voziti / voziti se (to drive / ride) | Croatian Grammar

Voziti ("to drive, to convey by vehicle") and its reflexive twin voziti se ("to ride, to be driven") split one English idea into two clear Croatian patterns. The plain verb is transitive — you drive a car (voziti auto) or drive someone somewhere (voziti dijete u školu). Add se and the perspective flips: you are no longer the agent steering, you are the passenger being carried — voziti se autobusom ("ride the bus"). The pivot between the two is one of the most useful little distinctions in the language, and it leans on the instrumental of means, which English handles with bare "by" (by bus, by train).

Aspect

Voziti is imperfective: it describes driving as an ongoing activity, a habit, or a skill ("I drive to work", "she drives well"). It has no single all-purpose perfective partner; instead Croatian forms directional perfectives by prefixing, each one specifying a direction — odvesti ("drive away, take away by vehicle"), dovesti ("bring by vehicle"), prevesti ("transport across"), zavesti (a different sense). These prefixed perfectives belong to the -vesti / -vezem paradigm, not to voziti directly, and they pair back with imperfectives odvoziti, dovoziti, etc. So for "I'll drive you home" you reach for the perfective odvesti (odvest ću te kući), not voziti.

	Imperfective base	Directional perfectives
Verb	voziti (drive, ride generally)	odvesti (drive away/take), dovesti (bring by vehicle), prevesti (transport)
Sense	process, habit, skill	one completed conveyance in a direction
Example	Vozim svaki dan. "I drive every day."	Odvest ću te kući. "I'll drive you home."

💡

Don't try to make voziti perfective by itself for a single completed trip — Croatian uses a prefixed verb for that. "Take me to the station" is the perfective Odvezi me na kolodvor, not vozi me (which means the ongoing "be driving me there"). See aspect and verbs of motion.

Present tense

Voziti is a regular i-class verb on the stem voz-. The reflexive voziti se simply adds the clitic se in every person.

Person	voziti (transitive)	voziti se (reflexive — ride)
ja	vozim	vozim se
ti	voziš	voziš se
on/ona/ono	vozi	vozi se
mi	vozimo	vozimo se
vi	vozite	vozite se
oni/one/ona	voze	voze se

Vozim auto već petnaest godina i nikad nisam imao nesreću.

I've been driving for fifteen years and never had an accident. — transitive 'voziti' + accusative 'auto'.

Na posao se vozim biciklom kad je lijepo vrijeme.

I ride my bike to work when the weather's nice. — reflexive 'voziti se' + instrumental 'biciklom' (means).

The l-participle

Regular: masculine vozio, feminine vozila, neuter vozilo. (Note: vozilo is also the noun "vehicle" — same form, learn from context.)

Gender / number	Form
masculine singular	vozio
feminine singular	vozila
neuter singular	vozilo
masculine plural	vozili
feminine plural	vozile
neuter plural	vozila

The masculine vozio shows the regular -l- → -o vocalisation after i (like radio, vidio); the feminine keeps it: vozila.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. With the reflexive voziti se, the se joins the clitic cluster in second position, and in the 3rd-person singular the auxiliary je is regularly dropped after se (vozio se "he rode", not vozio se je) — see perfect word order.

Person	voziti (masc.)	voziti se (masc.)
ja	vozio sam	vozio sam se
ti	vozio si	vozio si se
on / ona	vozio / vozila je	vozio se / vozila se
mi	vozili smo	vozili smo se
vi	vozili ste	vozili ste se
oni / one	vozili su	vozili su se

Cijeli smo se dan vozili kroz Liku i Dalmaciju.

We drove (rode) all day through Lika and Dalmatia. — reflexive 'voziti se' for the journey as experienced.

Tko je vozio kad se dogodila nezgoda?

Who was driving when the accident happened? — transitive 'voziti', asking about the driver.

Future I (futur prvi)

Voziti ends in -ti, so it drops the -i before the clitic: vozit ću. The reflexive adds se. See future one.

Person	voziti	voziti se
ja	vozit ću	vozit ću se
ti	vozit ćeš	vozit ćeš se
on/ona/ono	vozit će	vozit će se
mi	vozit ćemo	vozit ćemo se
vi	vozit ćete	vozit ćete se
oni/one/ona	vozit će	vozit će se

Sutra ćemo se voziti vlakom do Splita.

