ženiti se / udati se (to get married) | Croatian Grammar

"To get married" is one of the most surprising entries in Croatian for an English speaker, because there is no single verb for it. The verb you choose depends on the gender of the subject: a man (o)ženi se, a woman uda se, and a couple together vjenča se. Worse — each of these governs a different case or preposition. English flattens all of this into one phrase ("get married"); Croatian splits it three ways and marks the split grammatically. This page untangles the system so you can describe any wedding correctly.

The three verbs at a glance

Subject	Verb (impf / pf)	Government	Literal sense
a man	ženiti se / oženiti se	instrumental (njome / s njom)	"take a wife"
a man (transitive)	ženiti / oženiti	accusative (a woman)	"marry [a woman]"
a woman	udavati se / udati se	za + accusative (za njega)	"give oneself [to a husband]"
a couple	vjenčavati se / vjenčati se	(s + instrumental)	"get wed / be married in a ceremony"

The logic behind the split is historical and gendered: ženiti is built on žena ("woman/wife") — literally "to get oneself a woman" — so only a man can do it. Udati se (the woman's verb) descends from "to give (away)" — historically the bride was given. Vjenčati se is the neutral, modern, ceremony-focused verb (from vjenčanje, "wedding") and is the safest choice when in doubt, especially for a couple as a unit.

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If you remember nothing else: a man uses oženiti se, a woman uses udati se za, and for "they got married" (the couple) use vjenčati se. Mixing them up — saying a woman oženila se — is a real and noticeable error, not a subtle one.

Aspect

Each verb has a clean imperfective/perfective pair. The perfective is the event ("got married"); the imperfective covers the habitual/general statement or the process.

Imperfective	Perfective	Present 1sg (pf)
ženiti se	oženiti se	oženim se
udavati se	udati se	udam se
vjenčavati se	vjenčati se	vjenčam se

The imperfectives are built by the usual suffixation: udati → udavati (the -ava- extension), vjenčati → vjenčavati. See forming aspect pairs by suffixation. The man's pair is the odd one out — the prefix o- perfectivises the simplex ženiti.

Present tense (perfective)

The perfective present describes a future or generic event, not "now" (you can't be in the middle of having married). The forms below are the perfectives.

Person	oženiti se (man)	udati se (woman)	vjenčati se (couple)
ja	oženim se	udam se	vjenčam se
ti	oženiš se	udaš se	vjenčaš se
on/ona	oženi se	uda se	vjenča se
mi	oženimo se	udamo se	vjenčamo se
vi	oženite se	udate se	vjenčate se
oni/one	ožene se	udaju se	vjenčaju se

The l-participle

Gender / number	oženiti se	udati se	vjenčati se
masculine singular	oženio se	udao se*	vjenčao se
feminine singular	oženila se*	udala se	vjenčala se
masculine plural	oženili se	udali se*	vjenčali se
feminine plural	oženile se*	udale se	vjenčale se

The starred cells are grammatically formable but semantically wrong: a man does not udao se and a woman does not oženila se. Only vjenčati se is used freely in every gender and number.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle, with se in the clitic cluster. This is the everyday "got married".

Person	Man (oženiti se)	Woman (udati se)
ja	oženio sam se	udala sam se
ti	oženio si se	udala si se
on / ona	oženio se	udala se
mi	oženili smo se	udale smo se
vi	oženili ste se	udale ste se
oni / one	oženili su se	udale su se

Brat se oženio prošlog ljeta, a sestra se udala tek ove godine.

My brother got married last summer, and my sister only got married this year. — note the two different verbs for the two siblings.

Vjenčali su se u maloj crkvi u zaleđu, samo s obitelji.

They got married in a little church inland, with just family. — couple, neutral 'vjenčati se'.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive drops its final -i before the future clitic: oženit ću se, udat ću se, vjenčat ću se — never "oženiti ću se".

Person	oženiti se	udati se	vjenčati se
ja	oženit ću se	udat ću se	vjenčat ću se
ti	oženit ćeš se	udat ćeš se	vjenčat ćeš se
on/ona	oženit će se	udat će se	vjenčat će se
mi	oženit ćemo se	udat ćemo se	vjenčat ćemo se
vi	oženit ćete se	udat ćete se	vjenčat ćete se
oni/one	oženit će se	udat će se	vjenčat će se

Udat ću se za njega bez obzira na to što roditelji misle.

I'll marry him no matter what my parents think. — woman speaking: 'udati se za' + accusative.

Imperative

Person	oženiti se	udati se	vjenčati se
ti	oženi se	udaj se	vjenčaj se
mi	oženimo se	udajmo se	vjenčajmo se
vi	oženite se	udajte se	vjenčajte se

Oženi se već jednom, mama te neće prestati gnjaviti!

Just get married already, mum won't stop nagging you! — said to a man.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle, se in the cluster.

