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Croatian/Main Contents/Level 1/Lesson 2

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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

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English Croatian
I
You (sing.)
He Ôn
She Òna
It Òno
We
You (pl.)
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..., or Moje ime 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

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Singular/Jednìna

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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

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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

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