How to read and say Croatian

Croatian uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling of Croatian is largely phonetic so most words are written exactly as they are pronounced. However, there are quite a few exceptions. Those letters that are written in capitals signify the stress of the word.

Vowels

a

like 'u' in "sun"

e

like 'e' in "enemy"

i

like 'ee' in "leek"

o

like 'o' in "opera"

u

like 'oo' in "boot"

Unfortunately, neither stresses (which can fall at any syllable) nor vowel lengths are marked in the written language, but the stress is more predictable than in Russian or Bulgarian, where it is almost obligatory to put an accent on the stressed syllable. Unlike Bulgarian, Russian and other East Slavic languages, however, wrongly pronounced vowel length will seldom cause misunderstanding. In practice, the second-last or third-last syllable is almost always stressed.

Consonants

b

like 'b' in "bed"

c

like 'ts' in "bets"

č

like 'ch' in "child"

ć

like 't' in "mature"

d

like 'd' in "dog"

dž

like 'dg' in "fudge"

đ

like 'd' in American English "schedule"

f

like 'f' in "for"

g

like 'g' in "go"

h

like 'h' in "help" [usually aspirated]

j

like 'y' in "yell"

k

like 'k' in "king" [unaspirated]

l

like 'l' in "love"

lj

like 'li' in "million".

m

like 'm' in "mother"

n

like 'n' in "nice"

nj

like 'ñ' in Spanish "señor" or 'ny' in "canyon"

p

like 'p' in "pig" [unaspirated]

q

like 'q' in "quest" (only in foreign words)

r

trilled 'r' as in the Spanish "roca"

s

like 's' in "sock"

š

like 'sh' in "cash"

t

like 't' in "top" [unaspirated]

v

like 'v' in "victory"

w

like 'v' in "victor" (only in foreign words)

x

like 'cks' in "kicks" or 'gs' in "legs"(only in foreign words)

z

like 'z' in "zebra"

ž

like 'su' in "measure"