Croatian language guide!

Croatian language, general expressions!

The Croatian language (Croatian: Hrvatski jezik) is a language of the western group of South Slavic languages which is used primarily by the Croats. Croatian is a southern variant inside the Slavic language family. Other languages in this group include Serbian, Bosnian and Slovene (language spoken in Slovenia).

Croatian and Serbian used to be considered as one language (sometimes called Croatian-Serbian or Serbo-Croatian) until recent events in former Yugoslavia. Bosnian language was also classified within the general Serbo-Croatian group.

From linguistic point of view, structurally and lexically all these languages are actually so similar that can be describe as dialectical variants of the one language.

Croatian language is based on the Ijekavian pronunciation of tokavian dialect (with some influence from Čakavian and Kajkavian) and written with the Croatian alphabet .

Pronunciation

The Croatian writing system is phonetically consistent: every letter is pronounced and its sound will not vary from word to word. Regarding to the position of stress, there is only one rule you have to follow: the last syllable of the word is never stressed. In most cases the accent falls on the first vowel in the word.

Croatian language uses a modified Roman alphabet (unlike Serbian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet). Many letters are pronounced like in English but the following below may cause misunderstanding.

Basic words:	Croatian is in red!	Ć - as the tu in future Č as the ch in chop C - as the ts in cats đ - as the du in verdure d - as the j in just j - as the y in young lj as the lli in million as the sh in ship as the s in pleasure
Hello	Zdravo
Goodbye	Doviđenja
Yes	Da
No	Ne
Please	Molim
Thank you	Puno hvala
You’re welcome	Nema na Ćemu
Excuse me	Oprostite
Sorry (excuse me)	Pardon (izvinite)
See you later	Vidimo se kasnije

In addition to the Croatian language, most Croats are capable in at least one other foreign language. Naturally this depend of historic background and influence of other nations. In the interior part of Croatia, the second language is likely to be German language and from Istria (Umag) through Southern Dalmatia, Italian is the second language. English speaking tourist will have little more trouble, getting around but nowadays most young people speak very good English. Most people in tourist offices, travel agencies, hotels, camping sites and restaurants speak at least some English.

Croatian dictionaries with advanced linguistic capabilities contain all you need to feel comfortable and assured abroad or when communicating with your overseas business partners. Over 1,200 commonly used and emergency phrases on 12 topics and with over 500,000 words makes these dictioraries a must have travel compagnion.

Language difficulties

Do you speak English?	Govorite li engleski?
Does anyone here speak English	Dali iko ovdje govori engleski?
I understand	Ja razumjem
I don’t understand	Ja ne razumjem
Could you speak more slowly, please?	Molim vas mozete li malo sporije govoriti?

Small talk:

What’s your name?	Kako ti je ime?
My name is....	Moje ime je......
Where are you from?	Odakle ste?
I’m from.....	Ja sam iz......
USA	Amerike
Canada	Canade
England	Engleske