svirati (to play an instrument) | Croatian Grammar

Svirati ("to play [a musical instrument]") is the verb for making music — strumming a guitar, banging a drum, playing in a band. The headline fact for English speakers is a three-way split that English hides under one word "play": Croatian uses svirati for an instrument, igrati for a game or sport (igrati nogomet), and pjevati for singing. Mix them up and you say something that sounds, to a Croatian ear, like "I sing the guitar" or "I play football on the violin". Svirati itself is a friendly regular a-class verb (sviram), with the prefixed perfectives odsvirati ("play through, finish playing") and zasvirati ("strike up, start playing") covering the perfective side.

Aspect

Verb	Aspect	Present 1sg	Typical use
svirati	imperfective	sviram	play (in general); be playing; know how to play
odsvirati	perfective	odsviram	play through / finish a piece
zasvirati	perfective	zasviram	strike up / start playing (inceptive)

Svirati is imperfective — and most of what you want to say about playing music is imperfective by nature: a habit (Sviram klavir "I play piano"), a skill, or an action in progress (Netko svira u susjednom stanu "Someone's playing in the next flat"). When you need a perfective, you reach for a prefixed form: odsvirati packages the whole piece as completed (Odsvirao je pjesmu do kraja "He played the song through to the end"), and zasvirati is inceptive — the moment the music starts (Bend je zasvirao "The band struck up"). This prefix-derived perfectivity is the pattern described at aspect overview; for how suffixes (vs prefixes) build pairs, see pair-formation suffixes.

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There is no plain unprefixed perfective of svirati — the perfective meaning is carried by the prefix you choose. od- = play it through to the end; za- = start up. Choose by what you mean: finishing the piece (odsvirati) or kicking it off (zasvirati).

Present tense

A textbook-regular a-class verb: stem svira-, endings -m, -š, —, -mo, -te, -ju. The prefixed perfectives conjugate the same way.

Person	svirati (impf)	odsvirati (pf)
ja	sviram	odsviram
ti	sviraš	odsviraš
on/ona/ono	svira	odsvira
mi	sviramo	odsviramo
vi	svirate	odsvirate
oni/one/ona	sviraju	odsviraju

The imperfective present covers both "I play (habitually/can)" and "I am playing (right now)":

Sviram gitaru već deset godina, ali još učim.

I've been playing the guitar for ten years, but I'm still learning. — habit/skill, imperfective.

Tiše malo, susjedi spavaju, a ti sviraš bubnjeve!

Keep it down, the neighbours are asleep and you're playing the drums! — action in progress.

The l-participle

Regular a-class for all three; the masculine singular vocalises the -l to -o.

Gender / number	svirati (impf)	odsvirati (pf)
masculine singular	svirao	odsvirao
feminine singular	svirala	odsvirala
neuter singular	sviralo	odsviralo
masculine plural	svirali	odsvirali
feminine plural	svirale	odsvirale
neuter plural	svirala	odsvirala

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. The imperfective svirao sam = "I played / I used to play / I was playing"; the perfective odsvirao sam = "I played [it] through".

Person	Masculine subject	Feminine subject
ja	svirao sam	svirala sam
ti	svirao si	svirala si
on / ona	svirao je	svirala je
mi	svirali smo	svirale smo
vi	svirali ste	svirale ste
oni / one	svirali su	svirale su

Kao klinka sam svirala violinu, ali sam odustala.

As a kid I played the violin, but I gave it up. — imperfective, a past habit.

Odsvirao je cijeli koncert napamet, bez nota.

He played the whole concert from memory, without sheet music. — perfective, completed performance.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive svirati drops its final -i before the ću-clitics: written svirat ću. The perfectives give odsvirat ću, zasvirat ću.

Person	svirati (impf)	odsvirati (pf)
ja	svirat ću	odsvirat ću
ti	svirat ćeš	odsvirat ćeš
on/ona/ono	svirat će	odsvirat će
mi	svirat ćemo	odsvirat ćemo
vi	svirat ćete	odsvirat ćete
oni/one/ona	svirat će	odsvirat će

Na vjenčanju će svirati živi bend, ne DJ.

There'll be a live band playing at the wedding, not a DJ.

Imperative

The imperfective sviraj! ("play! / keep playing!") is the everyday command; the perfective odsviraj! asks for a specific piece played through.

Person	svirati (impf)	odsvirati (pf)
ti	sviraj	odsviraj
mi	svirajmo	odsvirajmo
vi	svirajte	odsvirajte

Odsviraj nam onu pjesmu s gitarom, molim te!

