Croatian is a Slavic language and part of the Indo-European language group, which is spoken in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia. It is the official language of Croatia, an official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of the European Union, and a minority language in Serbia.
Croatian is spoken by about 4.8 million people, about 575,000 of whom live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian is also used as a second language by about 170,000 people living in Croatia with Italian and Hungarian backgrounds, among others.
Croatian might not be the most common language to learn as a second language, but it is a wonderful language to learn simply for the purpose of getting to know the incredible Croatian people and visiting one of the most beautiful and charming countries in the world. Croatia boasts thousands of islands, emerald green waters, an unspoiled coastline, incredible food, culture, and history.
We have compiled the most comprehensive list of high-quality FREE language resources to help you to learn CROATIAN. Check them out below:
Free Resources to Learn Croatian
Free Learning/Studying Apps
Memrise – iTunes – Google Play – Memrise is a really fast, fun, and free language learning app/website that is sure to get you hooked. There is a visual flashcard component that also incorporates audio from a community of native speakers. Memrise uses spaced repetition and is really effective at drilling vocabulary and phrases into your memory.
Learn Croatian by 50 Languages – iTunes – Google Play – This app is great for beginners (A1-A2) to increase practical vocabulary which is useful for managing everyday situations (at a store, restaurant, bank, doctor, etc). With the free version, you will have access to 30 complete lessons.
Learn 10,000 Croatian Words and Phrases – iTunes – Google Play – Although this app won’t help you learn grammar, it will teach you a ton of vocabulary. The Croatian language lessons include 10,000 key words and phrases for all levels Beginner A1 (500 words), Elementary A2 (501-1250), Lower Intermediate B1 (1251-2250), Upper Intermediate B2 (2251-3500), and Advanced C1 (3501-5000).
Learn Croatian with Mondly – iTunes – Google Play – Mondly is a solid language learning platform, but it relies heavily on the “freemium” model which encourages you to purchase a premium subscription. With the free version, you have access to only 1 lesson a day, which can still be useful.
Simply Learn Croatian – iTunes – Google Play – This app will teach you over 300 common Croatian words and phrases using images and high-quality audio recordings by a native speaker from Croatia. Spaced repetition is used for better vocabulary retention. You can track your progress, take quizzes, and save words and phrases to a favorites list. The free version covers phrases and vocabulary for the following topics which are essential when visiting Croatia: Numbers, Time and Date, Basic Conversation, Greetings, Getting Directions, Eating at Restaurants, Sightseeing, Shopping, Emergency, and Accommodations.
Learn Croatian with WordPower – iTunes – Google Play – WordPower is another app that relies heavily on the “freemium” model, but the free version will teach you 100 of the most common Croatian words and phrases.
HelloTalk – iTunes – Google Play – HelloTalk is a global language learning social network that connects you with native speakers of other languages so that you can practice your speaking and listening skills with native speakers via text/audio messages and free audio and video calls. The free version allows you to choose one native language and one target language.
Internet Polyglot – iTunes – Google Play – This free app uses lessons, games, and pictures to teach foreign languages to beginners. Although Internet Polyglot is far from a standalone language learning tool, it is a useful supplement to help you to learn and retain vocabulary.
Beginner Croatian – Google Play – This app is based on the “learn a word a day” concept and uses a simple and direct approach to teaching Croatian to beginners.
Start From Zero Croatian – Google Play – This app will boost your vocabulary skills by helping you learn thousands of the most commonly used Croatian words and phrases. It also offers quiz and flashcard functionality to test your progress.
Free Croatian Dictionary/Translation Apps
Google Translate – iTunes – Google Play – Google Translate offers online text translation between 103 languages by typing, offline translation for 59 languages, camera translation for 38 languages, image translation for 37 languages, conversation translation in 32 languages, and translation of handwritten characters in 93 languages. The app also has a phrasebook that allows you to save translated words and phrases for future reference in all languages.
Dict.CC – iTunes – Google Play – Dict.CC is a bidirectional dictionary offering 51 language combinations. The app can be used offline and vocabulary lists can be downloaded.
iTranslate – iTunes – Google Play – iTranslate is a leading free translator and dictionary app that provides translations for text in over 100 languages. Other functionality includes transliteration, sharing, favorites, history, and audio in both male and female voices. Voice to voice translations and the use of offline mode is not available with the free version.
Easy Croatian – These YouTube videos are the work of a non-profit project which uses lighthearted street interviews as a method to teach languages. Each video has a topic and the host asks questions to native Croatian speakers on the street based on the theme. Each video contains subtitles in both Croatian and English.
