Croatian is the one to learn if you're moving to Zagreb or Split, and Serbian if your plans are in Belgrade, while university programs such as UCLA's teach the two together as Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.
Serbian lets people say some words two ways, such as pesma and pjesma for a song, and Croatian uses only the second.
| Serbian | Croatian | |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | Cyrillic and Latin; Cyrillic for official papers, Latin all over the media | Latin only |
| Time, weather | vreme (време), or vrijeme | vrijeme |
| "I want to go" | Often želim da idem | želim ići |
| Mainly used in | Serbia | Croatia |
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute even lists the two as one language, Serbo-Croatian.
| Meaning | Serbian | Croatian |
|---|---|---|
| Train | voz | vlak |
| Bread | hleb | kruh |
| If you want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Live in Zagreb or spend summers in Dalmatia | Croatian |
| Talk with Croatian relatives | Croatian |
| Live in Belgrade or Novi Sad | Serbian |
| Read Serbian street signs and papers in Cyrillic | Serbian, with the Serbian Cyrillic chart |
Serbian: Ordering Coffee at a Cafe
Наручивање кафе у кафићу
Marko is in a café.
Good day! What would you like?
I'd like a coffee and a pastry, please.
Here you are.
Thank you.
Croatian: Good Day
Dobar dan
Good day, Mrs. Marija.
Good day, Ivan. How are you?
I am well, thank you. And you?
I am well too, thank you very much.
Goodbye, Mrs. Marija!
Goodbye, Ivan!
Here the Serbian lesson is shown in Cyrillic and the Croatian one in Latin letters. Both are lessons Poppy, your AI tutor, wrote for learners in Bubblegum, a language app.
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Serbian lessons can be read in Latin or Cyrillic letters, and the reader's Alphabet setting switches between them.
- You'll meet the pairs from the tables in lessons: vreme and voz on the Serbian journey, vrijeme and vlak on the Croatian one.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- There's no journey for Bosnian or Montenegrin, the other two standard forms of Serbo-Croatian.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Do I Need Cyrillic for Croatian?
No. Croatian uses only Latin letters. Serbian Cyrillic matches the Latin alphabet letter for letter, so if you add Serbian later, you only learn new shapes for the same sounds.
Which App Should a Beginner Choose?
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
- Wikipedia, Serbo-Croatian (a pluricentric language with four mutually intelligible standard varieties: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin)
- Wikipedia, Comparison of Serbo-Croatian standard varieties (Serbian uses Cyrillic and Latin, Cyrillic official in administration but Latin more common in media and online; the Serbian Cyrillic and Latin alphabets map one to one; Serbian accepts Ekavian and Ijekavian, Croatian only Ijekavian; with modal verbs Croatian prescribes the infinitive and Serbian prefers da + present)
- Wikipedia, Serbian language (official or recognized in ten countries; over 7 million people declare it their mother tongue)
- UCLA Department of Slavic, East European & Eurasian Languages & Cultures, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS courses at all levels; three closely related, mutually intelligible languages)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (Category III lists Serbo-Croatian as one language)
- Wiktionary, vreme (Ekavian: time, weather)
- Wiktionary, vrijeme (Ijekavian: time, weather)
- Wiktionary, pesma (Serbo-Croatian, Ekavian: song, poem)
- Wiktionary, pjesma (Serbo-Croatian, Ijekavian: song, poem)
- Wiktionary, voz (Bosnia and Serbia: train)
- Wiktionary, vlak (Croatia: train)
- Wiktionary, hleb (Ekavian: bread)
- Wiktionary, kruh (Croatia: bread)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
