Present Tense: -a- Verbs

If you learn only one Croatian conjugation first, make it this one. The -a- class is the largest present-tense pattern in the language, the most regular, and — crucially — the one that almost every new and borrowed verb joins. Its endings never change their consonant, never alter the stem, and follow from the infinitive cleanly for the verbs in it. This page gives you the full paradigm, the high-frequency members worth memorising, and the reason the a-class is your safest guess for any verb you have never seen.

The pattern

Take the model verb čitati ("to read"). Drop the infinitive ending -ti to get the stem čita-, and add the personal endings. The theme vowel -a- stays visible in every single cell:

Six endings: -am, -aš, -a, -amo, -ate, -aju. That is the whole class. Notice how the a-class is the most transparent of the three present classes: the stem čita- is identical to the infinitive stem (unlike the e-class, where pisati becomes pišem), and the theme vowel is a throughout, including the 3rd-person plural čitaju — there is no surprise vowel switch.

Croatian, like Spanish or Italian, drops the subject pronoun whenever it is clear from the ending — this is pro-drop. Čitam already says "I read"; adding ja ("I") is only for emphasis or contrast. So the everyday sentence is Čitam knjigu ("I'm reading a book"), not Ja čitam knjigu, unless you mean I'm the one reading, as opposed to someone else. Full treatment on the present tense and pro-drop.

High-frequency a-class verbs

A large share of the verbs a beginner needs are a-class. Learning this one pattern unlocks all of these at once:

Two of these deserve a flag because their short shape makes learners doubt them. Imati ("to have") and znati ("to know") are perfectly regular a-class verbs — imam, imaš, ima… and znam, znaš, zna… — even though they look almost too small to conjugate. They are not irregular at all.

One trap to retire now: not every verb that means a casual action is a-class. Kupovati ("to buy") looks like it might be, but its present is kupujem — an e-class verb with the -uje- stem. Membership is decided by the present, not the meaning, which is exactly why you learn each verb as infinitive + 1sg (the principle on present stem and classes).

Why the a-class is your safe default

Here is the practical payoff. The a-class is the only productive present class — the one that absorbs new vocabulary. When Croatian borrows or coins a verb, it almost always lands in the a-class. The textbook example is the recent loan guglati ("to google"):

Other modern coinages behave the same way: lajkati → lajkam ("to like" online), surfati → surfam ("to surf the web"). So when you meet a verb you have never conjugated and cannot look up, the a-class pattern (-am, -aš, -a, -amo, -ate, -aju) is your best statistical bet. Contrast this with the e-class, which is full of stem changes and is essentially closed to new members, and the i-class, which is large but tied mostly to existing -iti verbs.

Negation

Negating an a-class verb follows the general rule: ne in front of the conjugated form (more on negating verbs).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The a-class is the largest, most regular present conjugation; endings -am, -aš, -a, -amo, -ate, -aju.
• The present stem equals the infinitive stem — no consonant or vowel changes (čitati → čitam).
• High-frequency members include imati → imam, znati → znam, gledati, slušati, pitati, čekati, igrati, pjevati — and the short imam/znam are fully regular, not exceptions.
• The a-class is the productive default: new and borrowed verbs join it (guglati → guglam), so it is your best guess for any unfamiliar verb. Watch out for look-alikes that are really e-class (kupovati → kupujem).