The 100 Most Common Croatian Words

These are the 100 most common Croatian words, ranked by how often they appear in real Croatian text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	i	ee	and
2	u	oo	in
3	ne	neh	no
4	na	nah	on
5	ja	yah	I
6	biti	BEE-tee	be
7	on	ohn	he
8	s	s	with
9	što	shtoh	what
10	a	ah	but
11	po	poh	by
12	to	toh	it
13	ona	OH-nah	she
14	taj	tahy	that
15	do	doh	to
16	ali	AH-lee	but
17	oni	OH-nee	they
18	mi	mee	we
19	kako	KAH-koh	how
20	iz	eez	from
21	koji	KOH-yee	which
22	za	zah	for
23	svoj	svoy	own
24	sav	sahv	all
25	godina	GOH-dee-nah	year
26	od	ohd	from
27	tako	TAH-koh	so
28	o	oh	about
29	ti	tee	you
30	već	vech	already
31	moći	MOH-chee	can
32	vi	vee	you
33	čovjek	CHOH-vyek	man
34	takav	TAH-kahv	such
35	reći	REH-chee	say
36	samo	SAH-moh	only
37	ili	EE-lee	or
38	još	yohsh	still
39	sebe	SEH-beh	self
40	jedan	YEH-dahn	one
41	vrijeme	VREE-yeh-meh	time
42	ako	AH-koh	if
43	naš	nahsh	our
44	vrlo	VUR-loh	very
45	kada	KAH-dah	when
46	znati	ZNAH-tee	know
47	dan	dahn	day
48	imati	EE-mah-tee	have
49	dobro	DOH-broh	good
50	nov	nohv	new
51	da	dah	that (conjunction)
52	ovaj	OH-vahy	this
53	velik	VEH-leek	big
54	ići	EE-chee	go
55	doći	DOH-chee	come
56	vidjeti	VEE-dyeh-tee	see
57	dati	DAH-tee	give
58	htjeti	HTYEH-tee	want
59	morati	MOH-rah-tee	must
60	misliti	MEE-slee-tee	think
61	govoriti	goh-VOH-ree-tee	speak
62	raditi	RAH-dee-tee	work (do)
63	naći	NAH-chee	find
64	uzeti	OO-zeh-tee	take
65	postati	POH-stah-tee	become
66	ostati	OH-stah-tee	remain
67	početi	POH-cheh-tee	begin
68	živjeti	ZHEE-vyeh-tee	live
69	gledati	GLEH-dah-tee	look at
70	tražiti	TRAH-zhee-tee	look for
71	voljeti	VOH-lyeh-tee	love
72	trebati	TREH-bah-tee	need
73	život	ZHEE-voht	life
74	dijete	DYEH-teh	child
75	žena	ZHEH-nah	woman
76	ruka	ROO-kah	hand
77	mjesto	MYEH-stoh	place
78	svijet	svyet	world
79	kuća	KOO-chah	house
80	zemlja	ZEM-lyah	country (land)
81	grad	grahd	city
82	riječ	ryech	word
83	put	poot	way (road)
84	stvar	stvar	thing
85	dio	DEE-oh	part
86	nešto	NESH-toh	something
87	ništa	NEESH-tah	nothing
88	neki	NEH-kee	some
89	sada	SAH-dah	now
90	ovdje	OHV-dyeh	here
91	gdje	gdyeh	where
92	zašto	ZASH-toh	why
93	jer	yer	because
94	bez	bez	without
95	pod	pohd	under
96	između	eez-MEH-joo	between
97	mnogo	MNOH-goh	much
98	više	VEE-sheh	more
99	mali	MAH-lee	small
100	star	star	old

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Ranked by lemma frequency in published Croatian corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn Croatian online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about Croatian words

How many Croatian words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Croatian?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Croatian word list come from?

From published Croatian word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.