Transport and Getting Around | Croatian Grammar

How you get somewhere is, in Croatian, a one-case story. English needs a little preposition — „by bus," „by train," „by car" — but Croatian needs none: the means of transport simply goes into the instrumental case and that single ending does all the work. Autobus („bus") becomes autobusom („by bus"); vlak („train") becomes vlakom („by train"). This page gives you the transport words, the instrumental endings that turn them into „by …", and the one true exception — pješice, „on foot" — which is not a noun at all.

The vehicles

The everyday means of getting around. The gender matters because it decides the instrumental ending in the next section.

Croatian	Meaning	Gender
autobus	bus	masculine
tramvaj	tram	masculine
vlak	train	masculine
auto	car	masculine
bicikl	bicycle	masculine
avion	plane	masculine
brod	boat, ship	masculine
pješice / pješke	on foot	adverb (no case)

Idem na posao autobusom.

I go to work by bus. — 'autobusom' is the instrumental; no word for 'by'.

Voliš li voziti bicikl?

Do you like riding a bike? — here 'bicikl' is the direct object (accusative), not the means.

The big feature: the bare instrumental of means

Here is the rule that does most of the work on this page. To say you travel by some means of transport, you put the vehicle into the instrumental case with no preposition at all. The instrumental ending is the „by." This is why it is called the instrumental — it marks the instrument or means by which something is done, and transport is the textbook case.

For masculine nouns the instrumental singular ending is -om (or -em after a soft consonant): autobus → autobusom, vlak → vlakom, brod → brodom, tramvaj → tramvajem.

Vehicle (nom.)	By … (instrumental)	Meaning
autobus	autobusom	by bus
vlak	vlakom	by train
auto	autom	by car
avion	avionom	by plane
brod	brodom	by boat
bicikl	biciklom	by bike
tramvaj	tramvajem	by tram (soft -j → -em)

Putujem u Zagreb vlakom.

I'm travelling to Zagreb by train. — bare instrumental 'vlakom', no 'by'.

Došli smo avionom iz Londona.

We came by plane from London. — 'avionom', the means.

Idemo na otok brodom.

We're going to the island by boat. — 'brodom'; on the coast this is everyday.

Do škole obično idem biciklom.

I usually go to school by bike. — 'biciklom' (soft cluster, regular -om).

💡

Do not reach for a preposition. English „by bus" tempts learners to write s autobusom or sa autobusom — but s/sa + instrumental means „together with," so s autobusom would mean „accompanied by a bus." The means of transport is the bare instrumental: autobusom, full stop. The preposition s/sa is reserved for companionship (idem s prijateljem, „I'm going with a friend").

The full instrumental paradigm — feminine -om/-ju, neuter, plural -ima — is laid out on the instrumental forms.

Putting it together: ići / putovati + instrumental

The means combines naturally with the motion verbs ići („to go") and putovati („to travel"). The pattern is: verb of motion + destination (with its own preposition) + means (bare instrumental).

Sutra putujemo u Split autom.

Tomorrow we're travelling to Split by car. — 'u Split' (destination) + 'autom' (means).

Kako ideš na faks — tramvajem ili pješice?

How do you get to uni — by tram or on foot? — 'tramvajem' (instrumental) vs. 'pješice' (adverb).

Radije putujem vlakom nego autobusom.

I'd rather travel by train than by bus. — two bare instrumentals, 'vlakom' and 'autobusom'.

See putovati and ići for those verbs in detail.

The exception: on foot is pješice

„On foot" breaks the pattern entirely. There is no noun „foot" being put into the instrumental — instead Croatian uses the ready-made adverb pješice (or the variant pješke). It takes no case, no preposition, nothing. It simply means „walking, on foot."

Centar je blizu, idemo pješice.

The centre is near, let's walk / go on foot. — adverb 'pješice', no case at all.

Po ovakvom vremenu radije idem pješice.

In weather like this I'd rather go on foot. — 'pješice' as a fixed adverb.

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Think of the contrast as „means = instrumental noun, but feet = adverb." Every vehicle is a noun that takes the instrumental ending (autobusom, vlakom), but walking is expressed by the single frozen word pješice. Do not try to build it from a noun (there is no nogom for „on foot" — nogom would literally mean „with a leg," e.g. kicking a ball).

Common Mistakes

❌ Idem na posao s autobusom.

Wrong — 's/sa' means „together with”; this says „I go with a bus”. The means is the bare instrumental.

✅ Idem na posao autobusom.

I go to work by bus. — bare instrumental, no preposition.

❌ Putujem u Zagreb sa vlak.

Wrong on two counts — no preposition for means, and the noun must be in the instrumental: 'vlakom'.

✅ Putujem u Zagreb vlakom.

I'm travelling to Zagreb by train. — 'vlakom'.

❌ Idemo pješicom.

Wrong — 'pješice' is an adverb and never takes a case ending; there is no 'pješicom'.

✅ Idemo pješice.

We're going on foot. — the fixed adverb 'pješice'.

❌ Idem na faks tramvajom.

Wrong ending — 'tramvaj' ends in soft -j, so the instrumental is 'tramvajem', not 'tramvajom'.

✅ Idem na faks tramvajem.

I go to uni by tram. — soft consonant takes -em.

Key Takeaways

„By bus / by train / by car" is the bare instrumental — autobusom, vlakom, autom — with no preposition. The ending is the „by."
Masculine instrumental singular is -om, or -em after a soft consonant (tramvaj → tramvajem).
Never use s/sa for the means — that means „together with" (s autobusom = „with a bus").
„On foot" is the fixed adverb pješice (or pješke), which takes no case at all.
Combine with ići / putovati: destination keeps its own preposition, the means stays a bare instrumental — putujem u Split autom.

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