letjeti (to fly) | Croatian Grammar

Letjeti ("to fly") is the everyday verb for anything that moves through the air — planes, birds, insects, a thrown ball, and figuratively time, prices, or a person rushing somewhere. It is a clean i-class verb in the present, but it hides one of Croatian's most important spelling alternations: the -ije- of the infinitive shrinks to -i- in the present and to -je- in some participle forms. Learn this verb in full and you also learn the pattern behind vidjeti, željeti, živjeti, and a whole family of "jat verbs".

Aspect and partners

Letjeti is imperfective: it views flying as an ongoing or repeated process, with no built-in endpoint. There is no single perfective "to fly"; instead you prefix it depending on which boundary you want to mark:

poletjeti (pf) — "to take off, to begin flying / to fly off" (the inceptive moment): Avion je poletio ("The plane took off").
odletjeti (pf) — "to fly away / fly off (and be gone)": Ptica je odletjela ("The bird flew away").
doletjeti (pf) — "to come flying in, to arrive by flying": Doletio je iz Berlina ("He flew in from Berlin").
preletjeti (pf) — "to fly over / across": Preletjeli smo Alpe ("We flew over the Alps").

So letjeti is the process and the prefixed perfectives mark its start, end, or direction. This is the standard motion-verb pattern — see aspect and verbs of motion and prefixed directional verbs.

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English uses one verb "fly" plus a particle ("take off", "fly away", "fly over"). Croatian fuses the particle into a prefix that also makes the verb perfective. So odletjeti is not just "fly away" — it is one completed flying-away. Choosing the prefix and choosing the aspect are the same decision.

Present tense

Letjeti conjugates in the i-class. Crucially, the -ije- of the infinitive letjeti reduces to -i- throughout the present: the stem is let-, theme vowel -i-.

Person	Form	Ending	Meaning
ja	letim	-im	I fly / I'm flying
ti	letiš	-iš	you fly
on/ona/ono	leti	-i	he/she/it flies
mi	letimo	-imo	we fly
vi	letite	-ite	you fly
oni/one/ona	lete	-e	they fly

Like every i-class verb, the 3rd-person plural is the bare -e (lete), never -iju. See the i-class present.

Avion za Frankfurt leti svaki dan u sedam.

The plane to Frankfurt flies every day at seven. — habitual, imperfective.

Galebovi lete nisko nad morem prije oluje.

The gulls are flying low over the sea before a storm.

The l-participle

Here the jat vowel surfaces again, but now as -je-: the masculine singular is letio (the -je- before the vocalised -l gives -i-), while the feminine, neuter, and all plurals keep -je-: letjela, letjelo, letjeli, letjele, letjela.

Gender / number	Form
masculine singular	letio
feminine singular	letjela
neuter singular	letjelo
masculine plural	letjeli
feminine plural	letjele
neuter plural	letjela

This letio / letjela split (and the parallel vidio / vidjela, živio / živjela) trips up learners constantly: do not write letila — the feminine keeps the -je-.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. Use imperfective letjeti for "was flying / used to fly" and a prefixed perfective for a completed flight.

Person	Masculine subject	Feminine subject
ja	letio sam	letjela sam
ti	letio si	letjela si
on / ona	letio je	letjela je
mi	letjeli smo	letjele smo
vi	letjeli ste	letjele ste
oni / one	letjeli su	letjele su

Cijeli život je letio za istu aviokompaniju.

He flew for the same airline his whole life. — imperfective, a long-running activity.

Avion je poletio s pola sata zakašnjenja.

The plane took off half an hour late. — perfective 'poletjeti', the single act of takeoff.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive letjeti drops its final -i before the clitic: letjet ću (written without the -i).

Person	letjeti (impf)	odletjeti (pf)
ja	letjet ću	odletjet ću
ti	letjet ćeš	odletjet ćeš
on/ona/ono	letjet će	odletjet će
mi	letjet ćemo	odletjet ćemo
vi	letjet ćete	odletjet ćete
oni/one/ona	letjet će	odletjet će

Sutra letimo za Dublin, pa nam poželi sreću.

Tomorrow we fly to Dublin, so wish us luck. — present used for a scheduled future.

Odletjet ćemo prvim jutarnjim letom.

We'll fly off on the first morning flight. — future I of perfective 'odletjeti'.

