Croatian Alphabet Letters – all about sounds and pronounciation

Croatian letters

Letters in the Croatian Alphabet

The Croatian alphabet consists of 30 letters (out of which are) 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 25 consonants (a, b, c, č, ć, d, dž, đ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s š, t, u v, z, ž). 

 

Croatian words are pronounced exactly how they are spelled. In Croatian language every letter you see should be pronounced – there are no silent letters.

 

Let’s see how we spell Croatian letters. You are lucky because most of the Croatian words are pronounced exactly how they are spelled. There are some exceptions to rules to make your life a bit harder but you will laugh while learning how to pronounce some of them. 

 

Listen to the pronunciation of all of the Croatian letters and learn some words while you are at it:

A – avion, auto, ananas

Slovo A - avion, auto, ananas

B – banana, baka, brdo

Slovo B - banana, baka, brdo

C – centar, cesta, cvijet

Č – čokolada, čaša, četka

Č - čokolada, čaša, četka

Ć – ćirilica, ćevapi, ćuk

Ć - ćirilica, ćevapi, ćuk

D – dom, dupin, duga

D - dom, dupin, duga

DŽ – džip, džem, džemper

DŽ - džip, džem, džemper

Đ – đak, đurđica, đumbir

Đ - đak, đurđica, đumbir

E – epruveta, Europa, eukaliptus

E - epruveta, Europa, eukaliptus

F – fotoaparat, feferon, farma

F - fotoaparat, feferon, farma

G – grožđe, galeb, gitara

G - grožđe, galeb, gitara

H – Hrvatska, hamburger, hlače

H - Hrvatska, hamburger, hlače

I – igra, igla, Indija

I - igra, igla, Indija

J – Japan, jabuka, jaje

J - Japan, jabuka, jaje

K – kuća, kiša, kaktus

K - kuća, kiša, kaktus

L – lopta, lav, led

L - lopta, lav, led

LJ – ljubav, ljeto, ljudi

LJ - ljubav, ljeto, ljudi

M – mama, mačka, miš

M - mama, mačka, miš

N – nos, noga, novac

N - nos, noga, novac

NJ – njuška, Njemačka, New York (pron. njẉ jȍrk)

NJ - njuška, Njemačka, New York (pron. njẉ jȍrk))

O – oko, obitelj, odjeća

O - oko, obitelj, odjeća

P – pas, paprika, prozor

P - pas, paprika, prozor

R – riba, ruka, rijeka

R - riba, ruka, rijeka

S – slika, sladoled, stol

S - slika, sladoled, stol

Š – škola, šah, šest

Š - škola, šah, šest

T – torba, taxi, tata

T - torba, taxi, tata

U – ulica, usta, Ukrajina

U - ulica, usta, Ukrajina

V – vrata, vlak, vatra

V - vrata, vlak, vatra

Z – zec, zmija, zebra

Z - zec, zmija, zebra

Ž – žaba, žirafa, žena

Ž - žaba, žirafa, žena

The Croatian Letters

 As an introduction to this topic, we will share with you historical facts about the Croatian language. At the moment, almost 7 million people are speaking Croatian around the world. This is because Croatia is one of the countries with biggest number of expats.

 

 

Ljudevit Gaj designed the Croatian alphabet we are using today. He introduced letters č, ž, š and ć. Additionally, he invented letters dž, lj, and nj modeling them after the similar solutions in the Hungarian alphabet. Ljudevit Gaj’s Latin script has been used to this day and worth mentioning is that Đuro Daničić proposed the letter đ, instead of using the digraph dj which was accepted. Now, let’s learn the Croatian Alphabet that is used since then.

 

Do not Be fooled by english

Remember the rule: Croatian words are pronounced exactly how they are spelled. Some words look the same as in English and they start with the same letter but do not be fooled with that fact while pronouncing Croatian words. Sounds confusing? Let’s see some examples.

 

This primarily goes for the pronunciation of the letters g and j. The Croatian g is always pronounced like the English ‘g’ in the word guitar or gift even though there are some words in English where you see the letter g in a word and you read that word completely differently (examples are: gender, margin, gin, theology).

 

The Croatian j is always pronounced like the English ‘j’ in the word May or yacht. Do not be fooled here and do not pronounce j like you would pronounce it words like John, majestic, jam.

 

 

 

Special consonants

In the Croatian language, there are only eight special consonants but they do have something in common. This means if you once hear or see e.g. letter ‘č’, you will probably remember that there is the letter ‘ć’ exist as well. It might be easier for you to understand this once you see the division of special consonants. There are 2 main groups.

 

 

Diacritics

 

Diacritics (or diacritical marks) are so-called extra marks that are added to letters (above it or within a letter) to change their sound. Some other European languages have diacritics too. Maybe you do know some. In the Croatian language, the majority of the special consonants are diacritics. These are č, ć, đ, š, ž, and partially dž. Each one of these is distinct letters and have distinct sounds.

 

 

TIP: Even for some Croats Croatian alphabet is hard when it comes to writing words with č, ć or dđ, đ correctly. On the bright side…If you write a word C in the word ‘camac’ instead of čamac (=boat), people in Croatia will understand what you meant.

 

 

Now, we have only 3 out of 8 consonants left which leads us to a second group of special consonants in Croatian letters.

 

 

Digraphs

These are known as digraphs; two letters are pronounced as one sound but they are, basically, one letter.

 

These are DŽ, LJ, and NJ. You probably do remember that you have seen the letter D, Ž, L, J, N, and J by now.

 

 

TIP: With diagraphs might be challenging if for some reason you use normal consonants instead of special consonants because it can give a word a different meaning. For example:

 

 

  • I Hrvati su ljudi = Croats are people, too. – letter LJ – DIAGRAPHS
  • I Hrvati su ludi = Croats are crazy – letter L

 

Pronunciation of special consonants

Assuming you are good at the pronunciation of English words, we stated below a few English words. By reading them aloud, you will get the impression of how special characters in the Croatian alphabet are pronounced.

 

 

nj: pronounced like ni in the word Minion

lj: sounds like lli in the word “Billion”

: like J in word Joker

č sounds like ch in a word sketch or witch

đ like g in gin or J in Jessica

ć like ch in a word pitch

š like sh in Sherlock

ž like to s in treasure or ige in beige 

 

TIP: To produce the “softer” sound (ć, đ) your tongue should be placed right behind your front teeth while to produce the “harder” sounds (č, dž) your tongue should be further back along the palate.

 

We hope that we managed to explain to you Croatian alphabet in this blog. To practice it with a native speaker and learn more Croatian, make sure to check our 1:1 lessons. Find our offers and Book Croatian classes.

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