Standard Croatian uses a 30-letter Latin alphabet with much more regular letter-to-sound patterns than English. Three letters (dž, lj and nj) are digraphs: each uses two characters for one alphabet letter. Learn the unfamiliar letters below to sound out everyday words. Stress is not marked in ordinary spelling, and neighbouring sounds can change in speech, so listening still matters.
Published 15 September 2026
Here is the good news: Croatian spelling gives you a much better first guess than English through / though / tough. Once you recognise its letters and digraphs, you can sound out many familiar Croatian words. That does not tell you everything about their pronunciation: ordinary writing leaves stress unmarked, neighbouring consonants can influence one another, and foreign names follow their own conventions. Learn the letters first, then check unfamiliar words by listening.
One thing to set aside straight away: script. The Croatian standard uses the Latin alphabet, so you do not need Cyrillic for ordinary Croatian reading. Croatian has also been recorded in other scripts historically. Serbian uses both Latin and Cyrillic today; we untangle that in Latin or Cyrillic, which to learn first.
The Croatian Latin alphabet is sometimes called gajica, after Ljudevit Gaj, who shaped it. It has 27 single letters and 3 digraphs — dž, lj and nj — for a total of thirty. Those three digraphs are worth a moment: even though each is typed as two characters, Croatian treats it as one letter of the alphabet. That matters when you spell a word aloud, alphabetise a list, or notice that nj in konj (horse) is a single sound, not an n followed by a j.
The full order runs: a, b, c, č, ć, d, dž, đ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, lj, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, v, z, ž. You'll notice there is no q, w, x or y in that order: these can appear in foreign names and words. Many consonants will feel familiar, while the vowels are steadier than English vowels (more on those below). The smaller group of unfamiliar letters is a useful place to start.
These are the letters that either look unfamiliar or don't say what an English eye assumes. The middle column is a plain-English approximation, not a perfect match — but it's close enough to be understood everywhere.
| Letter | Sounds roughly like | Croatian example |
|---|---|---|
| c | "ts" in cats (never a hard "k") | cijena — price |
| č | "ch" in church (the firmer one) | čaj — tea |
| ć | a softer, lighter "ch" — like the "t" in future | noć — night |
| dž | "j" in jam (the firm one) | džem — jam |
| đ | a softer "j" — like the "d" in verdure | đak — pupil |
| j | "y" in yes | jutro — morning |
| lj | "lli" in million | ljeto — summer |
| nj | "ny" in canyon (Spanish ñ) | konj — horse |
| š | "sh" in ship | šuma — forest |
| ž | "s" in measure | žena — woman |
| h | a raspy "h" from the throat, like the "ch" in Scottish loch | hvala — thank you |
| r | a tapped or rolled "r", as in Spanish or Italian | more — sea |
These two pairs are the ones learners fret about, so let's be honest about them. In the standard language they really are four different sounds: č and dž are the firmer, "harder" pair, while ć and đ are softer and more forward in the mouth. A useful mental picture: č is the ch of church; ć is the gentler sound hiding in future or cute.
Here's the reassuring part. Some native speakers blur č and ć in everyday speech, so if your ear can't catch the difference at first, keep listening rather than treating one English approximation as a precise rule. Learn each word's spelling and practise the finer sound in context.
Croatian has five vowel letters — a, e, i, o, u — with more stable sounds than many English vowels. Roughly: a as in father, e as in bet, i as in machine, o as in bought, u as in rule. These comparisons are starting points, not exact transcriptions; listen to full words to hear their length and stress.
There's one twist that looks alarming and isn't. The letter r can act as a syllabic r — a vowel takes shape from an r alone when it's wedged between consonants — so words that seem to have no vowel are fine. Prst (finger), vrt (garden) and even the country's own name, Hrvatska (Croatia), each build a syllable around that rolled r. Buzz the r and the "missing" vowel appears on its own.
Standard Croatian has four accents involving length and tone. Its standard accent rule places stress away from the final syllable of a polysyllabic word; for two-syllable standard examples, try HVA-la and ŽE-na. Everyday regional speech and loans need not follow that classroom pattern. Because ordinary spelling does not mark the accent, check a recording rather than trying to calculate stress from the letters.
You'll meet the vowel cluster ije or je in very common words — mlijeko (milk), dijete (child), lijep (beautiful). This is the Croatian reflex of an old Slavic vowel (the "jat"), and it follows its own spelling rules that are worth a page of their own. Rather than cram them in here, we've given them a proper treatment in Croatian ije, je and e, explained — read that once and these words stop looking random.
Cover the notes and try each word using the table above. The point isn't perfect stress — it's practising a useful first reading before you listen to the word.
Notes: (1) hvala — start with a raspy h from the throat, then va-la; both vowels full. (2) dobar dan — everything as written; the a's stay open, no schwa. (3) Hrvatska — the first syllable is built on the rolled r (Hr-), then -vat-ska. (4) ćevapi — the opening ć is the soft one, then it reads plainly: će-va-pi. (5) njegov — nj is a single "ny" sound, as in canyon: nje-gov.
Recognise the unfamiliar letters and syllabic r, then test your reading against spoken Croatian. The alphabet helps you begin; stress and connected speech still deserve your ear.
Pronunciation is a useful early win; the rest of Croatian builds on it. Our beginner's roadmap for Croatian lays out what to learn next, and Croatian greetings gives you real words to try today. Many letter patterns are closely related to Serbian ones; if you also read Serbian, the Serbian pronunciation guide approaches them from Cyrillic.
In the app you don't drill a pronunciation table — you hear each sound in real words and say them back, so č versus ć and the rolled r become a reflex instead of a chart. Start your free seven-day trial — no card →
New to the app? Search Gora Academy in the Apple App Store or Google Play, or open it in your browser at app.gora.academy.