Person	udati se (fem.)
ja	udala bih se
ti	udala bi se
on/ona	oženio / udala bi se
mi	udale bismo se
vi	udale biste se
oni/one	udale bi se

Udala bih se za njega i sutra, samo da me napokon zaprosi.

I'd marry him tomorrow, if only he'd finally propose. — conditional, woman speaking.

Other forms

Passive participle (transitive oženiti): oženjen ("married", of a man — n → nj jotation: ožen- → oženjen). This is the everyday adjective for a man's marital status: On je oženjen ("He's married"). For a woman the corresponding adjective is udana ("married", from udati): Ona je udana.
Verbal adverb (imperfective): ženeći se, udavajući se, vjenčavajući se — rare, found mainly in writing.

On je oženjen i ima dvoje djece, ali ona je još uvijek neudana.

He's married and has two children, but she's still unmarried. — 'oženjen' (man) vs 'neudana' (woman).

Key uses and government

This is the heart of the page. Each verb takes a different complement — get these right and you have mastered the topic. For the general logic of why verbs select specific cases, see verb government overview.

1. A man: oženiti se + instrumental, OR transitive oženiti + accusative

A man "marries" in one of two structures. Reflexively, oženiti se takes the bride in the instrumental — either bare (oženiti se njome) or with s/sa (oženiti se s njom). Both are correct; the bare instrumental is the more traditional/literary, the s version is common in speech. See instrumental forms.

Oženio se Anom, djevojkom iz susjednog sela.

He married Ana, a girl from the neighbouring village. — bare instrumental 'Anom'.

Na kraju se oženio s njom, baš kako su svi predviđali.

In the end he married her, just as everyone had predicted. — 's njom', instrumental with preposition.

Alternatively, the transitive oženiti takes the bride as a direct object in the accusative, with no se. Here the man is the subject and the woman is the grammatical object: Oženio je bogatu udovicu ("He married a wealthy widow"). Older usage even let oženiti mean "marry off [a son]", but in modern Croatian the transitive oženiti + accusative normally means "[a man] marries [a woman]".

Oženio je ženu dvadeset godina mlađu od sebe.

He married a woman twenty years younger than himself. — transitive 'oženiti' + accusative 'ženu', no 'se'.

2. A woman: udati se za + accusative

A woman uses udati se za + accusative — the preposition za ("for") plus the husband in the accusative. There is no instrumental option here; the za-construction is fixed.

Sestra se udala za liječnika iz Zagreba.

My sister married a doctor from Zagreb. — 'udati se za' + accusative 'liječnika'.

Zašto si se udala tako mlada?

Why did you get married so young? — woman, no complement needed, just the verb.

3. A couple: vjenčati se (s + instrumental)

When the couple is the subject ("they got married"), or when you want a gender-neutral verb, use vjenčati se. If you name the partner, it takes s/sa + instrumental, like a "get married with someone" frame: vjenčati se s nekim.

Vjenčat ćemo se na proljeće, vjerojatno u svibnju.

We'll get married in spring, probably in May. — couple as 'mi', neutral verb.

Vjenčala se s mladićem kojeg je upoznala na faksu.

She got married to the guy she met at university. — 'vjenčati se s' + instrumental.

Common Mistakes

❌ Sestra se oženila za doktora.

Two errors — a woman doesn't 'oženiti se'; she 'udati se za' + accusative.

✅ Sestra se udala za doktora.

My sister married a doctor.

❌ Oženio se za Anu.

Wrong frame — a man's 'oženiti se' takes the instrumental, not 'za' + accusative. ('Za' + accusative is the woman's pattern.)

✅ Oženio se Anom.

He married Ana.

❌ Udala se s njim.

Wrong preposition — 'udati se' takes 'za' + accusative, not 's' + instrumental. (Use 's' only with 'vjenčati se'.)

✅ Udala se za njega.

She married him.

❌ Oženiti ću se sljedeće godine.

Future spelling — the infinitive drops '-i' before the clitic: 'oženit ću se'.

✅ Oženit ću se sljedeće godine.

I'll get married next year.

❌ Ona je oženjen.

Adjective gender/verb mismatch — a married woman is 'udana', not 'oženjen' (which is for a man).

✅ Ona je udana.

She's married.

Key Takeaways

The verb encodes the subject's gender: a man (o)ženi se, a woman uda se, a couple vjenča se.
A man: oženiti se + instrumental (Anom / s njom), or transitive oženiti + accusative (no se).
A woman: udati se za + accusative (za njega) — never the instrumental, never oženiti se.
A couple / neutral: vjenčati se (+ s
- instrumental for the partner) — the safe default.
Marital-status adjectives: oženjen (man, n → nj) vs udana (woman). Future drops -i: oženit ću se, never oženiti ću se.

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