Croatian Grammar HandbookA1–C1

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Phonetics & AlphabetРаздел

Croatian Alphabet (Abeceda)

A1 – C1 Theory

The Alphabet

Croatian uses the Latin alphabet with 30 letters. Each letter corresponds to exactly one sound — Croatian spelling is fully phonetic. There are no silent letters.

LetterNameSound (IPA)Example
A aa/a/auto (car)
B bbe/b/brat (brother)
C cce/ts/cesta (road)
Č čče/tʃ/čovjek (person)
Ć ćće/tɕ/ćevapi (ćevapi)
D dde/d/dan (day)
Dž dždže/dʒ/džem (jam)
Đ đđe/dʑ/đak (pupil)
E ee/e/Europa (Europe)
F fef/f/film (film)
G gge/ɡ/grad (city)
H hha/x/hvala (thanks)
I ii/i/ime (name)
J jje/j/jabuka (apple)
K kka/k/kuća (house)
L lel/l/lijep (beautiful)
Lj ljelj/ʎ/ljubav (love)
M mem/m/more (sea)
N nen/n/nebo (sky)
Nj njenj/ɲ/njega (him)
O oo/o/otac (father)
P ppe/p/pas (dog)
R rer/r/riba (fish)
S ses/s/sunce (sun)
Š š/ʃ/škola (school)
T tte/t/tata (dad)
U uu/u/ulica (street)
V vve/ʋ/voda (water)
Z zze/z/zemlja (earth)
Ž žže/ʒ/žena (woman)

Special Letters

Croatian has several unique letters: Č, Ć, Đ, Dž, Lj, Nj, Š, Ž. The digraphs Dž, Lj, Nj are each considered single letters. Č vs Ć: Č is a 'hard' ch (like English 'church'), while Ć is a 'soft' ch (palatalized, similar to Italian 'ci').

Čovjek je dobar.The person is good.
Noć je lijepa.The night is beautiful.

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