Spoken Croatian diverges from the written standard in patterned, predictable ways — not chaotically. Once you see the patterns, you can recognise colloquial speech as informal variants of rules you already know, rather than mishearing them as errors. The big ones are the conditional collapsed to bi for every person, the spread of da-clauses where the standard wants an infinitive, clipped and borrowed words, a set of conversational particles, and the diacritic-free, English-spiked conventions of texting and chat. Everything on this page is (informal) or outright non-standard — useful to understand and to use in speech among friends, but to be kept out of any writing that needs the standard. Each feature below is labelled accordingly.
The bi-for-all-persons conditional (NON-STANDARD)
The standard conditional inflects its auxiliary for person: ja bih, ti bi, on bi, mi bismo, vi biste, oni bi (see the conditional). In colloquial speech almost everyone collapses the whole paradigm to bi: ja bi, mi bi, vi bi. This is extremely widespread — you will hear it constantly — but it is firmly non-standard; in writing and formal speech you must restore bih / bismo / biste.
| Person | Standard | Colloquial (NON-STANDARD) |
|---|---|---|
| I would | ja bih | ja bi |
| we would | mi bismo | mi bi |
| you (pl.) would | vi biste | vi bi |
Mi bi išli na more, ali nemamo love.
We'd go to the seaside, but we've no cash. — colloquial 'mi bi' for standard 'mi bismo'; 'love' is slang for money (NON-STANDARD / informal).
Ja bi to drukčije napravio.
I'd have done that differently. — colloquial 'ja bi' for standard 'ja bih' (NON-STANDARD / informal).
The da-clause spread (COLLOQUIAL)
Standard Croatian, especially in writing, prefers an infinitive after modal and phasal verbs: moram ići ("I have to go"), želim spavati ("I want to sleep"). Colloquial speech — and the further south and east you go, the more so — replaces the infinitive with a da-clause: moram da idem, želim da spavam. The choice is mapped on da vs the infinitive; here, note that the da-form is the conversational, less formal option and the infinitive is the safer written choice.
Moram da idem, kasnim na faks.
I've got to go, I'm late for uni. — colloquial 'moram da idem' for standard 'moram ići'; 'faks' is clipped slang for 'fakultet' (colloquial / informal).
Hoćeš da ti pomognem?
D'you want me to help you? — very common colloquial 'hoćeš da' for the more formal 'želiš li da ti pomognem'; here da is genuinely needed (different subjects) but the whole frame is casual (informal).
Clipped and borrowed words
Casual vocabulary is full of clippings and loanwords, mostly from English and (older) German. These are everyday-register, not standard written words; a formal text restores the full or native form.
| Colloquial | Standard / full form | English |
|---|---|---|
| faks | fakultet | "uni / faculty" |
| frend | prijatelj | "friend" (from English) |
| kompjuter | računalo | "computer" |
| selfie / selfi | autoportret | "selfie" |
| fora | šala / trik | "joke / cool thing" |
Daj se slikaj, idemo za selfi!
Come on, get in the shot, let's take a selfie! — borrowed 'selfi', plus casual imperative 'daj se slikaj' (informal).
Moj frend ima novi kompjuter.
My mate's got a new computer. — English loan 'frend' and the everyday 'kompjuter' over the purist 'računalo' (informal).
The colloquial aorist of immediacy (INFORMAL)
One sliver of the aorist is alive and warm in everyday speech: a small set of frozen forms for something happening this instant. Odoh! ("I'm off!"), Stigoh! ("I'm here / just arrived!"), Nađoh! ("Found it!"). These carry an exclamatory punch the perfekt cannot match, and unlike the literary aorist they are perfectly natural in conversation. The wider story is on the stylistics of the aorist.
Odoh ja, bok!
Right, I'm off, bye! — colloquial aorist 'odoh' announcing a departure being acted on right now (informal).
Nađoh ključeve, bili su u torbi!
Found the keys, they were in the bag! — exclamatory aorist 'nađoh' for a just-completed discovery (informal).
Conversational particles
Speech is studded with little discourse particles that carry attitude rather than dictionary meaning: ma (dismissive, "oh come on / nah"), pa ("well, so"), ba/baš ("really, just"), eto ("there you go"), aj (clipped hajde, "come on"). They soften, intensify, or frame an utterance and are a hallmark of natural-sounding speech.
Ma daj, pa to nije istina!