Play us that song on the guitar, please! — perfective: one whole song.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle — for hypotheticals and wishes.

Person	svirati (masc.)
ja	svirao bih
ti	svirao bi
on/ona/ono	svirao/svirala/sviralo bi
mi	svirali bismo
vi	svirali biste
oni/one/ona	svirali bi

Svirao bih i klavir da imamo mjesta za njega.

I'd play piano too if we had room for one.

Other forms

Verbal adverb: imperfective svirajući ("[while] playing"). Zarađivao je svirajući po kafićima ("He earned a living playing in cafés"). The perfectives have no present adverb.
Related nouns: svirka (f.) = a gig / a jam / the act of playing (Bila je dobra svirka sinoć "There was a good gig last night"); svirač (m.) = a player (of an instrument), e.g. svirač harmonike ("an accordion player"). For a trained classical performer the word is usually glazbenik (musician) or the instrument-specific term (pijanist, violinist).

Svirač u kutu kafića tiho je prebirao po žicama.

The player in the corner of the café was quietly plucking the strings. — noun 'svirač'.

Key uses and government

1. svirati + accusative instrument

The instrument you play is a plain accusative object: svirati gitaru, klavir, violinu, bubnjeve, harmoniku. There is no preposition — English "play on the piano" does not translate the "on". See the accusative direct object.

Svira klavir i gitaru, a uči i violinu.

She plays piano and guitar, and is also learning the violin. — accusative instruments.

You can also use svirati na + locative (svirati na klaviru), which is equally correct and slightly more formal; the bare accusative is the everyday default.

2. svirati without an object — "play (music)"

Used intransitively, svirati just means "make music / be playing": a band svira, the radio svira, a song svira.

Na radiju svira neka stara pjesma koju obožavam.

Some old song I love is playing on the radio.

3. The big split: svirati vs igrati vs pjevati

English "play" fans out into three Croatian verbs, and choosing the wrong one is the classic learner error:

English "play"	Croatian	Example
play an instrument	svirati	svirati gitaru
play a game / sport	igrati	igrati nogomet, igrati karte
sing	pjevati	pjevati pjesmu

So a guitar is svirati, football is igrati, and a song you sing is pjevati. For games and sport see igrati; for singing see pjevati.

Brat svira bas, sestra pjeva, a ja samo igram igrice.

My brother plays bass, my sister sings, and I just play video games. — all three verbs, each in its lane.

4. zasvirati — the inceptive perfective

When you want the onset of music — the moment it strikes up — zasvirati is the verb. It is a vivid, common choice in narration.

Čim je orkestar zasvirao, dvorana je utihnula.

The moment the orchestra struck up, the hall fell silent. — inceptive perfective 'zasvirati'.

Common Mistakes

❌ Igram gitaru.

Wrong verb — an instrument is 'svirati', not 'igrati' (which is for games/sport).

✅ Sviram gitaru.

I play the guitar.

❌ Sviram nogomet svake subote.

Wrong verb — a sport is 'igrati': 'igram nogomet'.

✅ Igram nogomet svake subote.

I play football every Saturday.

❌ Sviram pjesmu pod tušem.

If you mean SING it, that's 'pjevati': 'pjevam pjesmu'. ('Sviram pjesmu' would mean playing it on an instrument.)

✅ Pjevam pjesmu pod tušem.

I sing a song in the shower.

❌ Sviram na gitaru.

Wrong case after 'na' — 'svirati na' takes the locative ('na gitari'); the bare accusative needs no preposition ('sviram gitaru').

✅ Sviram gitaru. / Sviram na gitari.

I play the guitar. (both correct — bare accusative or 'na' + locative)

❌ Svirati ću na vjenčanju.

Spelling — the infinitive drops its -i before the clitic: 'svirat ću', not 'svirati ću'.

✅ Svirat ću na vjenčanju.

I'll be playing at the wedding.

Key Takeaways

svirati (impf, sviram, svirao) = play a musical instrument; perfectives are prefixed: odsvirati (play through), zasvirati (strike up).
Government: accusative instrument (svirati gitaru / klavir / violinu), no preposition — or svirati na
- locative (na gitari).
The three-way "play" split: svirati (instrument) vs igrati (game/sport) vs pjevati (sing). Never cross them.
Useful nouns: svirka (a gig / the playing), svirač (a player of an instrument).
Future drops -i: svirat ću (never svirati ću).

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