The fastest words to learn are the ones you see most. This deck lists the 60 most common Bosnian words, each with a clear English meaning and a real example sentence. Study them below, or download the deck for Anki or Quizlet.
The best Bosnian flashcards to learn first are the words you meet most often. This free deck pairs the 60 most common Bosnian words, like kuća, voda, hrana, with a plain English meaning and a real example sentence for each. Download it as a CSV for Anki or Quizlet, or learn the words in context by reading.
CSV columns are word, translation, example (with a header row). Ready to import into Anki, Quizlet, or any spaced-repetition app.
60 most common Bosnian words · Updated July 2026
| Bosnian | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| kuća | house, home | Moja kuća je velika. |
| voda | water | Pijem vodu svaki dan. |
| hrana | food | Hrana je vrlo ukusna. |
| vrijeme | time; weather | Danas je lijepo vrijeme. |
| dan | day | Danas je lijep dan. |
| noć | night | Noć je bila mirna. |
| čovjek | man; person | On je vrlo dobar čovjek. |
| žena | woman; wife | Ona je moja žena. |
| dijete | child | Dijete se igra u parku. |
| prijatelj | friend | On je moj najbolji prijatelj. |
| grad | city, town | Sarajevo je lijep grad. |
| posao | job, work | Imam mnogo posla. |
| novac | money | Nemam dovoljno novca. |
| knjiga | book | Čitam zanimljivu knjigu. |
| auto | car | Kupio sam novi auto. |
| škola | school | Djeca idu u školu. |
| porodica | family | Volim svoju porodicu. |
| život | life | Život je kratak. |
| ljubav | love | Ljubav je važna. |
| jezik | language; tongue | Učim bosanski jezik. |
| biti | to be | Želim biti sretan. |
| imati | to have | Imam dvije sestre. |
| raditi | to work; to do | Radim u banci. |
| ići | to go | Moram ići u školu. |
| htjeti | to want | Hoću šoljicu kafe. |
| moći | can, to be able to | Mogu li ti pomoći? |
| znati | to know | Ne znam odgovor. |
| govoriti | to speak, to talk | Govorim bosanski i engleski. |
| vidjeti | to see | Želim te vidjeti sutra. |
| jesti | to eat | Volim jesti voće. |
| piti | to drink | Djeca piju mlijeko. |
| živjeti | to live | Živim u Sarajevu. |
| voljeti | to love; to like | Volim te. |
| reći | to say, to tell | Želim ti nešto reći. |
| doći | to come | Kada ćeš doći kući? |
| dobar | good | Ovo je dobar restoran. |
| loš | bad | Imao sam loš dan. |
| velik | big, large | Imamo velik stan. |
| mali | small | Ovo je malo selo. |
| nov | new | Kupio sam novi telefon. |
| star | old | Moj djed je vrlo star. |
| lijep | beautiful, pretty | Ona ima lijepe oči. |
| lak | easy; light (weight) | Ovaj zadatak je lak. |
| brz | fast, quick | On je vrlo brz trkač. |
| sretan | happy; lucky | Danas sam vrlo sretan. |
| ja | I | Ja sam student. |
| ti | you (singular, informal) | Ti si moj prijatelj. |
| on | he | On živi u Mostaru. |
| ona | she | Ona radi kao doktorica. |
| mi | we | Mi idemo na more. |
| vi | you (plural, formal) | Odakle ste vi? |
| oni | they | Oni su naši susjedi. |
| i | and | Ti i ja smo prijatelji. |
| ili | or | Želiš čaj ili kafu? |
| ali | but | Umoran sam, ali sretan. |
| da | yes; that | Da, razumijem. |
| ne | no; not | Ne, hvala. |
| u | in, at | Živim u gradu. |
| na | on, at | Knjiga je na stolu. |
| za | for | Ovo je poklon za tebe. |
Flashcards fix words in memory; reading teaches you to use them. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Bosnian with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, and save any word to review later. Free to start.
The deck is built from high-frequency words, the ones that make up most of everyday Bosnian. Learning them first gives you the biggest return per card, because you will meet them again and again the moment you start reading or listening.
Flashcards work best with spaced repetition: review a card, and if you knew it, wait longer before seeing it again. Anki and Quizlet both do this automatically. Download the CSV, import it, and review a few minutes a day. Keep the example sentence on the card so you learn how the word actually behaves, not just its dictionary gloss.
One honest limit: flashcards build recognition, but you learn to use a word by meeting it in real context. Pair this deck with reading. When a word you drilled shows up in a story, it stops being a flashcard and becomes part of the language. That pairing is what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
Best Bosnian books for your level (A1 to C1) →
Not sure of your level? Take the Bosnian CEFR test (A1 to C2) →
How long does it take to learn Bosnian? See the timeline →
Start with the most frequent words. A few thousand high-frequency Bosnian words cover the majority of everyday text, so each of those cards pays off far more than a rare one. This deck gives you the top 60 to begin with, each with a meaning and an example sentence, so you learn the word in context rather than in isolation. When a card sticks, meet the word again in a real book to lock it in.
Click Download CSV to save the deck, then in Anki choose File, Import and select the file. Map the first column to the front (the Bosnian word) and the second to the back (the meaning); the third column holds an example sentence you can add to the back too. The first row is a header, so tell Anki to ignore it or delete that one card. For Quizlet, use Copy for Quizlet and paste into the import box with Tab between term and definition.
Flashcards are excellent for building recognition and drilling the first few thousand words, but on their own they teach words out of context. You learn to use Bosnian, not just recognize it, by reading and hearing the words in real sentences. The efficient combination is flashcards for raw vocabulary plus reading for context, collocation and grammar. That is exactly what Lingo7 is built around.
Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 common words cover most everyday Bosnian text, and around 5,000 gets you comfortably through many novels. You do not need all of them before you start: with sentence-aligned translation you can begin reading real Bosnian at a couple of thousand words and pick up the rest from context. This deck is a fast way to front-load the most useful 60.