Oh come on, that's not even true! — 'ma' (dismissive) + 'pa' (well/so) framing an objection (informal).
Aj, idemo već jednom!
Come on, let's go already! — clipped 'aj' from 'hajde', impatient nudge (informal).
Online and SMS conventions
In texting and chat, Croatian routinely drops the diacritics (typing c for both č and ć, z for ž, s for š, dj/d for đ), spikes English loans, and abbreviates heavily. This is fine in a quick message and wrong everywhere a keyboard with diacritics is expected. The č/ć and other diacritics are not really merged in careful speech — many speakers distinguish them — but in casual northern speech and in diacritic-free typing they fall together.
ej kaj radis veceras, ides van?
hey what you doing tonight, going out? — diacritic-free chat: 'kaj' (colloquial/Kajkavian 'what'), 'radis' for 'radiš', 'veceras' for 'večeras' (NON-STANDARD / online informal).
nmg sad, cujemo se kasnije
can't right now, talk later — abbreviated 'nmg' (ne mogu), diacritic-free 'cujemo' for 'čujemo se' (NON-STANDARD / online informal).
Regional flavour
Slang is also regional. Zagreb speech carries Kajkavian and German-derived words (kaj "what", ziher "for sure" from German sicher). Dalmatia (the coast) carries Čakavian and Italian-derived words (ča "what", šug "sauce" from Italian sugo, aLO exclamations). Rijeka has its own coastal-urban mix. These are place-markers; a speaker's slang quietly tells you where they are from.
Ziher ćemo se vidjeti na placu.
We'll definitely see each other at the market. — Zagreb slang 'ziher' (for sure, from German) + 'plac' (market) (regional: Zagreb, informal).
Common Mistakes
❌ Mi bi to napravili. (in an essay)
Non-standard in writing — the colloquial 'bi' collapse is wrong on paper; first-person plural needs 'bismo'.
✅ Mi bismo to napravili.
We would do that. — standard 'bismo' for formal/written use.
❌ Ja bih išao na faks i frend dolazi. (in a formal letter)
Register clash — 'faks' and 'frend' are slang; a formal letter wants 'fakultet' and 'prijatelj'.
✅ Otišao bih na fakultet, a dolazi i moj prijatelj.
I would go to the faculty, and my friend is coming too. — full standard vocabulary.
❌ Writing 'cujemo se' with no diacritics in an e-mail.
Spelling error in formal text — restore the diacritics: 'čujemo se'.
✅ Čujemo se sutra.
We'll be in touch tomorrow. — diacritics restored for written Croatian.
❌ Treating the literary aorist as everyday: 'Jučer odoh u dućan.'
Off — outside the frozen immediate-action set ('Odoh!' right now), the aorist sounds theatrical for a plain past.
✅ Jučer sam otišao u dućan.
Yesterday I went to the shop. — neutral perfekt for an ordinary past.
Key Takeaways
- Colloquial Croatian diverges from the standard in patterned ways — learn them as informal variants, not errors, and switch back to the standard for writing.
- The bi-collapse (Mi bi, Ja bi) is widespread in speech but non-standard — restore bih / bismo / biste in writing.
- Speech spreads the da-clause where the standard prefers the infinitive (moram da idem vs moram ići).
- Vocabulary is full of clippings and English/German loans (faks, frend, kompjuter, ziher); the immediate-action aorist (Odoh! Nađoh!) and particles (ma, pa, aj) are warm and natural in conversation.
- Online/SMS drops diacritics and abbreviates — a typing convention only; restore č ć š ž đ the moment the text must be standard. Slang is also regional (Zagreb, Dalmatia, Rijeka).
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- Conditional I (kondicional prvi)A2 — The 'would' form: bih/bi + l-participle.
- da + present vs the InfinitiveB1 — When to use the infinitive and when to use a da + present clause after modal and volition verbs — the same-subject choice, the different-subject rule, and the register split.
- Spoken vs Written CroatianB2 — The systematic gap between how Croatian is spoken and how it is written, and how to bridge it.
- Formal vs Informal CroatianB1 — Register in Croatian is a bundle of choices — pronoun (ti/Vi), syntax (infinitive vs da-clause), vocabulary (purist zrakoplov vs colloquial avion) and spelling — that must move together, not one switch.
- The Aorist (aorist)B2 — The simple past still alive in Croatian narration and speech.