smjeti / moći / znati (can: permission/ability/skill) | Croatian Grammar

English hides three different verbs inside the single word can, and Croatian refuses to merge them. "Can you swim?" "Can I park here?" "Can you help me?" are three unrelated questions in Croatian — about a learned skill, a rule, and a circumstance — and each gets its own verb: moći (ability and possibility), smjeti (permission), znati (acquired skill). This page is a decision guide: it gives you compact present tables for all three side by side, but the real work is learning which one to reach for and, above all, how their negatives split apart — because ne mogu, ne smijem and ne znam mean three genuinely different things. For the full paradigm of each verb (l-participle, perfect, future, conditional), follow the links to moći, smjeti and znati.

The three-way distinction in one line

Verb	Covers	English gloss	Test question
moći	physical / circumstantial possibility	can, be able to	Is it possible right now?
smjeti	permission, what the rules allow	may, be allowed to	Am I allowed to?
znati	an acquired skill, know-how	can (= know how to)	Have I learned how?

The simplest sorting rule: if you could rephrase the English "can" as "know how to", use znati; if you could rephrase it as "be allowed to / may", use smjeti; everything left over — sheer possibility, physical ability, circumstances permitting — is moći.

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Run the swap test on the English sentence first. "Can you drive?" → "Do you know how to drive?" → znati. "Can I smoke here?" → "Am I allowed to smoke here?" → smjeti. "Can you lift this?" → neither rephrase fits, it's raw possibility → moći.

Present tense, side by side

All three are imperfective and take a complement (a bare infinitive for moći and smjeti; an infinitive, accusative, or da-clause for znati).

Person	moći (ability)	smjeti (permission)	znati (skill)
ja	mogu	smijem	znam
ti	možeš	smiješ	znaš
on/ona/ono	može	smije	zna
mi	možemo	smijemo	znamo
vi	možete	smijete	znate
oni/one/ona	mogu	smiju	znaju

Three things to flag from the table. Moći has the g ~ ž alternation with the g surviving in 1sg and 3pl (mogu … mogu) — never možu. Smjeti has -ij- throughout the present (smijem), even though its infinitive is smjeti with -je-. Znati is the only fully regular a-class verb of the three (znam, znaš, zna…).

moći — ability and possibility

Možeš li mi pomoći prenijeti ormar?

Can you help me move the wardrobe? — physical possibility, 'moći'.

Danas ne mogu izaći, čekam majstora.

I can't go out today, I'm waiting for the repairman. — circumstances, 'moći'.

smjeti — permission

Smijem li izaći ranije danas?

May I leave earlier today? — asking permission, 'smjeti'.

Djeca smiju u bazen samo s odraslima.

Children may go in the pool only with an adult. — what the rule allows.

znati — acquired skill

Znaš li voziti motor?

Can you ride a motorbike? (= do you know how?) — learned skill, 'znati'.

Zna kuhati bolje od mnogih kuhara.

He can cook better than many chefs. (= he knows how) — skill, 'znati'.

The negatives — where the three really diverge

This is the heart of the matter. In the positive you might get away with a near-miss; in the negative, the wrong verb says something you don't mean. All three negatives are written as two words (ne + verb).

Negative	Means	Because…
ne mogu	I can't / it's impossible	circumstances or ability prevent it
ne smijem	I mustn't / I'm not allowed	a rule forbids it
ne znam	I don't know how	I never learned the skill

Picture one situation — a car — and watch the verb change the whole meaning:

Ne mogu voziti, popio sam tabletu i vrti mi se.

I can't drive, I took a pill and I'm dizzy. — physically unfit: 'ne mogu'.

Ne smijem voziti, izgubio sam dozvolu.

I'm not allowed to drive, I lost my licence. — a rule forbids it: 'ne smijem'.

Ne znam voziti, nikad nisam učio.

I can't drive, I never learned. — no skill: 'ne znam'.

