Adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. Size adjectives include velik (big), malen (small), visok (tall/high), nizak (short/low), dugačak (long), širok (wide), and uzak (narrow). Age and condition words are nov (new), star (old), mlad (young), lijep (beautiful), and ružan (ugly). Difficulty adjectives are lagan (easy) and težak (hard), while temperature words are vruć (hot), topao (warm), svjež (cool/fresh), and hladan (cold). Other useful adjectives are otvoren (open), zatvoren (closed), jeftin (cheap), skup (expensive), brz (fast), spor (slow), jak (strong), and slab (weak). For example, you can say Stan je velik (The flat is big) or Knjiga je stara (The book is old).
Emotions and physical states form another important adjective set. Sretan means happy, tužan sad, umoran tired, gladan hungry, žedan thirsty, bolestan sick, and zdrav healthy. Phrases like Gladan sam (I'm hungry) and Žedan sam, dajte mi vode (I'm thirsty, give me water) are useful survival sentences. Adjectives can be compared using više (more) as in Više volim čaj nego kavu (I prefer tea over coffee). The comparative suffix is typically -iji or -ji, producing forms such as veći (bigger), jači (stronger), and ljepši (prettier). The superlative is formed with the prefix naj-, as in najbolji (the best).
The basic colours are crven (red), plav (blue), zelen (green), žut (yellow), crn (black), bijel (white), siv (grey), smeđ (brown), narančast (orange), ružičast (pink), and ljubičast (purple). Note the difference between naranča (the fruit) and narančast (the colour). Body vocabulary covers glava (head), kosa (hair), oko (eye), nos (nose), usta (mouth, plural), uho (ear), zub (tooth), ruka (hand or arm), noga (leg), stopalo (foot), leđa (back, plural), želudac (stomach), and srce (heart). Useful expressions include Boli me glava (I have a headache) and Boli me zub (I have a toothache).