željeti / poželjeti (to wish/desire)

Željeti ("to wish / to desire / to want") is the verb you reach for when you want to sound a notch more polished than the everyday htjeti. It runs from the menu (Što želite? — "What would you like?") to the heartfelt (Želim ti sve najbolje — "I wish you all the best"). Crucially, it governs its object three different ways — accusative, infinitive, or a da-clause — and it has one special construction, željeti nekomu nešto ("to wish someone something"), that pairs a dative with a genitive or accusative. Get those patterns right and željeti becomes one of your most reliable verbs.

Aspect

Željeti is imperfective: it names the ongoing state of wishing or wanting. Its perfective partner is poželjeti ("to come to wish, to take it into one's head to want"), formed with the prefix po-. The perfective marks the moment a wish arises: Odjednom je poželjela otići ("She suddenly felt the urge to leave"). In the overwhelming majority of everyday sentences — ordering, wishing, stating desires — you use the imperfective željeti, because wanting is a state, and states are imperfective. Reach for poželjeti only when you mean the spark of a wish, typically in the past.

Present tense

Željeti is an i-class verb: drop the infinitive ending and add -im, -iš, -i, -imo, -ite, -e to the stem žel-.

The l-participle

Here the je of old yat resurfaces. The masculine singular drops to -io (želio), while the feminine, neuter and plural keep the -je- visible (željela, željelo, željeli…).

Compare with the present stem: past želio / željela, present želim / želiš. The je belongs to the infinitive-and-past stem only.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) + the l-participle.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive željeti ends in -ti, so before the future clitic (ću, ćeš, će…) it drops its final -i: the written form is željet + clitic, željet ću. The t stays; only the -i falls away.

Imperative

i-class imperative endings -i, -imo, -ite on the stem žel-.

The imperative is most natural in the fixed wish formula Poželi nešto! ("Make a wish!") — note the perfective poželi, because making a wish is a single completed act.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

The bih-clitics (bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi) + the l-participle. This is where željeti truly shines: želio/željela bih is the polite way to say "I would like", softer and more refined than the bare želim.

Other forms

• Passive participle: željen, željena, željeno ("wished-for, desired"). It is real but uncommon; you meet it most in the compound neželjen ("unwanted") — neželjena pošta ("junk mail / spam"), neželjena trudnoća ("unwanted pregnancy").
• Present verbal adverb: želeći ("wishing, while wishing"), literary and rare in speech.

Key uses and government

1. željeti + accusative — to want a thing

For wanting an object, željeti takes the accusative, like any plain transitive verb.

2. željeti + infinitive OR da-clause — to want to do something

When the wish is an action you yourself will do, use the infinitive: Želim spavati ("I want to sleep"). When the wish concerns someone else's action, use a da-clause: Želim da dođeš ("I want you to come"). Croatian also allows the da-clause even for the same subject, especially in southern usage, but the infinitive is the safer default for same-subject wishes. The full split is covered at da vs the infinitive.

3. željeti nekomu nešto — to wish someone something

This is the construction English speakers most often mangle. The person you wish well goes in the dative (ti, vam, mu, joj…) and the thing you wish them goes in the accusative (or, in fixed greetings, often the bare accusative noun). Želim ti sreću — "I wish you (dative) luck (accusative)". This is the engine behind nearly every Croatian greeting card; see congratulations and wishes.

4. željeti vs htjeti

Htjeti ("to want") is blunter, more direct, and far more frequent in casual speech — it is also the auxiliary that builds the future tense. Želim sounds more deliberate and polite; you would never put htjeti on a greeting card. In a café, Što želite? is the waiter's courteous "What would you like?", whereas Što hoćeš? ("What do you want?") between friends is fine but can sound abrupt to a stranger. The pair is contrasted in full at htjeti vs željeti.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Željeti is imperfective (the state of wanting); poželjeti is the perfective (the moment a wish arises, mostly past).
• It is i-class: želim, želiš, želi, želimo, želite, žele — and the present has no j (write želim, not željim).
• Three governments: accusative (a thing), infinitive (same-subject action), da-clause (someone else's action).
• The greeting pattern is željeti
  • dative (the person) + accusative (the thing): Želim ti sreću.
• Želio/željela bih is the elegant polite "I'd like"; prefer željeti over htjeti whenever you want to sound courteous.