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Chapter 5 of 8

Time, Numbers, Weather and the Calendar

Days of the week in Croatian each carry a grammatical gender: ponedjeljak (Monday, m), utorak (Tuesday, m), srijeda (Wednesday, f), četvrtak (Thursday, m), petak (Friday, m), subota (Saturday, f), and nedjelja (Sunday, f). Months are mostly masculine: siječanj, veljača (f), ožujak, travanj, svibanj, lipanj, srpanj, kolovoz, rujan, listopad, studeni, and prosinac. The four seasons are proljeće (spring), ljeto (summer), jesen (autumn), and zima (winter). You can talk about general times of day with jutro (morning), popodne (afternoon), večer (evening), and noć (night), as well as with the adverbs ujutro (in the morning) and navečer (in the evening). Larger time units are dan (day), tjedan (week), mjesec (month — the same word as "moon"), and godina (year).

Numbers in Croatian follow a regular pattern once you know the units. The basic digits are nula (0), jedan (1), dva (2), tri (3), četiri (4), pet (5), šest (6), sedam (7), osam (8), devet (9), and deset (10). Teens and tens continue with jedanaest (11), dvanaest (12), trinaest (13), dvadeset (20), trideset (30), pedeset (50), then the round hundreds and thousands: sto (100), tisuću (1000), and milijun (1,000,000). Ordinals follow: prvi (first), drugi (second), treći (third), and zadnji (last). Note that dva, tri, and četiri take special grammar forms with nouns, while numbers from five upward are followed by the genitive plural.

Telling the time uses Koliko je sati? (What time is it?), with answers like Tri je sata (It's three o'clock) and Pola je šest (It's half past five, literally "half is six"). The phrase U koliko sati? asks "At what time?" Smaller units of time are sat (hour) and minuta (minute). Other time adverbs include danas (today), jučer (yesterday), sutra (tomorrow), sada (now), kasnije (later), uvijek (always), nikada (never), često (often), and ponekad (sometimes). For weather, the relevant vocabulary includes sunce (sun), mjesec (moon), zvijezda (star), oblak (cloud), kiša (rain), snijeg (snow), vjetar (wind), vrućina (heat), and hladnoća (cold). Useful phrases are Hladno je danas (It's cold today), Sunčano je (It's sunny), Kiša pada (It's raining), Snijeg pada (It's snowing), and Vjetrovito je (It's windy).

All chapters
  1. 1Greetings, Politeness and Basic Responses
  2. 2Talking About People, Family and Professions
  3. 3Food, Drink, Home and Everyday Objects
  4. 4Getting Around: Transport, Places and Directions
  5. 5Time, Numbers, Weather and the Calendar
  6. 6Describing the World: Adjectives, Colours, Body and Clothing
  7. 7Putting Sentences Together: Verbs, Pronouns and Grammar
  8. 8Practical Phrases and Croatian Culture

Drill it

Reading is not remembering. These come from the Croatian A2 deck:

Q

How do you say "Hello" in Croatian?

BokExample: Bok, kako si? (Hi, how are you?)

Q

How do you say "Hello (formal)" in Croatian?

Dobar danExample: Dobar dan, gospodine. (Good day, sir.)

Q

How do you say "Good morning" in Croatian?

Dobro jutroExample: Dobro jutro, kako ste spavali? (Good morning, how did you sleep?)

Q

How do you say "Good evening" in Croatian?

Dobra večerExample: Dobra večer, dobro došli. (Good evening, welcome.)