All three are perfectly grammatical "I can't drive" sentences in English — and three completely different statements in Croatian. Mixing them up is the single most common modality error English speakers make.

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The dangerous swap is ne smijem ↔ ne mogu. Saying Ne mogu pušiti unutra claims you're physically unable to smoke indoors; the prohibition you mean is Ne smiješ pušiti unutra ("You mustn't"). When the block is a rule, it's always smjeti.

Don't forget the fourth verb: morati (obligation)

The "can" cluster sits right next to its mirror image, morati ("must, have to"). Learners constantly confuse the negatives of obligation and permission: ne moram ("I don't have to" — no obligation) is the opposite of ne smijem ("I mustn't" — forbidden), even though English "mustn't" and "don't have to" look related. See morati and the obligation cluster.

Ne moraš ostati ako ne želiš, ali ne smiješ otići bez pozdrava.

You don't have to stay if you don't want to, but you mustn't leave without saying goodbye. — 'ne moraš' (no obligation) vs 'ne smiješ' (forbidden).

How to choose, in practice

Put the three negatives and moći's special phrases together and you have a working decision routine:

Is it about knowing how (a skill learned over time)? → znati (znam plivati).
Is it about a rule, law, or permission? → smjeti (smijem / ne smijem).
Is it possibility or physical ability — none of the above? → moći (mogu / ne mogu).
Is it obligation rather than possibility? → step outside the cluster to morati.

One useful overlap to know: the impersonal Može li se…? ("Can one / Is it possible to…?") leans toward possibility-and-permission together and is a polite all-purpose "is this OK?" — but for a flat prohibition you still switch to ne smije se (see moći, smjeti, znati).

Može li se ovdje fotografirati? — Ne, unutra se ne smije.

Can you take photos here? — No, you're not allowed inside. — 'može li se' to ask, 'ne smije se' to forbid.

Common Mistakes

❌ Možeš li plivati?

Wrong verb — for a learned skill use 'znati': 'Znaš li plivati?'. 'Možeš li plivati?' asks whether circumstances allow you to swim right now.

✅ Znaš li plivati?

Can you swim? (= do you know how?)

❌ Ne mogu jesti kikiriki, alergičan sam.

Meaning slip — an allergy is a rule/risk, not inability: this should be 'ne smijem' (mustn't). 'Ne mogu' would mean you're physically incapable of eating it.

✅ Ne smijem jesti kikiriki, alergičan sam.

I mustn't eat peanuts, I'm allergic.

❌ Smiješ li voziti kamion?

Ambiguous/likely wrong — if you mean 'do you have the skill', use 'znaš li voziti'; 'smiješ li' asks whether you're licensed/permitted.

✅ Znaš li voziti kamion?

Can you (= do you know how to) drive a truck?

❌ Ja možu doći.

Form error — the 1sg of 'moći' keeps the g: 'mogu', never '*možu'.

✅ Mogu doći.

I can come.

❌ Ne smiješ raditi danas, slobodan si.

Meaning slip — 'you're off today' means no obligation ('ne moraš raditi'), not a prohibition. 'Ne smiješ raditi' means working is forbidden.

✅ Ne moraš raditi danas, slobodan si.

You don't have to work today, you're off.

Key Takeaways

moći = possibility/ability (mogu, možeš); smjeti = permission (smijem); znati = acquired skill (znam = "know how to").
Swap test on the English: rephrasable as "know how to" → znati; as "be allowed to / may" → smjeti; otherwise → moći.
The negatives are NOT interchangeable: ne mogu (can't/impossible) vs ne smijem (mustn't/forbidden) vs ne znam (don't know how).
All three negatives are two words; remember moći's 1sg mogu (not možu) and smjeti's present -ij- (smijem, not smjem).
Watch the neighbour morati: ne moram ("don't have to") is the opposite of ne smijem ("mustn't"), not its synonym.
Full paradigms live on the dedicated pages — this is the decision page, not a substitute for them.

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