Croatian Present Tense

Croatian present-tense endings are among the friendliest in the Slavic family: one set of personal endings, three theme vowels, no stress gymnastics. And because the ending announces the person, pronouns usually stay home.

One Set of Endings

Every Croatian verb, whatever its class, uses these person markers:

First person singular in -m is your anchor: imam (I have), znam (I know), radim (I work), govorim (I speak).

The Three Vowel Classes

Verbs differ only in the vowel before those endings — a, i, or e:

Note pisati's stem change (pis- → piš-) — e-class verbs often shift a consonant, but once you know the ja form, the rest of the row follows mechanically.

Negating Verbs

Place ne directly before the verb — always separate, except for the three fused verbs:

Chaining with the Infinitive

Where Serbian says хоћу да учим, Croatian chains verbs the English way — with an infinitive:

Only the first verb conjugates; the second stays in its dictionary form (-ti). The pattern powers wants, plans, obligations, and abilities all day long: želim/moram/volim/mogu + infinitive.