moći (can/be able)

Moći ("can, to be able to") is the workhorse modal of possibility and ability — the verb behind every "Can I…?", "I can't…", and the famously short Može! ("Sure!"). It is irregular in three interlocking ways: its present alternates between g and ž, its l-participle is mogao/mogla, and it has effectively no imperative (you cannot order someone to be able to do something). This page lays out the full paradigm and, just as importantly, separates moći from its two rivals — smjeti (permission) and znati (acquired skill) — which English flattens into the same word "can".

Aspect

Moći is imperfective: ability and possibility are ongoing states, not completed events. There is a perfective uzmoći ("to manage / come to be able"), but it is rare and literary; in everyday speech moći covers both "can" and "could" (the latter via the conditional or the perfect). Do not look for a tidy perfective partner here — there is no everyday one.

Present tense

The defining feature is the g ~ ž alternation. The 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural keep the original g (mogu), and they are identical to each other. The four middle forms show ž (možeš, može, možemo, možete). This is the first palatalisation, the same change that turns Bog into the vocative Bože.

The negative is regular — just ne in front: ne mogu, ne možeš, ne može… (two words, unlike neću or nemam).

The l-participle

The participle stem is mog- with the masculine showing the vocalised -ao and a hidden alternation (mog- → moga-o).

Notice the masculine mogao keeps the g (mog- + -ao), while the feminine mogla and the rest keep the g before the consonant l. There is no ž anywhere in the l-participle — that alternation belongs to the present only.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. In the past moći leans heavily toward the meaning "managed to / was able to / could".

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive moći ends in -ći, not -ti, so it does not drop a vowel before the clitic: you write moći ću in full (compare imat ću, which loses its -i). This is a small but persistent spelling point.

Imperative

Here is the honest truth: moći has no normal imperative. You cannot command someone "be able to!" — the meaning is incoherent. Where English says "you can go now", Croatian uses the plain present možeš as a permission-granting statement, or rephrases.

If you genuinely need the imperative idea ("try to be able to / manage to"), you reach for a different verb such as pokušati ("try") or uspjeti ("manage").

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

The conditional is where "could" really lives — for polite requests and hypotheticals. bih-clitics + l-participle.

Other forms

• Passive participle / verbal adverbs: moći is a modal that takes an infinitive complement, so it has no passive participle and the verbal adverbs (mogući "possible/being able") survive mainly as an adjective: moguće "possible", nemoguće "impossible". Treat moguće as a fixed word, not as a live verb form.

Key uses and government

1. Ability / possibility: moći + infinitive

The core construction is moći + a bare infinitive. In speech you will also hear moći + da + present, but in the western standard the infinitive is preferred (see da + present vs the infinitive).

2. Može! — "OK / Sure / Sounds good"

The single word Može on its own is one of the most common affirmatives in Croatian — softer than Da, more like "Works for me / Deal".

3. Može li se…? — "Is one allowed / Is it possible to…?"

With the reflexive se, može becomes an impersonal "can one / is it possible", a polite way to ask whether something is permitted or doable.

4. moći vs smjeti vs znati

English "can" hides three different verbs. Moći = physical/circumstantial possibility. Smjeti = permission ("may, be allowed"). Znati = an acquired skill ("know how to"). Choosing the wrong one is a classic transfer error, so compare them on moći, smjeti, znati and the "can" cluster.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Moći is imperfective; the rare perfective uzmoći is literary. Use the conditional or perfect for "could".
• Present: mogu — možeš — može — možemo — možete — mogu, with the g ~ ž alternation; the negative is the two-word ne mogu.
• The infinitive ends in -ći, so the future stays full: moći ću (no vowel dropped).
• Moći has no imperative — use the present možeš or rephrase.
• Keep the three "cans" apart: moći (possibility), smjeti (permission), znati (skill). And learn Može! and Može li se…? as ready-made phrases.