Food and drink vocabulary is essential for surviving in Croatia, especially at markets, restaurants, and cafés. Basic drinks include voda (water), mlijeko (milk), kava (coffee), čaj (tea), pivo (beer), vino (wine), and sok (juice). Staples are kruh (bread) and pecivo (bread roll), while typical Croatian breakfast might include burek, a flaky pastry. Other common foods are jaje (egg), sir (cheese), meso (meat), riba (fish), piletina (chicken), riža (rice), juha (soup), and salata (salad). Fruits and vegetables include jabuka (apple), naranča (orange), banana (banana), rajčica (tomato), and krumpir (potato). Seasonings and condiments are sol (salt) and šećer (sugar). The three meals are doručak (breakfast), ručak (lunch), and večera (dinner).
Inside the home, vocabulary divides naturally into rooms and furniture. The main rooms are kuća (house), stan (apartment), soba (room), spavaća soba (bedroom), kupaonica (bathroom), and kuhinja (kitchen). Furniture and fittings include stol (table), stolica (chair), krevet (bed), vrata (door, plural form), and prozor (window). Note that many nouns carry a gender label: masculine nouns often end in a consonant (e.g. stol), feminine nouns typically end in -a (e.g. soba, kuhinja), and neuter nouns usually end in -o or -e (e.g. more). This grammatical gender affects how adjectives and verbs agree with the noun.
Outside the home, common everyday objects include clothing items such as košulja (shirt), hlače (trousers), haljina (dress), suknja (skirt), cipele (shoes), jakna (jacket), kaput (coat), and šešir (hat). Technology and media items are računalo (computer), telefon (phone), mobitel (mobile), pismo (letter), knjiga (book), novine (newspaper, plural), časopis (magazine), slika (picture), film (film), glazba (music), and pjesma (song). Places where you buy things are trgovina (shop), tržnica (market), banka (bank), and restoran (restaurant). Money is novac, and the Croatian currency since 2023 is the euro.