razumijem
What's your name?: kako ti je ime?
How much is it?: Koliko kosjta?

Transport

What time does the . leave/arrive?: U koliko sati.polazi/dolazi?
Boat: brod
Bus: autobus
Train: vlak
Tram: tramvaj

Around Town

Where is..?: Gdje je..?
Bank: banka
My hotel: moj hotel
Market: trsjnica
Post office: poshta
Beach: plasja
Castle: dvorac
Church: crkva

Numbers

1: jedan
2: dva
3: tri
4: chetiri
5: pet
6: shest
7: sedam
8: osam
9: devet
10: deset