Comprehensible input · Croatian
Croatian texts you can actually read
Croatian is a South Slavic language spoken by nearly 7 million people, known for its complex grammar and some of the longest words in the Slavic family. Every text is written for your level, every sentence is tappable for a translation, every word is one tap from the dictionary — and the whole story can be read to you out loud.
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A0 · First texts
Readable after your first few lessons
Tiny texts (40–80 words) built from greetings, family, and everyday objects. Short sentences, present tense only, lots of cognates.
Bok ili dobar dan?
Bok or Dobar Dan?
Petra teaches Emma the two Croatian hellos — and when each one is right. Your first dialogue, readable after the greetings lesson.
Read & listenOvo je Petra
This Is Petra
Meet Petra from Split and her white cat Luna — your first Croatian text, readable after just a few lessons.
Read & listenMoja torba
My Bag
What's in Emma's bag? A gender-coded inventory — masculine, feminine and neuter, one object at a time.
Read & listenPetrina obitelj
Petra's Family
Meet the whole cast: Petra in Split, her brother Ivan in Zagreb, baka Marija on the island — and Luna, who thinks she is the family.
Read & listenCrna mačka, bijeli pas
Black Cat, White Dog
Luna meets a big white dog on the riva. Colors, sizes and one very small cat with very big confidence.
Read & listenJutro kod Petre
Morning at Petra's
Seven o'clock at Petra's: milk for Luna, coffee and a sandwich for Petra, and rain outside.
Read & listenA1 · Everyday life
Daily routines, shopping, weather — real situations
Short stories and dialogues (80–160 words) about everyday life. Present tense with natural case usage and frequent question-answer patterns.
Jutro u kuhinji
Morning in the Kitchen
A cosy Saturday morning at grandma's: coffee from a džezva, warm bread with honey, and flowers through the window.
Read & listenMoj dan
My Day
Emma describes a plain Croatian weekday — coffee on the balcony, work, the market, and an evening by the sea. The present tense, lived in.
Read & listenEmma uči hrvatski
Emma Learns Croatian
Why is Emma learning Croatian — and what's hard, what's easy, and what the neighbors think about it. Every learner's story, in miniature.
Read & listenŽelim kavu
I Want a Coffee
Petra and Emma order at the café — and Emma discovers the accusative works in the wild. First -u endings, first idemo na kavu.
Read & listenŽivim u Splitu
I Live in Split
Petra shows Emma her Split: the palace, the riva, Marjan hill and the best beach. A city tour in the locative case.
Read & listenNaš stan
Our Flat
Petra describes the flat room by room — small kitchen, sunny balcony, and one cat who has claimed every surface as her own.
Read & listenBez šećera
Without Sugar
Baka Marija wants to bake a cake — but the sugar jar is empty. A kitchen crisis solved by the genitive case and a fast grandson.
Read & listenKupovina za vikend
Shopping for the Weekend
Petra and Emma shop at the pazar before guests arrive — quantities in the genitive, deals sealed with može, and one impulse watermelon.
Read & listenGospodin Horvat
Mr. Horvat
Emma meets the neighbor — and navigates ti and Vi in the wild. Politeness, a shared elevator-free staircase, and homegrown figs.
Read & listenPetrin tjedan
Petra's Week
Monday to Sunday in Petra's calendar — work, market, one kava that runs long, and the weekend everyone has been waiting for.
Read & listenPrvi dan u gradu
The First Day in the City
Ana arrives in a new city by train, buys milk and fruit, and gets ready to start a new job — an easy first-person slice of everyday life.
Read & listenKako idem na posao
How I Get to Work
Petra's commute through the old town — on foot, past the palace, with one mandatory espresso stop. Routines and frequency words in motion.
Read & listenPutovanje na more
Trip to the Sea
A classic Croatian summer: packing the car in Zagreb, the four-hour motorway drive to Split, and heading straight to the warm, clean sea for swimming, ice cream, and evening walks in Dalmatia.
Read & listenKava na špici
Coffee on the Špica
Saturday-morning coffee in Zagreb: the 'špica', where the whole city dresses up, fills the café terraces, and turns a single coffee into a three-hour social event.
Read & listenA2 · Little stories
Real narratives with a beginning, middle, and end
Narrative texts (150–280 words) that tell a story: a trip, a memory, a small adventure. Past tense appears, sentences breathe a little more.
Tržnica Dolac
Dolac Market
Dolac, the 'belly of Zagreb': a century-old market under a sea of red parasols, where 'kumice' from the surrounding villages sell homemade cheese and cream just steps above the main square.
Read & listenTrajektom na otok
By Ferry to the Island
The whole family takes the Jadrolinija ferry to baka Marija's island — instrumental case on deck, bura watch on the horizon, and one seasick cat.
Read & listenŠto mi se sviđa u Hrvatskoj
What I Like About Croatia
Emma writes her list: the sea, the coffee, the neighbors with figs — and the one thing she still doesn't understand. The dative of liking, personally applied.
Read & listenVrijeme, bura i jugo
Weather, Bura and Jugo
Baka Marija reads the weather better than any app — she reads the wind. A lesson in bura, jugo, and why the island always knows first.
Read & listenJučer je bio dobar dan
Yesterday Was a Good Day
Petra retells one perfect ordinary day — in the past tense, with every clitic exactly second. Nothing special happened, and that was the point.
Read & listenIzlet u Samobor
A Day Trip to Samobor
Petra and her brother take the bus to Samobor for the famous kremšnita — a little day trip with a hill, a castle ruin, and a full bakery.
