Everything You Need To Learn Croatian
Croatian (hrvatski jezik) is spoken by around 6 million people in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with smaller communities of speakers living around the world.
It’s an Indo-European language that developed from the West Slavic subgroup of languages, making it closely related to Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian.
Croatian is mutually intelligible with the Serbian language, as both are based on the same dialect. This means that if you speak Serbian, Croatian won’t be very difficult for you to learn; and if you learn one, you’ll be able to converse in the other, essentially giving you 2 languages for the price of 1.
The good news for those new to Slavic languages and want to learn Croatian is that there are plenty of Croatian learning materials available for English speakers. This may have something to do with the rise in tourism to Croatia.
We’ve put together a list of useful resources, from Croatian course books to Croatian story books. You should find more than enough here to reach an advanced level in Croatian.
Croatian Language Learning Books
If you want to learn Croatian and you’re on a tight budget, the best place to start is by getting your hands on a Croatian study book. With a good course book, you’ll be able to learn Croatian grammar, practice new words and phrases with exercises, and gain a good, solid foundation in the Croatian language.
If you’re the type of learner who likes memorizing common phrases and being able to quickly express yourself, a Croatian phrasebook would come in especially handy.
Likewise, a concise English-Croatian dictionary will be an invaluable tool when you start to really dig into the language. Keeping a good Croatian dictionary nearby is wise, because you’ll be using a variety of materials during your journey to fluency, and you’ll constantly come across new words and terms you’ll want to look up quickly.
Croatian puzzle books are awesome for those who like absorbing new vocabulary in a fun way. Words and terms learned in this manner are usually easy to retain in the long term.
Croatian Children’s Books
Reading Croatian language children’s books is a great way to improve not only your Croatian reading comprehension, but your overall skills in the language. Croatian books written for children use simple language, making them easy for beginners to comprehend.
You’ll pick up basic Croatian vocabulary and sentence structure in a fun way, without many of the stresses associated with learning a new language.
The great thing about many of the Croatian kids’ books on this list is that they are bilingual English-Croatian texts, meaning the English version of the story is included, making it easy for you to understand the plot of the book even if you don’t know all that much Croatian yet.
Croatian Digital Courses
For those of you who learn more effectively using audiovisual material, a good Croatian audio course or e-course will be right up your alley. These types of courses are usually more focused on getting learners speaking quickly and picking up grammar rules naturally.
Both Pimsleur and Udemy offer Croatian e-courses at affordable rates. You’ll be able to learn practical, real-world vocabulary and sentence structures using engaging audio lessons with native Croatian speakers.
While both have their benfits and can be accessed on almost all devices, Udemy’s Croatian course offers more varied material, including video instruction and a community of learners to connect with. You also get lifetime access to all future updates.
CROATIAN UDEMY COURSES
CROATIAN AUDIO COURSES
