Reading Numbers, Years, and Prices Aloud | Croatian Grammar

Reading a number aloud in Croatian is mostly a matter of stacking the pieces you already know — but two everyday tasks hold a surprise for English speakers. Years are said as ordinal numbers in the genitive case, not as cardinals the way English chops "1991" into "nineteen ninety-one." And prices now run in euros, which trigger Croatian's number-government rules. This page walks through building large numbers, then years, then prices and phone numbers, with worked read-aloud examples for each.

Building large numbers

Croatian builds big numbers by simply naming each place value in order, largest first, with no "and" (English's "one hundred and five" has no Croatian equivalent). The key vocabulary:

Croatian	Value
sto	100
dvjesto (or dvjesta)	200
tristo	300
tisuća	1 000
milijun	1 000 000
milijarda	1 000 000 000 (a billion)

Note that "thousand" is tisuća — a feminine noun. (You may hear hiljada from older speakers or across the border, but standard Croatian uses tisuća.) To read a number, just chain the hundreds, the thousand-block, the tens, and the units:

tisuću dvjesto trideset pet

1 235 — literally 'thousand two-hundred thirty five', each block named in order.

sto dvadeset i jedan

121 — '(one) hundred twenty and one'; the optional 'i' may join the last two parts.

dvije tisuće petsto

2 500 — note 'dvije tisuće': after two/three/four, tisuća takes the paucal form 'tisuće'.

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For "one thousand" on its own you usually say tisuću (the accusative-shaped citation form) rather than jedna tisuća. From 2 to 4 the noun shifts to tisuće (dvije/tri/četiri tisuće), and from 5 up to tisuća (pet tisuća) — the same paucal-vs-genitive-plural pattern that governs all counted nouns. See numeral government.

Years — the ordinal-in-genitive surprise

Here is the feature that catches every English speaker. To say in what year something happens, Croatian does not use a cardinal number. It says the year as an ordinal number (a "-th" number), and puts the whole compound in the genitive case, followed by godine ("of the year").

So 1991 is not "one-thousand nine-hundred ninety-one." It is, literally, "of the thousand nine-hundred ninety-FIRST year" — only the final element becomes an ordinal, and that ordinal carries the genitive ending.

tisuću devetsto devedeset prve godine

in 1991 — literally 'of the 1991st year'; 'prve' is the genitive of the ordinal 'prvi' (first).

dvije tisuće dvadeset pete godine

in 2025 — 'of the 2025th year'; 'pete' is the genitive of 'peti' (fifth).

tisuću devetsto četrdeset pete godine

in 1945 — the war's end; 'pete' again, genitive of the ordinal.

Notice that everything before the last word stays the same as in the cardinal (tisuću devetsto devedeset…); only the units element flips to an ordinal in the genitive (pet → pete, jedan → prve). That is the whole trick. The genitive -e ending here agrees with the feminine noun godina ("year").

Year	Read aloud	Final element
2000	dvije tisuće (godine)	"two-thousandth" — dvijetisućite, but commonly just dvije tisuće
2001	dvije tisuće prve godine	prve (← prvi, first)
2010	dvije tisuće desete godine	desete (← deseti, tenth)
2024	dvije tisuće dvadeset četvrte godine	četvrte (← četvrti, fourth)
1918	tisuću devetsto osamnaeste godine	osamnaeste (← osamnaesti, eighteenth)

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When you just name a year as a label (e.g. on a timeline, "1991:"), people often read it the same ordinal way, but the high-frequency, must-learn use is the time phrase "…e godine" meaning "in (such-and-such) year." The genitive there is the time-genitive — the same case Croatian uses to locate events in time. See the genitive for time and dates.

To ask or state which year, the question word and the answer both sit in the genitive:

Koje godine si rođen?

In which year were you born? — 'koje godine', genitive.

Rođena sam tisuću devetsto osamdeset devete godine.

I (f.) was born in 1989. — 'devete', genitive ordinal of 'deveti'.

Prices in euros

Since Croatia adopted the euro in 2023, prices are read in euro and cent. Both nouns obey Croatian's number government: after 1 the noun is singular nominative, after 2–4 (and any number ending in 2–4 except the teens) it takes the paucal, and after 5 and up (and the teens) it takes the genitive plural.

Amount	Read aloud
1 €	jedan euro
2 €	dva eura
4 €	četiri eura
5 €	pet eura
100 €	sto eura
21 €	dvadeset jedan euro (ends in 1 → singular)

Note that euro keeps the genitive-plural form eura after most higher numbers (it does not become euri in everyday speech). The currency word is masculine. Cents (cent) work the same way: jedan cent, dva centa, pet centi.

To košta tri eura i pedeset centi.

That costs three euros and fifty cents. — 'tri eura' (paucal), 'pedeset centi' (genitive plural).

Karta je dvadeset jedan euro.

The ticket is twenty-one euros. — ends in 1, so singular 'euro'.

Kava košta dva eura.

A coffee costs two euros. — 'dva eura', the paucal after 'dva'.

Imam samo pet eura.

I only have five euros. — 'pet' triggers the genitive plural 'eura'.

Phone numbers

Phone numbers are read either digit by digit or in pairs, much as in English — but using cardinal numbers throughout (no ordinals here). Pairs are the most natural for the body of the number; the leading area or mobile prefix is often grouped on its own.

nula devedeset jedan, dvjesto trideset četiri, petsto šezdeset sedam

091 234 567 — '0 91, 234, 567' read in groups.

nula jedan, dva tri četiri, pet šest sedam osam

01 234 5678 — read digit-by-digit / in small groups; '0' is 'nula'.

Broj je nula devedeset osam, šesto dvanaest, tristo četrdeset pet.

The number is 098 612 345 — read in pairs and triples.

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"Zero" in a phone number is nula. Croatians frequently read mobile/area prefixes as a two-digit number (nula devedeset jedan = "0-91") and then break the rest into readable pairs or triples — there is no single fixed convention, so listen for how a given speaker groups it.

Common mistakes

❌ rođen sam tisuću devetsto osamdeset devet godine

Incorrect — the year must be an ORDINAL in the genitive: 'devete', not the cardinal 'devet'.

✅ rođen sam tisuću devetsto osamdeset devete godine

I was born in 1989 — '-devete', the genitive ordinal.

❌ sto i pet

Incorrect — Croatian does not insert 'i' the way English needs 'one hundred AND five'.

✅ sto pet

105 — no 'and'; just stack the place values.

❌ pet euri

Incorrect — after 5+ the noun is genitive plural: 'eura', not 'euri'.

✅ pet eura

five euros — '5' triggers the genitive plural.

❌ dva euro

Incorrect — after 'dva' the noun takes the paucal form 'eura'.

✅ dva eura

two euros — paucal after two/three/four.

❌ hiljadu dvjesto trideset pet

Marked/non-standard in Croatian — standard uses 'tisuću', not 'hiljadu'.

✅ tisuću dvjesto trideset pet

1 235 — 'tisuća' is the standard Croatian word for 'thousand'.

Key takeaways

Build large numbers by naming place values largest-first, with no "and"; "thousand" is tisuća.
Years are ordinals in the genitive
- godine: 1991 = tisuću devetsto devedeset prve godine ("of the 1991st year") — only the final element becomes the ordinal.
Prices in euros/cents follow number government: jedan euro, dva/tri/četiri eura, pet eura.
Phone numbers use cardinals, read in pairs or digit by digit; zero is nula.

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