LangMedia – YouTube – LangMedia provides language learning resources, including videos, audio, study guides, etc. LangMedia is run by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and their mission is to share examples of linguistic and cultural diversity with language learners. In the “Language by Country / Croatian in Croatia” section of the LangMedia website, they provide videos which focus on practical aspects of everyday life (For Ex: Basic Communication, Shopping, Transportation, Culture and Social Life). The conversations often include colloquial language and all videos are accompanied by translations and transcripts. The “CultureTalk Croatia” section of the LangMedia website features video interviews with people of different ages and backgrounds. The interviews are primarily conducted by students and translations and transcripts are provided.
Croatian 101 Lessons – YouTube – iTunes – Google Play – This website offers simple beginner Croatian lessons.
Get by in Croatian – YouTube – This beginner video series by Shannon Kennedy will teach you the very basics of Croatian to prepare for a conversation during a trip to Croatia.
Colloquial Croatian: The Complete Course for Beginners – This collection of 63 audio files, each a few minutes in length, provides concise and clear Croatian language instruction for beginners. These free audio lessons were made to accompany the Colloquial Croatian: The Complete Course for Beginners textbook By Celia Hawkesworth, which is a book aimed at teaching Croatian to beginners in a practical way to prepare them to effectively communicate with confidence in everyday situations.
Get by in Croatian Podcast – iTunes – This quick and easy podcast by Shannon Kennedy will teach you the very basics of Croatian to prepare for a conversation during a trip to Croatia.
HR4EU Courses – This website serves as a web portal promoting Croatian language learning, offering supportive learning resources, and most importantly several free courses. Additionally, you will find a lot of really interesting information about Croatian food, culture, history, geography, landmarks, and points of interest, all in a cool interactive map format. Beyond that, there is also detailed guidance for those looking to live and work in Croatia. In order to access the section of the website with free courses you must log in. HR4EU is brought to you by the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Zagreb with funding from the European Union Social Fund.
The courses are not based on the CEFR (Common European Framework). Each course consists of ten lessons that teach important grammar and vocabulary, and feature quizzes, exercises and even a Dictionary for easy reference.
- Beginner Croatian Course – Roughly corresponds to the A1 level.
- Intermediate Croatian Course – Roughly corresponds with A2 level.
- Advanced Croatian Course – Roughly corresponds with B1 level.
- Croatian for Business Users – This course teaches vocabulary and skills that are pertinent to doing business, like writing a CV or job application.
- Croatian for Students – This course teaches vocabulary and skills that are pertinent to being a student, like writing an internship application or a letter to join an exchange program.
Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Croatian Basic Course – The Foreign Service Institute (U.S. Department of State) originally created this and many other language learning courses to train government employees and members of the foreign service in preparation for a post abroad. This course was designed to train participants to speak Croatian naturally with native speakers while exuding confidence and using an accurate accent. It focuses heavily on pronunciation and preparing students for real-life conversations. 50 units are encompassed over the two volumes and include textbooks in PDF format and audio lessons as MP3s.
- FSI Croatian Basic Course Volume 1 – This course is accompanied by an e-textbook with 642 pages and 24 audio files with a running time of 15 hours.
- FSI Croatian Basic Course Volume 2 – This course is accompanied by an e-textbook with 677 pages and 44 audio files with a running time of 17 hours and 28 minutes.
Easy Croatian Course – The Easy Croatian website offers a course consisting of 50 successive units which aim to teach you how to speak Croatian well using a minimal amount of grammar. The course units are thorough, organized and offer very practical information. The course can also be downloaded as a PDF or AZW3 file (for Kindle) and all MP3 audio files are available to download. The author also created a grammar cheat sheet and verb cheat sheet (covering 205 important verbs), both of which can be downloaded as PDF files. You can also access the course using Memrise.
ielanguages.com – This website offers free basic language learning text and audio instruction.
Learn101 – This website features free beginner lessons to guide you through learning Croatian, step by step, starting with the Alphabet, moving on to grammar, vocabulary, and phrases, and finally offering simple quizzes to test your progress. These lessons are a basic introduction to the language and have images, text, and audio.
Ilanguages – This site is designed to teach Croatian with free vocabulary, phrases, grammar, and flashcards while focusing on highly used words and phrases necessary for everyday living.
Omniglot – This site specializes in providing information about languages and their alphabets and writing systems.
Digital Dialects – This website makes learning vocabulary fun with interactive games.
Goethe Verlag – This website offers 100 Croatian lessons for beginners, each with words, phrases and corresponding audio files.
Loecsen – Loecson offers a free mini-course consisting of fun lessons that provide a basic introduction to Croatian with the help of text, audio, simple illustrations, and quizzes to test your progress. You will learn high-frequency vocabulary words and commonly used phrases relating to 17 themes which are relevant to everyday life.
