When something hurts, Croatian flips the grammar English speakers expect. You do not „have" a headache and you are not the subject of the hurting — instead the body part does the hurting to you: boli me glava, literally „the head hurts me." This is the experiencer construction, and it is the backbone of the whole health vocabulary. This page gives you the body parts, the all-important boli me pattern (with its surprising case marking), the dative loše mi je for feeling unwell, and the words you need at the pharmacy and the doctor's.
Body parts
Start with the vocabulary. Note the gender — it decides agreement and how the word behaves in the boli me construction below. Leđa („back") is a plural-only noun.
| Croatian | Meaning | Gender |
|---|---|---|
| glava | head | feminine |
| ruka | arm / hand | feminine |
| noga | leg / foot | feminine |
| leđa | back | neuter plural (always plural) |
| trbuh | belly, stomach | masculine |
| grlo | throat | neuter |
| zub | tooth | masculine |
| oko / uho | eye / ear | neuter (plural 'oči' / 'uši') |
Imam ožiljak na lijevoj ruci.
I have a scar on my left arm. — 'ruka' here in the locative 'ruci' after 'na'.
The key construction: boli me glava
This is the page's centrepiece. To say „my head hurts / I have a headache," Croatian says Boli me glava. Unpack it:
- boli — 3rd-person singular of boljeti („to hurt"), agreeing with…
- glava — the head, in the NOMINATIVE. The body part is the grammatical subject — it is what does the hurting.
- me — „me," in the ACCUSATIVE. You are the object — the one being hurt.
So the literal structure is „hurts me head" → „the head hurts me." This inverts English completely: in English I (subject) have a headache; in Croatian the head (subject) hurts me (object). When more than one body part hurts, the verb goes plural to agree with its nominative subject: bole me leđa („my back hurts" — leđa is plural).
| Croatian | Literal | Natural English |
|---|---|---|
| Boli me glava. | hurts me head | I have a headache. |
| Boli me grlo. | hurts me throat | My throat hurts. |
| Boli me zub. | hurts me tooth | I have toothache. |
| Bole me leđa. | hurt me back (plural) | My back hurts. |
| Boli ga trbuh. | hurts him belly | His stomach hurts. |
Boli me glava, popit ću tabletu.
I have a headache, I'll take a pill. — nominative subject 'glava', accusative object 'me'.
Bole me leđa od dugog sjedenja.
My back hurts from sitting too long. — 'leđa' is plural, so the verb is plural 'bole'.
Boli li te grlo? Zvuči promuklo.
Does your throat hurt? You sound hoarse. — 'te' (accusative 'you'); 'boli li' frames the question.
Feeling unwell: the dative loše mi je
For a general „I feel bad / unwell," Croatian uses a different but related pattern: Loše mi je — literally „badly to-me is." Here the experiencer is in the dative (mi „to me"), the verb is a frozen je, and loše is an adverb. This is the same experiencer-dative seen with the weather (hladno mi je, „I'm cold"). Change the dative pronoun to change who feels unwell: loše ti je („you feel ill"), loše joj je („she feels ill").
| Croatian | Literal | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Loše mi je. | badly to-me is | I feel unwell / sick. |
| Muka mi je. | nausea to-me is | I feel nauseous. |
| Vrti mi se. | spins to-me (itself) | I feel dizzy. |
| Bolje mi je. | better to-me is | I feel better. |
Loše mi je, mislim da ću povratiti.
I feel sick, I think I'm going to throw up. — dative 'mi'; 'I' is not the subject.
Vrti mi se u glavi, moram sjesti.
My head is spinning, I have to sit down. — 'vrti mi se' = I feel dizzy; reflexive 'se' + dative 'mi'.
Osjećam se puno bolje, hvala.
I feel much better, thanks. — active 'osjećam se' + adverb 'bolje'; here 'I' IS the subject.
At the pharmacy and the doctor
The key institutions and people. Ljekarna is the pharmacy; liječnik the doctor; recept the prescription (and also „recipe," context tells you which).
| Croatian | Meaning |
|---|---|
| liječnik / liječnica | doctor (m / f) |
| ljekarna | pharmacy |
| recept | prescription (also: recipe) |
| lijek | medicine, medication |
| tableta | pill, tablet |
| temperatura / vrućica | (high) temperature, fever |
| prehlada / gripa | a cold / the flu |
| hitna pomoć | emergency services, A&E |
Trebam liječnika, imam visoku temperaturu.
I need a doctor, I have a high temperature. — 'liječnika' (accusative); 'temperatura' = fever.
Imate li nešto protiv prehlade bez recepta?
Do you have something for a cold without a prescription? — 'protiv' + genitive 'prehlade'; 'bez recepta'.
Kašljem već tjedan dana i boli me grlo.
I've had a cough for a week and my throat hurts. — combining symptoms with 'boli me'.
For the panic-button vocabulary — calling an ambulance, „help!", emergency numbers — see emergencies.
Common Mistakes
❌ Imam glavobolju. (kao doslovni prijevod 'I have a headache')
Understandable but unnatural — 'glavobolja' (headache) exists, but speakers say 'boli me glava'.
✅ Boli me glava.
I have a headache. — the natural experiencer construction.
❌ Ja boli glava.
Wrong — 'I' is not the subject; the body part is. The sufferer is accusative 'me'.
✅ Boli me glava.
My head hurts. — 'glava' (nominative subject) + 'me' (accusative object).
❌ Boli me leđa.
Wrong agreement — 'leđa' is plural, so the verb must be plural: 'bole'.
✅ Bole me leđa.
My back hurts. — plural 'bole' agreeing with plural 'leđa'.
❌ Ja sam loše.
Wrong — 'I feel unwell' is the dative 'loše mi je', not 'ja sam loše'.
✅ Loše mi je.
I feel unwell. — experiencer dative 'mi' + frozen 'je'.
Key Takeaways
- Boli me glava = „I have a headache": the body part is the nominative subject, you are the accusative object (me / te / ga / joj). The verb agrees with the body part: boli (one) / bole (several, e.g. bole me leđa).
- For general unwellness, use the dative: loše mi je („I feel sick"), vrti mi se („I'm dizzy") — frozen je, you in the dative.
- To say „I feel" actively, use the reflexive osjećam se
- adverb (osjećam se bolje).
- Body parts to know: glava, ruka, noga, leđa (plural-only), trbuh, grlo, zub.
- Pharmacy and doctor: ljekarna, liječnik, recept, lijek, temperatura, hitna pomoć.
Now practice Croatian
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- boljeti (to hurt)B1 — The body-part verb that inverts the experiencer — 'Boli me glava' — where the body part is the subject and the person sits in the accusative.
- Impersonal and Subjectless SentencesB1 — Weather, states, necessity, and the experiencer dative.
- Feelings and StatesA2 — Saying how you feel in Croatian — 'Kako si?', the dative-state pattern 'drago mi je / žao mi je', the reflexive 'osjećam se umorno', and gender-agreeing emotion adjectives.
- Emergencies and SafetyA2 — Emergency Croatian — 'Upomoć!', 'Pozovite hitnu!', the gender-agreeing 'Izgubio/Izgubila sam se' for 'I'm lost', and why urgent commands use the perfective imperative.
- osjećati se / osjetiti (to feel)A2 — Reflexive 'feel a way' vs transitive 'feel something' — two constructions, one root.