Croatian has a rich vocabulary for naming what we know, what we can do, and how we feel. The nouns znanje (knowledge), vještina (skill), sposobnost (ability), and iskustvo (experience) appear frequently in CVs and job advertisements, since Croatian employers often expect several years of practical iskustvo alongside formal qualifications. A typical sentence is Imam pet godina iskustva (I have five years of experience), and one may add that Programiranje je tražena vještina (Programming is a sought-after skill).
Personal character is described with paired opposites: moć (power) and snaga (strength) against slabost (weakness), hrabrost (courage) against strah (fear), and nada (hope), povjerenje (trust), poštovanje (respect), and čast (honour) as positive qualities. Many of these words appear in fixed proverbs such as Moć korumpira (Power corrupts), Snaga volje pobjeđuje (Willpower wins), Nada umire posljednja (Hope dies last), and Laž ima kratke noge (A lie has short legs). The abstract nouns istina (truth), laž (lie), and tajna (secret) complete this field, and sjećanje (memory) anchors personal experience in time.
Time itself is expressed by budućnost (future), prošlost (past), and sadašnjost (present), while change is captured by promjena (change), razvoj (development), and rast (growth). For any reasoned discussion you will also need ideja (idea), plan (plan), cilj (goal), mišljenje (opinion), odluka (decision), rješenje (solution), problem (problem), pitanje (question), and odgovor (answer). To analyse and explain you reach for razlika (difference), sličnost (similarity), usporedba (comparison), primjer (example), objašnjenje (explanation), and opis (description), while prilika (opportunity), razlog (reason), and rezultat (result) round out the practical vocabulary of decision-making.