Talking about time in Croatian begins with the basic days of the week, most of which end in -ak and are masculine: ponedjeljak (Monday), utorak (Tuesday), srijeda (Wednesday, feminine), četvrtak (Thursday), petak (Friday), subota (Saturday, feminine), and nedjelja (Sunday, feminine). Saying when something happens uses the question U koliko sati? (At what time?), and answering it employs sat (hour) and minuta (minute), with Koliko je sati? (What time is it?) as the everyday opener. Useful adverbs of time include danas (today), jučer (yesterday), sutra (tomorrow), sada (now), kasnije (later), uvijek (always), nikada (never), često (often), and ponekad (sometimes).
The months follow predictable masculine endings except for a few feminine forms: siječanj (January), veljača (February, feminine), ožujak (March), travanj (April), svibanj (May), lipanj (June), srpanj (July), kolovoz (August), rujan (September), listopad (October), studeni (November), and prosinac (December). The four seasons are proljeće (spring, neuter), ljeto (summer, neuter), jesen (autumn, feminine), and zima (winter, feminine), and the four parts of the day are jutro (morning), popodne (afternoon), večer (evening), and noć (night, feminine). Phrases like Ujutro (In the morning), Navečer (In the evening), and Tri je sata popodne (It's three in the afternoon) glue these nouns into common speech.
Weather vocabulary gives immediate practical value, because Croatians love to discuss the conditions. The sky and its phenomena include sunce (sun, neuter), mjesec (moon, masculine), zvijezda (star, feminine), oblak (cloud, masculine), kiša (rain, feminine), snijeg (snow, masculine), vjetar (wind, masculine), and the nouns vrućina (heat) and hladnoća (cold). Adjectives describing temperature tie this vocabulary together: vruć (hot), topao (warm), svjež (cool/fresh), and hladan (cold). Sample phrases for everyday use include Kiša pada (It's raining), Snijeg pada (It's snowing), Sunčano je (It's sunny), Vjetrovito je (It's windy), Hladno je danas (It's cold today), and Vruće je danas (It's hot today).