vjerovati (to believe) | Croatian Grammar

Vjerovati ("to believe") is the verb at the heart of trust, faith, and conviction — "I believe you", "I don't believe it", "Believe in yourself". For English speakers its real difficulty is not the conjugation but the government: Croatian sharply distinguishes believing a person (who takes the dative) from believing in something (which takes u + accusative). English uses "believe" for both, so the case split has to be learned deliberately. This page gives the full paradigm and then drills the dative-versus-u contrast that trips up almost everyone.

Aspect

Vjerovati is imperfective — believing is an ongoing state, not a one-off event. Its perfective partner is povjerovati ("to come to believe, to believe [at a given moment]"), formed with the prefix po-. You reach for the perfective when belief arrives as a single point — Odmah sam mu povjerovao ("I believed him immediately"). For the general state ("I believe", "I trust") you stay imperfective. See aspect pair formation by prefix.

Present tense

Vjerovati belongs to the productive -ovati class, an e-class verb. The defining feature is that the infinitive's -ova- becomes -uje- in the present stem: vjerova-ti → vjeruj-em. This is fully regular for this class (compare kupovati → kupujem, putovati → putujem).

Person	Form	Meaning
ja	vjerujem	I believe
ti	vjeruješ	you believe
on/ona/ono	vjeruje	he/she/it believes
mi	vjerujemo	we believe
vi	vjerujete	you believe
oni/one/ona	vjeruju	they believe

Vjerujem ti, ne moraš ništa dokazivati.

I believe you, you don't have to prove anything. — dative 'ti'.

Ne vjeruješ valjda u to?

You don't actually believe in that, do you? — 'u' + accusative.

💡

The whole class lives or dies on the -ova- → -uje- swap. The infinitive is vjerovati, but you never say vjerovam — the present is vjerujem. If you can do vjerujem, you can do kupujem, putujem, darujem and dozens more.

The l-participle

The participle is built on the infinitive stem vjerova-, with the regular vocalisation of -l to -o in the masculine singular.

Gender / number	Form
masculine singular	vjerovao
feminine singular	vjerovala
neuter singular	vjerovalo
masculine plural	vjerovali
feminine plural	vjerovale
neuter plural	vjerovala

Note that the participle keeps the -ova- of the infinitive (vjerovao), not the present's -uje-. The two stems live in different parts of the verb and should not be mixed.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) + the l-participle, which agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Person	Masculine subject	Feminine subject
ja	vjerovao sam	vjerovala sam
ti	vjerovao si	vjerovala si
on / ona	vjerovao je	vjerovala je
mi	vjerovali smo	vjerovale smo
vi	vjerovali ste	vjerovale ste
oni / one	vjerovali su	vjerovale su

Dugo sam vjerovala da će se sve riješiti samo od sebe.

For a long time I believed everything would sort itself out. — feminine speaker, imperfective state.

Nisam mu vjerovao ni riječi.

I didn't believe a single word he said. — dative 'mu' + genitive of negation 'ni riječi'.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive vjerovati drops its final -i before the clitic: vjerovat ću (written as two words, t + ću).

Person	Infinitive first	Clitic first
ja	vjerovat ću	… ću vjerovati
ti	vjerovat ćeš	… ćeš vjerovati
on/ona/ono	vjerovat će	… će vjerovati
mi	vjerovat ćemo	… ćemo vjerovati
vi	vjerovat ćete	… ćete vjerovati
oni/one/ona	vjerovat će	… će vjerovati

Vjerovat ću ti tek kad to vidim svojim očima.

I'll only believe you when I see it with my own eyes.

Imperative

The imperative is built on the present stem vjeruj-: drop the -em and you already have the ti form.

Person	Form
ti	vjeruj
mi	vjerujmo
vi	vjerujte

Vjeruj mi, znam o čemu govorim.

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.

Vjerujte u sebe, sve ostalo dolazi kasnije.

Believe in yourselves, everything else comes later. — 'u' + accusative.