Imperative

i-class imperatives: -i, -imo, -ite.

Person	letjeti	odletjeti
ti	leti	odleti
mi	letimo	odletimo
vi	letite	odletite

The bare Leti! is mostly figurative or to an animal ("Fly!"). The negative uses nemoj: Nemoj letjeti tako nisko ("Don't fly so low").

Leti, ptičice, slobodna si!

Fly, little bird, you're free! — figurative/affectionate imperative.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle.

Person	Form (masc.)
ja	letio bih
ti	letio bi
on/ona/ono	letio/letjela/letjelo bi
mi	letjeli bismo
vi	letjeli biste
oni/one/ona	letjeli bi

Letio bih radije noćnim letom da je jeftiniji.

I'd rather fly on a night flight if it were cheaper.

Other forms

Verbal adverb (present): leteći ("[while] flying"). It is also adjectival in leteći tanjur ("flying saucer") and leteći start ("flying start").
Passive participle: letjeti is intransitive, so it has no passive participle. The prefixed preletjeti (transitive, "fly over/across something") does: preletjelo-type forms exist but are rare; for normal use treat the family as intransitive.

Leteći iznad oblaka, jedva sam vjerovao prizoru.

Flying above the clouds, I could hardly believe the sight. — verbal adverb 'leteći'.

Key uses and government

1. Destination: u / na / za + accusative

Letjeti is intransitive, so it never takes a direct object. The destination of a flight is expressed with a motion preposition + the accusative: u + acc for "into" a place, na + acc for events/islands/open areas, and the very common za + acc meaning "(bound) for". The locative-vs-accusative split is the general motion rule — see the accusative of motion and direction.

Letimo za London u petak ujutro.

We're flying to London on Friday morning. — 'za' + accusative, 'bound for'.

Sljedeći tjedan letim na Hvar na vjenčanje.

Next week I'm flying to Hvar for a wedding. — 'na' + accusative for the island and the event.

2. Source: iz / s(a) + genitive

Where you fly from takes a source preposition + the genitive: iz + gen ("out of"), s(a) + gen ("off / from").

Doletjeli smo iz Splita s velikim zakašnjenjem.

We flew in from Split with a long delay. — 'iz' + genitive for the source.

3. Figurative: time, prices, rushing

Letjeti covers "to rush/dash" (a person) and "to soar/fly" (time, prices, news).

Vrijeme leti kad se dobro zabavljaš.

Time flies when you're having fun.

Letim na sastanak, kasnim već deset minuta!

I'm dashing to a meeting, I'm already ten minutes late! — 'rush', not literal flight.

Common Mistakes

❌ Avion za Frankfurt letije svaki dan.

Wrong 3sg/3pl — i-class takes bare endings: 3sg 'leti', 3pl 'lete', never '-ije/-iju'.

✅ Avion za Frankfurt leti svaki dan.

The plane to Frankfurt flies every day.

❌ Ona je letila za Pariz.

Spelling — the feminine l-participle keeps '-je-': 'letjela', not 'letila'.

✅ Ona je letjela za Pariz.

She flew to Paris.

❌ Letimo u Londonu sutra.

Wrong case — destination is motion, so accusative: 'u London' / 'za London', not the locative 'u Londonu'.

✅ Letimo za London sutra.

We're flying to London tomorrow.

❌ Ptica je letjela odavde za pet sekundi.

Aspect clash — a completed flying-away wants the perfective 'odletjela', not imperfective 'letjela'.

✅ Ptica je odletjela odavde za pet sekundi.

The bird flew away from here in five seconds.

❌ Avion poletio je.

Clitic order — the auxiliary 'je' is second-position: 'Avion je poletio'.

✅ Avion je poletio.

The plane took off.

Key Takeaways

Letjeti is imperfective ("be flying"); perfectives are prefixed: poletjeti (take off), odletjeti (fly away), doletjeti (fly in), preletjeti (fly over).
i-class present: letim, letiš, leti, letimo, letite, lete — bare -e in the 3pl.
The jat vowel: present -i- (letim), but the l-participle splits letio / letjela — never letila.
Intransitive: destination = motion preposition + accusative (za London, na Hvar); source = iz/s
- genitive.
Verbal adverb leteći; future letjet ću; no plain passive participle.

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