Tomorrow we'll take the train to Split. — reflexive future 'vozit ćemo se' + instrumental 'vlakom'.

Imperative

Built on the present stem with i-class endings: vozi, vozimo, vozite. Vozi pažljivo! ("Drive carefully!") is the standard send-off.

Person	voziti	voziti se
ti	vozi	vozi se
mi	vozimo	vozimo se
vi	vozite	vozite se

Vozi sporije, klizavo je.

Drive slower, it's slippery. — imperative 'vozi'.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle.

Person	voziti (masc.)
ja	vozio bih
ti	vozio bi
on/ona/ono	vozio/vozila/vozilo bi
mi	vozili bismo
vi	vozili biste
oni/one/ona	vozili bi

Vozila bih te, ali sam popila čašu vina.

I'd drive you, but I've had a glass of wine. — feminine speaker.

Other forms

Passive participle: vožen / vožena / voženo ("driven, conveyed"). Note the alternation: the stem voz-
- the participle -jen jotates z + j → ž, giving vožen (not vozen). Mostly used in compounds (prevožen "transported").
Verbal adverb (present): vozeći ("[while] driving"), as in vozeći se kući "while riding home".

Roba se vozi kamionima do luke.

The goods are transported by truck to the port. — se-passive of 'voziti' + instrumental 'kamionima'.

Government and key uses

1. voziti + accusative — "drive (a vehicle / a person)"

The transitive verb takes a direct object in the accusative: the vehicle you drive (voziti auto, voziti kamion) or the person you convey (voziti dijete). See the accusative as direct object.

Možeš li me voziti do centra?

Can you drive me to the centre? — 'voziti' + accusative object 'me'.

2. voziti se + instrumental — "ride / travel by"

The reflexive describes you as a passenger, with the means of transport in the instrumental (no preposition): voziti se autobusom "go by bus", voziti se vlakom "go by train", voziti se taksijem "take a taxi". This bare instrumental of means is where English just says "by". See instrumental of means.

Radije se vozim tramvajem nego što tražim parking.

I'd rather take the tram than hunt for parking. — 'voziti se' + instrumental 'tramvajem'.

3. voziti se — "go for a ride"

Without a stated means, voziti se is simply going for a ride or a spin (the fun, the experience, not the steering).

Djeca se vole voziti na vrtuljku.

Kids love riding the carousel. — 'voziti se' = ride for enjoyment.

Common Mistakes

❌ Vozim se auto na posao.

Mixed pattern — if you're the driver use plain 'vozim auto'; if you're a passenger use 'vozim se' + the instrumental of means, not an accusative.

✅ Vozim auto na posao.

I drive to work. (You are driving.)

❌ Vozim se s autobusom.

Wrong — means of transport with 'voziti se' is the bare instrumental, with no 's': 'autobusom', not 's autobusom' (which would mean 'together with a bus').

✅ Vozim se autobusom.

I go by bus.

❌ Vozit ću te kući za pet minuta.

Aspect — for one completed trip 'I'll drive you home' use the prefixed perfective 'odvesti': 'Odvest ću te kući'. Plain 'vozit ću' is the ongoing 'will be driving'.

✅ Odvest ću te kući.

I'll drive you home.

❌ Vozio sam se ga do bolnice.

Wrong — to convey a person you want the transitive (non-reflexive) verb: 'Vozio sam ga do bolnice'. With 'se' you can't also take a direct object.

✅ Vozio sam ga do bolnice.

I drove him to the hospital.

Key Takeaways

Voziti is imperfective; for a single completed trip use a prefixed perfective (odvesti "drive away/take", dovesti "bring by vehicle").
Transitive voziti
- accusative = you drive (a vehicle, or a person). Reflexive voziti se
  - instrumental = you ride / travel by (bus, train).
The means of transport is a bare instrumental — autobusom, not s autobusom.
L-participle vozio / vozila; passive participle vožen (z + j → ž); future vozit ću.
Contrast the carry-on-foot verb nositi, which is the foot equivalent of conveying by vehicle.

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