Croatian verbs appear in the dictionary in their infinitive form, ending in -ti. The most common everyday verbs include biti (to be), imati (to have), raditi (to do/work), ići (to go on foot), doći (to come), htjeti (to want), moći (to be able to), znati (to know a fact), poznavati (to know a person), vidjeti (to see), čuti (to hear), slušati (to listen), govoriti (to speak), reći (to say), pitati (to ask), čitati (to read), pisati (to write), učiti (to learn), misliti (to think), and razumjeti (to understand). Action verbs for daily life include jesti (to eat), piti (to drink), spavati (to sleep), raditi (to work), kuhati (to cook), prati (to wash), obući se (to dress), hodati (to walk), trčati (to run), voziti (to drive), letjeti (to fly), plivati (to swim), igrati (to play), pjevati (to sing), and plesati (to dance).
Tense formation in Croatian is more complex than in English. The present tense uses verb endings that change with the subject. The past tense, called perfekt, is formed with the present of biti (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) plus the past participle, e.g. Ja sam jeo ručak (I ate lunch). The future tense, futur I, is built with the auxiliary ću/ćeš/će/ćemo/ćete/će plus the infinitive, e.g. Sutra ću putovati (Tomorrow I will travel). The imperative mood gives commands, with imperativ jednine for singular (e.g. Dođi ovamo! Come here!) and imperativ množine for plural (e.g. Sjednite, molim! Sit down, please!). Croatian verbs also distinguish svršeni (perfective) and nesvršeni (imperfective) aspects, e.g. pisati (to be writing) versus napisati (to finish writing).
Beyond verbs, several smaller word classes are essential for building sentences. Question words include što (what), tko (who), gdje (where), kada (when), zašto (why), kako (how), koji (which), and koliko (how much). Negation is built with ne (not), ništa (nothing), nitko (nobody), and nikada (never), as in Ništa ne razumijem (I don't understand anything). Conjunctions link clauses: i (and), ili (or), ali (but), jer (because), ako (if), and da (that). Prepositions include u (in), na (on), s/sa (with), bez (without), za (for), iz/od (from), do (to/towards), and o (about). Demonstratives agree with the noun's gender: ovaj/ova/ovo (this) and taj/ta/to (that). Finally, remember that Croatian has sedam padeža (seven cases): nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative, and instrumental, which together give the language much of its flexibility and precision.