Read & listenPlanovi za vikend
Weekend Plans
Ivan calls from Zagreb with big weekend plans — and Petra answers everything with the national motto. The ću-future, negotiated by phone.
Read & listenČitao sam i pročitao
I Was Reading — and I Finished
One rainy evening, one book, two aspects. Ivan demonstrates the difference between čitati and pročitati — by accident, until three in the morning.
Read & listenKod liječnika
At the Doctor's
Ivan overdid the barbecue and the swimming — now his throat hurts and Petra marches him to the doctor. Boli me, live from the waiting room.
Read & listenMoj prvi dan na poslu
My First Day at Work
Emma starts a summer job in a konoba — new words, fast orders, and one very patient boss. Work vocabulary under real pressure.
Read & listenVikend uz more
A Weekend by the Sea
The national weekend trio in action: Ivan plays football on the beach, Petra swims, Emma tries picigin — and the barbecue judges everyone.
Read & listenZagreb ili Split?
Zagreb or Split?
The eternal debate, held over coffee: Ivan defends Zagreb, Petra defends Split, and Emma must choose. Comparatives with real stakes.
Read & listenKoliko ljudi, toliko ćudi
So Many People, So Many Tempers
A proverb about differences — proven at one family lunch where everyone counts differently: two coffees, three opinions, five desserts.
Read & listenTko je došao?
Who Came?
A doorbell farce in one act: guests arrive, leave, come back — and Luna supervises the revolving door. Prefixed motion verbs, live.
Read & listenBaka slavi rođendan
Grandma Celebrates Her Birthday
Baka Marija turns eighty on the third of May — the whole island comes, the months get named, and somebody has to make the cake this time.
Read & listenLegenda o Manduševcu
The Legend of Manduševac
The legend of Manduševac, the fountain on Zagreb's main square: a thirsty ban, a girl named Manda, and the command 'Zagrabi!' that supposedly gave the Croatian capital its name.
Read & listenDalmatinska fjaka
Dalmatian Fjaka
'Fjaka' — the famous Dalmatian state of blissful nothingness: not laziness, locals insist, but a body-and-mind response to the summer heat so real that shops close for the afternoon.
Read & listenB1 · Real stories
Longer stories with feelings, opinions, and plans
Stories and slice-of-life pieces (250–500 words) with several characters, dialogue, and a real arc. Future tense, aspect pairs, and opinions appear naturally.
Psi ili mačke?
Dogs or Cats?
Ivan writes a passionate case for dogs; Petra answers with a cooler case for cats — and Luna files the closing argument. Opinion frames, deployed.
Read & listenPismo iz Irske
A Letter from Ireland
Emma visits Dublin and writes to Petra — about family, rain, and the strange feeling of missing two homes at once. The emotion verbs, handwritten.
Read & listenKad bih osvojio milijun
If I Won a Million
The lottery jackpot is enormous, and everyone at the table has a plan. Conditionals fly — and baka Marija's answer wins the evening.
Read & listenSavjeti za turista u Hrvatskoj
Advice for a Tourist in Croatia
Emma writes the guide she wishes she'd had: what you should do, what you'd better not, and the one rule about windows. Advice grammar, field-tested.
Read & listenTri filma za vikend
Three Films for the Weekend
Rain is forecast, so Ivan writes his weekend watchlist: one comedy, one crime film, one classic — with verdicts. Review language, koji included.
Read & listenVijesti tjedna
News of the Week
The weekly news digest from Split and Zagreb — a new bridge, a record tourist season, and one seagull with legal troubles. Newspaper Croatian, decoded.
Read & listenHrvatska praznovjerja
Croatian Superstitions
Propuh, wet hair, sitting on cold stone — Emma catalogs the beliefs that govern Croatian daily life, with baka Marija as chief legislator.
Read & listenPlitvička jezera
Plitvice Lakes
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia's oldest national park and a UNESCO site since 1979: sixteen crystal blue-green lakes linked by hundreds of waterfalls, wooden walkways over the water, and bears and wolves in the surrounding forests.
Read & listenMa daj!
Come On!
One evening on the riva, told almost entirely in particles: ma, pa, baš, evo, ajde. The tiny words that carry the tone — at full volume.
Read & listenPrvi hrvatski kralj Tomislav
The First Croatian King Tomislav
Tomislav, the first Croatian king: how the 10th-century Trpimirović ruler united Pannonian and Dalmatian Croatia, fought off Hungarians and Bulgarians, and became the national hero whose horseback statue still marks a favourite Zagreb meeting spot.
Read & listenKravata – hrvatski izum
The Cravat – A Croatian Invention
How the necktie was born in Croatia: 17th-century Croatian soldiers in France wore red neck-scarves that so charmed Louis XIV that the 'cravate' — from 'Croate' — spread worldwide, now celebrated every 18 October.
Read & listenB2 · Almost native
Texts with style: humour, suspense, and culture
Short fiction and cultural essays (400–800 words). Natural register shifts, reported speech, participles where the language uses them in print.
Dubrovačka Republika
The Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik): how a tiny maritime state survived for centuries between the Ottomans and Venice through diplomacy and tribute, abolished the slave trade in 1416, and lived by one motto — Libertas — until Napoleon ended it in 1808.
Read & listenHrvatski Andersen: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
The Croatian Andersen: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, the 'Croatian Andersen': a several-times Nobel nominee whose 1916 'Tales of Long Ago' wove pre-Christian Slavic mythology into unforgettable fairy tales, alongside her beloved children's novel about Hlapić the apprentice.
Read & listen