The fastest words to learn are the ones you see most. This deck lists the 60 most common Croatian 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 Croatian flashcards to learn first are the words you meet most often. This free deck pairs the 60 most common Croatian words, like kuća, voda, čovjek, 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 Croatian words · Updated July 2026
| Croatian | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| kuća | house, home | Naša kuća je velika. |
| voda | water | Voda je hladna. |
| čovjek | man, person, human being | On je dobar čovjek. |
| žena | woman, wife | To je moja žena. |
| dijete | child | Dijete se igra u parku. |
| obitelj | family | Imam veliku obitelj. |
| prijatelj | friend | On je moj najbolji prijatelj. |
| vrijeme | time; weather | Danas je lijepo vrijeme. |
| dan | day | Dobar dan! |
| noć | night | Laku noć! |
| godina | year | Imam dvadeset godina. |
| grad | city, town | Zagreb je velik grad. |
| posao | work, job | Idem na posao. |
| škola | school | Idem u školu svaki dan. |
| hrana | food | Ova hrana je ukusna. |
| knjiga | book | Čitam zanimljivu knjigu. |
| auto | car | Kupio sam novi auto. |
| novac | money | Nemam dovoljno novca. |
| ljubav | love | Ljubav je važna u životu. |
| život | life | Život je lijep. |
| biti | to be | On je liječnik. |
| imati | to have | Imam psa. |
| ići | to go | Idem kući. |
| raditi | to work; to do | Radim u banci. |
| jesti | to eat | Jedem doručak. |
| piti | to drink | Pijem kavu ujutro. |
| govoriti | to speak, to talk | Govorim hrvatski. |
| vidjeti | to see | Vidim pticu. |
| znati | to know | Znam odgovor. |
| htjeti | to want | Hoću sladoled. |
| moći | can, to be able to | Mogu plivati. |
| voljeti | to love, to like | Volim čokoladu. |
| živjeti | to live | Živim u Zagrebu. |
| reći | to say, to tell | Želim ti nešto reći. |
| gledati | to watch, to look | Gledam film. |
| čuti | to hear | Čujem glazbu. |
| doći | to come | Doći ću sutra. |
| dati | to give | Mogu ti dati knjigu. |
| misliti | to think | Mislim da je to dobro. |
| spavati | to sleep | Beba spava. |
| dobar | good | Ovo je dobar restoran. |
| loš | bad | Danas je loš dan. |
| velik | big, large | Ovo je velika soba. |
| mali | small, little | To je mala soba. |
| nov | new | Imam novi telefon. |
| star | old | Moj djed je star. |
| lijep | beautiful, nice | Ana je lijepa djevojka. |
| mlad | young | Ona je mlada žena. |
| sretan | happy | Danas sam vrlo sretan. |
| brz | fast, quick | Vlak je vrlo brz. |
| i | and | Ja i ti smo prijatelji. |
| ali | but | Umoran sam, ali sretan. |
| ili | or | Želiš čaj ili kavu? |
| da | yes; that | Da, razumijem. |
| ne | no; not | Ne, hvala. |
| u | in, into | Knjiga je u torbi. |
| na | on, at | Čaša je na stolu. |
| s | with | Idem s tobom. |
| za | for | Ovo je poklon za tebe. |
| ja | I | Ja volim glazbu. |
Flashcards fix words in memory; reading teaches you to use them. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Croatian 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 Croatian. 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 Croatian books for your level (A1 to C1) →
Not sure of your level? Take the Croatian CEFR test (A1 to C2) →
How long does it take to learn Croatian? See the timeline →
Start with the most frequent words. A few thousand high-frequency Croatian 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 Croatian 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 Croatian, 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 Croatian 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 Croatian 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.