Other forms

Passive participle: vjerovan is rare; far more common is the negated adjective nevjerojatan ("unbelievable, incredible") and the noun vjerovanje ("belief, creed"). For everyday "unbelievable!" Croatian says Nevjerojatno!
Present verbal adverb: vjerujući ("believing, while believing"), seen mainly in writing: vjerujući u bolje sutra ("believing in a better tomorrow").

Nevjerojatno je koliko si se promijenio.

It's unbelievable how much you've changed. — frozen adjective from this root.

Key uses and government

This is the core of the page. Vjerovati takes two completely different complements depending on meaning.

1. vjerovati + DATIVE — "to believe / trust someone"

When you believe a person (accept that what they say is true, or trust them), the person goes in the dative, with no preposition. This is a classic dative-government verb — see verbs that take the dative. English uses a bare object here ("I believe you"), so the dative has to be supplied consciously.

Vjerujem ti.

I believe you. / I trust you. — bare dative, no preposition.

Zašto bih vjerovao njemu, a ne tebi?

Why would I believe him and not you? — stressed dative pronouns 'njemu', 'tebi'.

Nitko joj nije vjerovao, a bila je u pravu.

Nobody believed her, and she was right. — dative 'joj'.

2. vjerovati u + ACCUSATIVE — "to believe in"

When you believe in something — its existence, its value, a person's potential — Croatian uses u + accusative. This covers faith, ideals, and confidence: vjerovati u Boga ("believe in God"), vjerovati u ljubav ("believe in love"), vjerovati u sebe ("believe in oneself").

Vjerujem u tebe, sigurno ćeš uspjeti.

I believe in you, you'll definitely succeed. — 'u' + accusative 'tebe'.

On ni u što ne vjeruje.

He doesn't believe in anything. — negative 'ni u što', 'u' + accusative.

💡

The contrast in one pair: Vjerujem ti = "I believe you (what you're saying is true)"; Vjerujem u tebe = "I believe in you (in your abilities)." Same person, different case, different meaning. The dative judges a statement; u + accusative backs a person or idea.

3. vjerovati da — "to believe that…"

To believe a whole proposition, use a da-clause. The verb in the clause stays indicative (this is a statement of belief, not a wish), unlike some Romance languages that would force a subjunctive. See reported speech.

Vjerujem da će sve biti u redu.

I believe everything will be all right. — da-clause, indicative future.

Teško mi je vjerovati da je to istina.

It's hard for me to believe that's true.

Common Mistakes

❌ Vjerovam ti.

Incorrect — the -ovati class swaps to -uje- in the present: 'vjerujem', never 'vjerovam'.

✅ Vjerujem ti.

I believe you.

❌ Vjerujem te.

Wrong case — believing a person takes the dative 'ti', not the accusative 'te'.

✅ Vjerujem ti.

I believe you.

❌ Vjerujem u tebe kad kažeš da je gotovo.

Wrong construction — to believe what someone SAYS is the dative; 'u tebe' means trusting your abilities.

✅ Vjerujem ti kad kažeš da je gotovo.

I believe you when you say it's done.

❌ Vjerujem na Boga.

Wrong preposition — 'believe in' is 'u' + accusative, not 'na'.

✅ Vjerujem u Boga.

I believe in God.

❌ Vjerovao sam u tebe da govoriš istinu.

Mixed — for trusting the statement use the dative + da-clause.

✅ Vjerovao sam ti da govoriš istinu.

I believed you were telling the truth.

Key Takeaways

Vjerovati is imperfective; the perfective partner is povjerovati (belief arriving as a point).
Present: vjerujem — vjeruješ — vjeruje — vjerujemo — vjerujete — vjeruju, with the regular -ova- → -uje- swap. The participle keeps -ova-: vjerovao/vjerovala.
Government is the whole game: vjerovati
- dative = believe/trust a person; vjerovati
  - u
    accusative
    = believe in something; vjerovati
    - da = believe that.
Vjerujem ti ("I believe you") versus Vjerujem u tebe ("I believe in you") differ only by case — and mean different things.
The frozen adjective nevjerojatan / Nevjerojatno! ("unbelievable!") comes from this root.

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