Here's the short version: say bok to friends and in casual settings, use dobar dan as a polite default, and keep doviđenja for a polite goodbye. Those three cover the core choices; the rest is useful nuance.
Published 12 August 2026 · Updated 11 September 2026
The choice between bok and dobar dan is mostly about register. Bok is casual; dobar dan is the safer opening with an older stranger or in a more formal shop, office or service encounter. Think of the difference between “hi” and “good afternoon.”
Bok is the everyday Croatian hello — light, warm, and gloriously efficient because it also means bye. You'll hear it a thousand times a day in Zagreb. Dobar dan (literally "good day") is your safe, polite default: a stranger, an older person, a pharmacy, a hotel desk. And doviđenja is the polite goodbye when bok feels too casual. If you learn nothing else before your trip, learn those three.
Croatian spelling is relatively transparent, so learning its letter–sound patterns makes unfamiliar words much easier to read. A couple of notes: č and ć are both roughly "ch" (č is harder, ć is softer), j is a "y" as in "yes", and đ is a soft sound close to the "j" in "jam".
| Croatian | Say it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Bok | bohk | Casual hi/bye, anytime |
| Dobar dan | DOH-bar dahn | Polite hello, midday to evening |
| Dobro jutro | DOH-bro YOO-tro | Good morning, until ~11am |
| Dobra večer | DOH-bra VEH-cher | Good evening |
| Laku noć | LAH-koo notch | Good night (heading to bed) |
| Doviđenja | doh-vee-JEH-nya | Polite goodbye |
| Ćao | chow | Casual hi/bye, coast especially |
| Vidimo se | VEE-dee-mo seh | See you (later) |
| Pozdrav | POZ-drav | Neutral hello, and a sign-off in emails |
To one person you know, it's kako si? To someone you're being polite with, or a group, it's kako ste? That si versus ste split is the same formality dial as the greeting itself: si is informal singular, while ste is plural or respectful singular. With an older stranger, ste is usually the safer opening.
The trap: kako si is a real question, not the automatic English "y'alright?" that expects no answer. You'll get an actual reply. A safe one back is dobro, hvala ("good, thanks"), or evo, dobro ("getting on fine"). Then lob it back: a ti? ("and you?").
A practical rule of thumb: use dobar dan when the encounter feels formal, and bok when it is clearly casual.
Usage varies by region and speaker. Bok is strongly associated with Zagreb and northern Croatia, while ćao is also common along the coast. Neither is limited to one place, so listen to the people around you and match the level of formality.
One more that punches above its weight: pozdrav. It's a friendly, neutral "hello" out loud, but it's also how half the country signs off a text or an email — the Croatian "cheers/regards". Drop it at the end of a message to your landlord and you'll look like you've been here a while.
You walk into a konoba or a corner shop. Here's the whole exchange, start to finish:
— Dobar dan. (You, on the way in.)
— Dobar dan, izvolite? ("Good day, what would you like?")
— Jednu kavu, molim. ("One coffee, please.")
— … Hvala. Doviđenja! (You, on the way out.)
That's it. Four lines, and you've bookended the whole thing politely without a word of English. Nail the entrance and exit and the middle takes care of itself.
Phones have their own tiny etiquette. Picking up to someone you don't know, the neutral answer is molim? — literally "please?", but here it means "hello, go ahead". Informally you'll hear halo?, and if a friend is calling you might just answer bok. To say who you are, use ovdje plus your name — ovdje Ana ("Ana here"). If you're the one ringing a shop, café or landlord, lead with dobar dan before you ask anything, exactly as you would walking in the door. Ring off the way you'd leave: hvala, doviđenja, or bok with a friend.
What does bok mean in Croatian? Bok is the everyday Croatian hello — casual, friendly, used all over the country and especially in Zagreb. It doubles as a goodbye, so you can open and close a chat with the same word. It's informal, so for a stranger who's clearly older, or in a formal setting, dobar dan is the safer choice.
Is it dobar dan or dobro jutro? Dobro jutro (good morning) is for the early part of the day, roughly until 10 or 11am. After that, switch to dobar dan (good day/good afternoon), which works right through until the evening. In the evening it's dobra večer. Dobar dan is the all-purpose polite greeting when you're unsure.
How do you say goodbye in Croatian? Doviđenja is the standard polite goodbye. Among friends people say bok or ćao (also spelled čao). Vidimo se means see you, and laku noć is good night — but only when someone is actually heading to bed, not just leaving.
Is Croatian bok the same as Serbian ćao? They overlap. Ćao is used across the region for a casual hi or bye. Bok is distinctively Croatian and you'll hear it constantly in Zagreb and the north; a Serbian speaker would recognise it but wouldn't usually say it. On the Croatian coast you'll hear both bok and ćao.
How do Croatians answer the phone? The neutral answer is molim? (literally please?), which is how you pick up to anyone you don't know. Informally, halo? is common, and with a friend who is calling you might just say bok. To say who you are, use ovdje plus your name (here is...). If you are the one calling a business, open with dobar dan before you ask for anything.
Learn these before you travel and you will have a useful way to open and close everyday conversations. When you're ready to go past hello, use the beginner's roadmap to Croatian. You can also try Gora for seven days free with no card: search “Gora Academy” in the Apple App Store or Google Play, or open app.gora.academy. Pozdrav.