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Croatian Tutorial – This Language Survival Kit Module for Croatian contains basic vocabulary with audio. Both the audio files and the PDF text can be downloaded.
Learn Croatian – This is a for-profit language school which happens to also offer some free Croatian learning resources that will be useful for students. A Croatian phrasebook for travel with words and audio, a Vocabulary Trainer with 600 high-frequency words to test yourself, a Grammar Trainer and a Croatian Language Level Test with 60 questions to determine your level according to the CEFR (ex: A1, B1)
Surface Languages – This website helps you to learn words, phrases, and expressions in many different languages using audio, flashcards, language learning games and mini-courses.
LingvoSoft Croatian Phrasebook – This site offers a basic phrasebook format with text and audio to help you learn essential Croatian vocabulary.
Croatian Phrasebook by WikiTravel – WikiTravel is an online crowd-sourced travel guide with lots of useful information for travelers worldwide, including this Croatian Phrasebook.
Lang-8 – This free network is a nice tool to support your language learning. Native speakers are available to make corrections to your text and provide feedback. In return, you provide help to others.
HiNative – iTunes – Google Play – HiNative is an app brought to you by the creators of Lang-8 that allows you to ask questions to native speakers from around the world using your smartphone. HiNative was created to be used alongside Lang-8 and is different from Lang-8 in that it focuses on a Q&A type of learning while Lang-8 is a journal writing experience.
RhinoSpike – RhinoSpike is an interesting website that connects language learners from all over the world allowing them to exchange audio files to help improve pronunciation skills. It allows you to submit text that you would like to hear read aloud by a native speaker, and in turn, you receive the audio file. In exchange, and to speed up the process you can, in turn, provide audio files in your native language for other learners.
MyLanguageExchange.com – This online language learning community connects you with other learners so that you can practice speaking in your second language with a native speaker and vice-versa.
Italki – A community of over 2 million language learners that facilitates free language practice with native speakers. You simply exchange time teaching your native language for time learning a foreign language, making it mutually beneficial and free.
Deutsche Welle – German broadcasting company DW provides news in Croatian.
SBS Radio Indonesian Program – iTunes – SBS is an Australian broadcasting company that targets non-native English speakers and creates programming in many languages. This podcast allows you to listen to interviews, features and community stories from the SBS Radio Indonesian program, including Australian and world news.
Forvo – This crowd-sourced site is a great tool to help with pronunciation as it allows you to listen to words and phrases spoken by native speakers.
Dict.cc – A go-to Croatian dictionary and translation website which also offers crowd-sourced recordings by native speakers.
Tatoeba – Tatoeba is a large, crowdsourced database of sentences and translations. This free resource allows you to search for a word and get results showing that word in sentences with translations.
Talkify – This free, multilingual website is a very interesting and valuable resource that allows you to listen to text in foreign languages. Simply insert a URL into the search field on Talkify and it will automatically detect the language and read the text of that website aloud in a natural sounding voice.
Croatian National Corpus – The Croatian National Corpus is a database of contemporary Croatian texts which can be easily searched and allows you to find usage examples of words in addition to the case, tense or parts of speech.
Croatian Morphological Lexicon – Watch this YouTube video for instructions on how to use the Croatian Morphological Lexicon, which is a lexical database that allows you to find the correct citation form (or lemma) of a Croatian word.
Croatian Wordnet (CROWN) – Watch this YouTube video for instructions on how to use the Croatian Wordnet, which is a lexical database which helps you to easily find synonyms for Croatian words.
CroDeriV – Watch this YouTube video for instructions on how to use the CroDerV. This database consists of 14,000 verbs and allows you to check all verbs belonging to the same root.
Croatian Dependency Treebank – HOBS – This database contains 500 Croatian sentences from the HR4EU language coarse, making it a good learning supplement.
A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian by Wayles Brown and Theresa Alt – This Reference Grammar was created by the SEELRC (Slavic and East European Language Resource Center of Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill).
Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar With Sociolinguistic Commentary – This book by Ronelle Alexander covers the differences and commonalities between Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian, focusing on grammar, vocabulary, and accents.
Basic Croatian – This 300-page introduction to basic Croatian was created by Daniel, the author of the Easy Croatian Course and is a concise and clear resource for Croatian language learners.
Learn Croatian Language Level Test – This test features 60 questions and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.
Cactus Language – This UK based language study abroad organization offers free online language level testing.
Goethe Verlag – Free tests in 25 languages and 600 language combinations. They offer 100 basic and 100 advanced level quizzes.
What Are Your Favorite Free Croatian Language Learning Resources?
We have done a lot of research to bring you the best, free resources that the internet has to offer and we want to make sure our list is always comprehensive. Please share your favorites in the comments below.
