prati / oprati (to wash) | Croatian Grammar

Prati / oprati ("to wash") is an everyday verb you'll use constantly — washing dishes, laundry, your hands, your hair, the car — and it hides one of the most important irregular present stems in the whole language. The infinitive is prati, but you never say *pram: the present is perem, with the root vowel surfacing as e. This a → e stem alternation is exactly the one you meet in brati → berem ("to pick"), zvati → zovem ("to call"), prati → perem, and it trips up nearly every learner. Get perem into your bones now and the rest of the verb is easy: it forms a clean prefixal aspect pair (imperfective prati, perfective oprati), governs a simple accusative object, and has a high-frequency reflexive prati se ("to wash oneself"). Keep it distinct from čistiti / očistiti ("to clean"): you wash with water, you clean a surface of dirt.

Aspect

Verb	Aspect	Present 1sg	Typical use
prati	imperfective	perem	the activity of washing; repeated/habitual
oprati	perfective	operem	one completed wash (it's washed now)

This is a prefixal pair: the base imperfective prati takes the prefix o- to become the perfective oprati (see forming aspect pairs by prefix). Use perem for washing as an activity or habit — "I'm washing the dishes / I wash my hair twice a week" — and operem for the finished result — "I washed it (and now it's clean)". The prefix o- simply adds the "done" boundary to the same root, so the irregular -e- present carries straight over: prati → perem, oprati → operem.

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The #1 mistake is conjugating prati as if it were regular: *pram, *praš. It isn't. The present stem is per-: perem, pereš, pere, peremo, perete, peru. Same pattern as brati → berem. The infinitive prati and the present perem look unrelated on the page — memorise them as a pair.

Present tense

The irregular per- stem is the whole story. Both members share it (the perfective just adds the prefix).

Person	prati (impf)	oprati (pf)
ja	perem	operem
ti	pereš	opereš
on/ona/ono	pere	opere
mi	peremo	operemo
vi	perete	operete
oni/one/ona	peru	operu

The perfective present operem is not a "now" tense — it has future/subordinate meaning (kad operem — "when I wash"). For the wash in progress you need the imperfective perem.

Perem suđe, dođem za pet minuta.

I'm washing the dishes, I'll come in five minutes. — in progress, imperfective 'perem'.

Čim operem kosu, idemo.

As soon as I wash my hair, we're going. — perfective present, future reading.

The l-participle

The l-participle is built from the infinitive stem pra-, not the present stem — so it is regular: prao / prala, oprao / oprala.

Gender / number	prati (impf)	oprati (pf)
masculine singular	prao	oprao
feminine singular	prala	oprala
neuter singular	pralo	opralo
masculine plural	prali	oprali
feminine plural	prale	oprale
neuter plural	prala	oprala

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The split is the thing to keep straight: present from per- (perem), past/l-participle from pra- (prao, prala). Don't bleed the -e- into the past — there's no *pereo.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. Everyday "I washed it" is the perfective oprao sam; the imperfective prao sam marks a process or habit.

Person	Masculine subject	Feminine subject
ja	oprao sam	oprala sam
ti	oprao si	oprala si
on / ona	oprao je	oprala je
mi	oprali smo	oprale smo
vi	oprali ste	oprale ste
oni / one	oprali su	oprale su

Oprala sam rublje, sad ga treba objesiti.

I've washed the laundry, now it needs hanging up. — perfective, a single done wash.

Cijelu nedjelju je prao i glačao.

He spent all Sunday washing and ironing. — imperfective process, 'prao'.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive prati / oprati already ends in -ti; before the clitic it drops the -i: prat ću, oprat ću. Separate word — never oprati ću.

Person	prati (impf)	oprati (pf)
ja	prat ću	oprat ću
ti	prat ćeš	oprat ćeš
on/ona/ono	prat će	oprat će
mi	prat ćemo	oprat ćemo
vi	prat ćete	oprat ćete
oni/one/ona	prat će	oprat će

Oprat ću auto kad prestane padati kiša.

I'll wash the car when it stops raining.

Imperative

The imperative is built on the present stem per-: peri! (impf), operi! (pf). The perfective operi! is the normal "wash it!"; the imperfective peri! means "keep washing / do the washing".

Person	prati (impf)	oprati (pf)
ti	peri	operi
mi	perimo	operimo
vi	perite	operite

Operi ruke prije jela!

