Step up your cooking game by learning specific culinary verbs. This lesson covers chopping, peeling, grating, and standard cooking methods so you can describe your recipes accurately.
Prepping the Ingredients
Let's start with preparing your vegetables using verbs like oguliti (to peel), nasjeckati (to chop), and naribati (to grate).
When someone tells or asks you to do something, Croatian often uses the word da (that) followed by the present tense of the verb, instead of an infinitive.
| He told me to peel the carrot. | Rekao mi je da ogulim mrkvu. |
However, when you use modal verbs like morati (must / have to) or moći (can), the main action stays in the infinitive form (ending in -ti).
Also, recall that after the numbers two, three, and four (dva, tri, četiri), nouns take the genitive singular ending. For example, luk (onion) becomes luka.
| We have to chop two onions. | Moramo nasjeckati dva luka. |
| Can you grate an apple for the cake? | Možeš li naribati jabuku za kolač? |
Stovetop Basics
Before you cook, you need to know where the action happens: the pan (tava) and the stove (štednjak).
When talking about a static location, you use the prepositions u (in) or na (on) with the locative case. For feminine nouns like tava, the locative ending is -i (u tavi). Masculine nouns like štednjak usually take the ending -u (na štednjaku).
| The meat is in the pan on the stove. | Meso je u tavi na štednjaku. |
Cooking Techniques
Now it is time to apply the heat. Two common stovetop methods are frying (pržiti) and sautéing (pirjati).
| We started to fry the meat. | Počeli smo pržiti meso. |
| First you must sauté the onion and carrot. | Prvo moraš pirjati luk i mrkvu. |
Kitchen Tools and the Instrumental Case
While cooking, you will often need to stir your food with a wooden spoon (kuhača) or cover it with a lid (poklopac).
When expressing that you are doing an action with a tool, Croatian uses the instrumental case without any extra prepositions. Feminine nouns like kuhača take the ending -om (kuhačom). Masculine nouns like poklopac usually take -em (poklopcem) after certain consonant sounds.
| He stopped stirring the soup with a wooden spoon. | Prestao je miješati juhu kuhačom. |
| Close the pan with a lid. | Zatvori tavu poklopcem. |
Finishing Up
Once your pasta or rice is cooked, the final step is usually to drain (ocijediti) it.
| Now you must drain the rice. | Sada moraš ocijediti rižu. |
