Croatian Question Words: Tko, Što, Gdje & How to Ask Anything

Here is the toolkit. The “Say it” column is a rough English-sound guide — lean on the syllable in capitals. Treat it as a crutch until you have heard the words spoken, not a substitute for hearing them.

Croatian	Say it	English	Example
tko	tko	who	Tko je to? — Who is that?
što	shto	what	Što je ovo? — What is this?
gdje	gdyeh	where	Gdje je zahod? — Where's the toilet?
kada / kad	KA-da	when	Kada kreće bus? — When does the bus leave?
zašto	ZASH-to	why	Zašto ne? — Why not?
kako	KA-ko	how	Kako se kaže…? — How do you say…?
koji	KO-yee	which	Koji autobus? — Which bus?
čiji	CHEE-yee	whose	Čiji je ovo? — Whose is this?
koliko	KO-lee-ko	how much / many	Koliko košta? — How much is it?

Notice the useful beginner pattern: the question word comes first, then the verb or the little word that carries “is/are”. Croatian adds no English-style “do”: Gdje je kolodvor? is literally “Where is station?” and is already a complete question. Word order can shift for emphasis, but this default will carry you a long way.

Two of these earn their keep ten times a day. Koliko? on its own — just “how much?” — handles every price and quantity at a market stall or a bus window. And Kako se kaže…? (“how do you say…?”) is the single most useful sentence a beginner owns: you point, you ask, and the person in front of you hands you the exact word you were missing. Plenty of learners have built half a vocabulary standing in queues doing exactly that.

Tko, not ko: the little “t” that says “Croatian”

The first word in the table is the giveaway. Standard Croatian writes tko for “who”, with a t at the front; standard Serbian and everyday Bosnian write ko. Same word, same meaning — the spelling is simply one of the markers that sorts the written standards. The second word does the same job: Croatian uses što for “what”, where standard Serbian uses šta. If you remember nothing else about the differences between these languages, tko and što are two of the cleanest tells.

None of this is a wall between speakers. Ko and šta are understood perfectly well in Zagreb, and tko and što in Belgrade; the choice marks which standard you are writing, and in Montenegro and Bosnia usage is mixed. Follow the standard you are actually learning rather than treating one form as universal. If the whole BCMS-is-it-one-language question interests you, we untangle it in Croatian vs Serbian: the differences that actually show.

Kaj and ča: the other two words for “what”

Travel around Croatia and you will hear “what?” come out as kaj in and around Zagreb and the north, and as ča along parts of the Adriatic coast and islands. These belong to Croatia's two other dialect groups. A dialect here just means a regional variety of the language; Croatia's three are named after their very word for “what” — štokavski (što), kajkavski (kaj) and čakavski (ča). Standard Croatian is built on the štokavian variety, so što is the form to learn — but hearing a cheerful Kaj ima? (“What's up?”) in a Zagreb café is a small pleasure worth recognising.

The catch: tko, što and koji change with case

Croatian marks a word's job in the sentence by changing its ending — a system called case (the same endings you meet on nouns). Most of the question words are adverbs and never move: gdje, kada, zašto, kako and koliko stay exactly as they are. But the pronouns tko and što, and the determiners koji and čiji, take case endings. Here is the useful starter set for tko:

tko (who) across cases:

Tko je to? — Who is that? (subject)
Koga vidiš? — Whom do you see? (object)
Komu (or kome) to daješ? — To whom are you giving that?
S kim ideš? — With whom are you going?

And što (what) does the same: čega (of what), čemu (to/about what) and čime (with what) — as in O čemu govoriš? (“What are you talking about?”). Don't try to master these tables today. Just know they exist, so that when koga or čemu turns up you recognise it as a familiar question word doing a different job, not a brand-new word. It is the same case machinery running under the whole language. If cases are still fuzzy, start gently with the beginner's roadmap to Croatian, which shows where they fit.

Yes/no questions work differently

Everything above is for open questions — the ones a single word cannot answer. Plenty of questions only want a yes or a no (“Do you have it?”, “Is it open?”), and those use no question word at all. Instead you clip the little particle li onto the verb — Imaš li…? (“Do you have…?”), Je li otvoreno? (“Is it open?”). In everyday speech you will also hear Da li…? doing the same job. All are understood; li and je li are the forms to reach for first in Croatian. It is a small, separate piece of machinery worth learning alongside these nine words.

A real exchange, built from question words

Here is how far five of these words carry you at a bus window — no full sentences required:

You: Dobar dan. Koji autobus ide za Split? — Good day. Which bus goes to Split?

Clerk: Onaj, peron dva. — That one, platform two.

You: Kada kreće? — When does it leave?

Clerk: U deset i petnaest. — At quarter past ten.

You: Koliko košta? — How much is it?

You (stuck on a word): Kako se kaže “return ticket”? — How do you say…?

Five question words, one real conversation. The numbers coming back at you are the only hard part, and that is really a numbers problem more than a question one — worth a session of its own.

Try it (answers below)

You're at a market stall. Cover the answers and produce the question:

Ask what something is.
Ask how much it costs.
You don't know the word for it — ask how to say it.

Answers: 1) Što je ovo? 2) Koliko košta? 3) Kako se kaže…?

Quick questions

How do you say "who" in Croatian? Standard Croatian uses tko, with a t at the front, where Serbian and Bosnian usually use ko. Both mean "who". Tko changes with case: koga (whom), komu or kome (to whom) and s kim (with whom).

What is the difference between tko/što and ko/šta? They are the same question words in different written standards. Standard Croatian writes tko and što; standard Serbian writes ko and šta. Montenegrin and Bosnian usage varies. All four forms are widely understood across the region.

What are the main Croatian question words? The core set is tko (who), što (what), gdje (where), kada (when), zašto (why), kako (how), koji (which), čiji (whose) and koliko (how much or how many). Learn these and you can ask for almost anything.

How do you ask a yes/no question in Croatian? You don't use a question word. You add the little particle li after the verb — Imaš li…? (Do you have…?) — or begin with Je li…?. In everyday speech you will also hear Da li…?. All of them are understood.

Front-loading questions works because they are the cheapest fluency you can buy. Nine words, and the whole country becomes something you can ask your way through. If you want them drilled in with real sentences and a fox who answers back when you ask Kako si?, that is exactly what Gora is for — there is a free seven-day trial with no card, and you can search “Gora Academy” in the Apple App Store or Google Play. The beginner's roadmap to Croatian shows where question words sit in the bigger picture, and a few greetings turn each question into a proper small exchange.

PS — the first question to try on a real person? Kako se kaže…? (“How do you say…?”). It turns every stranger into a teacher.