Wash your hands before eating! — perfective command on the 'per-' stem.

Operi zube i idi spavati.

Brush your teeth and go to bed. — 'prati zube' is the idiom for brushing teeth.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle (from the pra- stem).

Person	oprati (masc.)
ja	oprao bih
ti	oprao bi
on/ona/ono	oprao/oprala/opralo bi
mi	oprali bismo
vi	oprali biste
oni/one/ona	oprali bi

Oprala bih i tvoje stvari da si ih ostavio u košari.

I'd have washed your things too if you'd left them in the basket.

Other forms

Passive participle: opran, oprana, oprano ("washed"). Built on the pra- stem with the -n ending: pra- + -n → opran. There is no jotation here (the stem ends in a vowel a), so it's simply opran — contrast the -en/šć you get with očišćen. Use it as a resultant-state adjective — Rublje je oprano ("The laundry is washed") — and in the passive: Auto je opran ("The car has been washed"; auto is masculine in standard Croatian — ovaj auto — so the participle is opran, not oprano). The imperfective gives pran.
Verbal adverb: imperfective pereći ("[while] washing"), built on the present stem. The perfective has no present verbal adverb.

Rublje je već oprano, fali samo da se osuši.

The laundry is already washed, it just needs to dry. — resultant-state 'oprano'.

Key uses and government

1. prati + accusative — the thing washed

Both members are transitive and take a direct object in the accusative: what you wash. The classic objects are suđe ("the dishes"), rublje ("the laundry"), ruke ("hands"), zube ("teeth"), kosu ("hair"), auto ("the car"). See the accusative direct object.

Tko danas pere suđe, ti ili ja?

Who's washing the dishes today, you or me? — accusative 'suđe', present 'pere'.

Operem rublje svake subote ujutro.

I wash the laundry every Saturday morning. — habitual, but here many speakers say 'perem' for the habit.

2. prati se — to wash oneself

Add the reflexive se and the verb turns inward: you wash yourself. This is the everyday verb for personal washing. Note that for specific body parts Croatian usually keeps the accusative object and drops se (operi ruke — "wash your hands", not *operi se ruke); se appears when the whole self is the object (moram se oprati — "I need to wash up"). For the reflexive mechanism, see the se passive and impersonal.

Moram se oprati prije nego krenemo.

I need to wash up before we set off. — reflexive 'prati se', the whole self.

3. prati vs čistiti — wash vs clean

These two are not interchangeable. prati = wash with water (laundry, dishes, body, car). čistiti / očistiti = remove dirt from a surface, clean (floors, windows, shoes) — see čistiti / očistiti. You pereš the dishes but čistiš the floor; choosing prati for "clean the windows" sounds off to a native ear.

Operi suđe, a ja ću očistiti pod.

Wash the dishes, and I'll clean the floor. — the two verbs split by task.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ja pram suđe.

The big one — 'prati' has the irregular present stem 'per-': it's 'perem suđe', never '*pram'.

✅ Perem suđe.

I'm washing the dishes.

❌ Jučer sam pereo auto.

The l-participle uses the 'pra-' stem, not 'per-': it's 'prao' (masc.) / 'oprao'.

✅ Jučer sam oprao auto.

I washed the car yesterday.

❌ Očistit ću kosu.

Wrong verb — hair is washed with water, so you 'wash' it: 'oprat ću kosu'.

✅ Oprat ću kosu.

I'll wash my hair.

❌ Rublje je opranjeno.

There's no jotation — the stem ends in a vowel, so the participle is plain 'oprano'.

✅ Rublje je oprano.

The laundry is washed.

❌ Oprati ću ruke.

Spelling error — the future clitic is a separate word and the infinitive drops '-i': 'oprat ću'.

✅ Oprat ću ruke.

I'll wash my hands.

Key Takeaways

prati (impf) / oprati (pf) — an o- prefix pair; object = accusative (suđe, rublje, ruke, zube, kosu).
The present stem is irregular: perem, pereš, pere… (the a → e change, like brati → berem) — never *pram.
The past comes from a different stem: l-participle prao / oprao, passive participle opran (no jotation).
prati se = "to wash oneself"; for body parts keep the accusative object (operi ruke).
prati = wash with water; čistiti = clean a surface — see čistiti / očistiti. Future drops -i: oprat ću.

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