Meeting people in Croatian begins with a small repertoire of greetings that shift depending on the time of day and the formality of the situation. The most casual hello and goodbye is Bok, used among friends and family in everyday conversation, as in Bok, kako si? (Hi, how are you?). For more formal settings, Dobar dan (Good day), Dobro jutro (Good morning), and Dobra večer (Good evening) cover the daylight hours, while Laku noć signals the end of an encounter. When parting more formally, Doviđenja (Goodbye) is the standard choice, often paired with Ugodan dan (Have a nice day).
Croatian politeness relies on a few workhorse words that appear constantly in conversation. Molim serves as "please" and is also the way to say "you're welcome," while Hvala means "thank you" and Hvala lijepa intensifies it to "thank you very much." The phrase Nema na čemu (literally "there's nothing to thank for") is the standard response to thanks. When getting attention or apologizing, Oprostite works as "excuse me" and Žao mi je as "I'm sorry," with the latter reserved for genuine apology rather than attracting attention.
The smallest building blocks of dialogue are the basic responses, which Croatians use freely in answering questions. Da means yes and Ne means no, while Možda (maybe) signals uncertainty and Naravno (of course) offers enthusiastic agreement, as in Naravno, rado ću pomoći. (Of course, I'll gladly help.) Together, these fifteen or so phrases allow a learner to open, sustain, and close almost any first encounter in Croatian.