Learn Croatian – Detailed Guide to learning the Present Tense

In this video, you will learn all you need to know about when to USE and HOW to form the present tense in Croatian. You will also learn how to make negative and interrogative sentences using the Croatian present tense.
This video is a part of our Croatian Verbs series, so make sure to check other videos out as well.

The video is divided into several parts:
00:40 – When to use the Present Tense (Prezent)
02:41 – How the learn the Present Tense
04:32 – How to form the Present Tense
13:01 – The pronoun is often left out
15:37 – How to form the negative sentences
19:46 – How to ask questions

Example sentences used in this video:

Čitam knjigu.
(I’m-reading book Acc.)
I’m reading a book.

Govorim hrvatski.
(I-speak Croatian Acc.)
I speak Croatian.

Sutra idemo na izlet.
(Tomorrow we’re-going on field trip L.)
Tomorrow we’re going on a field trip.

Cijeli život živim u ovom gradu.
(Whole life I-live in this town L)
I’ve been living in this town my whole life.

Voljeti; volim.
To love; I-love.

Ja te volim.
(I you Acc. I-love)
I love you.

Volim te.
(I-love you Acc.)
I love you.

Čita knjigu.
He/she/it is reading a book.

On čita knjigu.
He is reading a book.

Ona čita knjigu.
She is reading a book.

Čitam knjigu.
I’m reading a book.

Ne čitam knjigu.
I’m not reading a book.

Volim te.
I love you.

Ne volim te.
I don’t love you.

Čitaš svaki dan.
You read every day.

Ne čitaš svaki dan.
You don’t read every day.

On kupuje kruh.
He’s buying bread.

On ne kupuje kruh.
He’s not buying bread.

Možete pomoći.
You(pl.) can help.

Ne možete pomoći.
You can’t help.

Neću – I won’t
Nemoj – don’t
Nemam – I don’t have

Nemam, nemaš, nema, nemamo, nemate, nemaju

Imaš li knjigu?
Do you have a book?

Čuješ li me?
Can you hear me?

Mogu li ti pomoći?
Can I help you?

Volimo li sladoled?
Do we like icecream?

Trebaš pomoć.
You need help.

Trebaš li pomoć?
Do you need help?

Što trebaš?
What do you need?

Kada trebaš pomoć?
When do you need help?

Zašto trebaš pomoć?
Why do you need help?

Tko treba pomoć?
Who needs help?

Contact us if you have any questions! Happy learning, everyone!

[simaolala.m]

I'm Brazilian and passionate about languages. I decided to learn Croatian purely out of curiosity (I'm loving it!) and your videos are honestly the best I've found. Thank you for such great content! :)

[danieleldan]

Your videos are just the best I've ever seen for learning Croatian. I speak spanish but with your videos I understand more than the spanish ones. Hvala!

[manitamang]

I'm watching theses days but it's very useful, thanks for amazing your teaching

[TheEnder]

I had the urge to learn Croatian and found this video!

[vivendonacroacia]

Seus vídeos tem me ajudado na missão de aprender Croata! Você é muito simpática e tem ótima didática! Obrigada! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😘😘😘😘😘

[AfricangirlinruralCroatia]

I recently moved to Croatia and I am learning the language, I find your videos extremely helpful and always looking forward to them.

[stephanicristobalramirez]

Bog! Iunderstand all about present time (PREZENT) puno hvala!!! Ja trebam pomoć !!!! but now is more easy for me!!! Dovijenja!!!

[ful]

Your videos are very helpful and your explanations very clear!

[taramaadas]

Ines wonderful channel! Very user friendly...but one final style thing that wd greatly help those of us watching on, say a big screen.

When you pause the screen to write something down, unfortunately the pause button obscures the text. If you put the text ABOVE not below, it wd be helpful

[DooFyb]

Great video thank you and please keep it

[YeeeeGreg]

I’m starting to learn Croatian and this channel has already been a great help! Thank you!

[drazenbicanic]

Odlično! Lijepo prisjećanje školskih dana i ponešto zaboravljenih stvari. Možda bi im trebalo (ako nije negdje drugdje pomenuto) kod povratnih glagola su dvije riječi, te glagoli htjeti, biti . Znam da zanovijetam.

[ajcapitano]

Your videos are very good . I speak english and Arabic. I started with my notes with each video you make . Though I just started to learn serbian few days ago for reason as frequent visitor to belgrade, but I find your Croatian language videos are very useful and well explained, I might need to make very little adjustment on words only between those two similar Languages ( Croatian Vs. Serbian ) . Keep it going 👍

[manitamang]

Please bring up more lessons so that we don't want to go to take class

[soiedentaireforlife]

you are amazing! And make everything so easy! Volim toye videos ( no idea if that makes sense lol)

[ianparker]

Hi, thank you so much for your videos. I am confused with, Svida mi se...I like him. Why isn't it Svidam mi se. You are very kind thank you

[zvonimirhr_herceg]

Poštovana gospođo Ines,

I have not been active with my Croatian studies for a while but I still enjoy regularly checking your channel for new content, whether its new videos or your responses to comments :)

I have a couple questions related to this video.

Can you please explain to me why is "pomoći" and not "pomoć" is used for the following question and sentences?
"Mogu li ti pomoći?", "Možete pomoći" and "Ne možete pomoći".

Whereas why is "pomoć" and not "pomoći" is used for the following sentence and questions?
"Trebaš pomoć", "Trebaš li pomoć?", "Kada trebaš pomoć?", "Zašto trebaš pomoć?" and"Tko treba pomoć?"

Also, when you ask, "Mogu li ti pomoći?", why is the personal pronoun "ti" is used and not "te" or "tebe" (i.e. the accusative case)?

[KathrynSrce]

Zdravo Ines! This is an informative video. Imam pitanje. When you mention finding the root of the infinitive, can you further explain some sound changes like from "pisati" to "pišem" and "plakati" to "plačem"? I am fully aware that these changes are necessary and this, I think is called palatalisation. But for those who might not fully understand, could you please explain this?

[carlosochoa]

Hi, It would be useful to know where the stress falls during conjugation as it can change. Eg. I think in the plural 3rd person the last syllable is stressed.

[naturalfun]

Pls use writing board it's very interesting tu learn