The fastest way to learn Croatian is to spend most of your study time on Croatian you can mostly understand. That kind of Croatian is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short dialogues with audio and a translation, and listen to each one twice. Start with the free Tako Lako textbook and the A1.HR course from the University of Zagreb, and say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Read LingQ's Mini Stories and the short novels from Croatian Made Easy, and start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Listen to Lagani hrvatski, the SBS news told in short, simple sentences and read slowly, and read along with its transcript. Then listen once more without reading along, and talk about what you heard for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch the Easy Languages street interviews in Croatian, which have subtitles, one or two a week. Then move on to the SBS Croatian news at full speed.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch shows from HRT, Croatia's public broadcaster, on HRTi without subtitles, and read articles about things you like. Look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Croatian novels and newspapers, and talk about them, for their own sake. When you want a word explained in Croatian, look it up in the Hrvatski jezični portal.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Croatian?
Croatian takes about 1,012 class hours, or 44 weeks of full-time study, to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, which lists it under the name Serbo-Croatian. That puts Croatian in the third of its four groups for English speakers, with Slovenian, Polish and Russian.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Category I | 30 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Croatian (listed as Serbo-Croatian), Polish | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
Croaticum, the University of Zagreb's center for Croatian as a second and foreign language, teaches beginners levels A1 and A2 in a 15-week semester course of 225 contact hours, each a 45-minute lesson. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Croaticum A1–A2 (225 hours) | FSI professional fluency (1,012 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 15 months | About 5½ years |
| 7 hours | About 7½ months | About 2¾ years |
| 14 hours | About 3½ months | About 17 months |
| 28 hours | About 2 months | About 8 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Croatian on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Hearing č and ć as One SoundCroatian writes two different sounds as č and ć, and many English speakers hear them as the same sound. Learn each word with its audio, so you hear the difference from the start.
- Case Tables AloneCroatian nouns change their endings across seven cases, and endings learned from a table are easy to forget until you meet them in sentences.
- Content Far Too HardMuch of the Croatian on radio and TV is made for people who already speak it. A show where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Croatian app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Croatian, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Croatian app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Croatian in three months?
You can learn enough Croatian to greet people, order food and talk about your day. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is most of the 225 contact hours Croaticum gives beginners for levels A1 and A2.
How much should I study Croatian each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Croatian you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Croatian hard for English speakers?
Yes, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: it puts Serbo-Croatian, which includes Croatian, in its third group of four, so Croatian takes longer than Spanish or German and half as long as Japanese. One part is easy, because each Croatian letter stands for one sound, so you can read a new word aloud once you know the letters. Most of the time goes into the words and the case endings, which you pick up fastest from Croatian you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- University of Zagreb, Croaticum, Semester Course of the Croatian Language and Culture (225 contact hours in 15 weeks; beginner group at levels A1 and A2)
- UCLA Slavic Department: Background Information (Croatian) (seven cases; one letter for each sound)
- Wikipedia: Gaj's Latin alphabet (č and ć are different sounds)
