Common prepositions in Croatian
Croatian ⋙
Croatian A1
Welcome to our Croatian course for beginners! In this lesson, we will explore another important aspect of grammar. The lesson's topic is Croatian prepositions.
This is an interesting and extensive topic that is unlikely to be fully covered in one lesson. However, our goal is to introduce the reader to the most widely used prepositions in Croatian. All the nuances can be found in our grammar lessons. In general, as in other Slavic languages, in Croatian, prepositions come after the words they relate to. It's crucial to know them well. Let's now provide more details about the most popular prepositions, sorted by cases, and show examples of their usage.
Prepositions used with the genitive case:
bez (without)
Kava bez šećera (Coffee without sugar)
blizu (near, close to)
Kuća blizu mora (House close to the sea)
do (until, to)
Tri dana do nedjelje (Three days until Sunday)
duž (along)
Put duž obale (Road along the coast)
ispod (under)
Pogledao sam ispod kreveta (I looked under the bed)
ispred (in front of)
Ispred kuće je vrt (In front of the house, there is a garden)
iz (from)
Dolazimo iz Zagreba (We are coming from Zagreb)
između (between)
Između kuća 49 i 45 (Between houses 49 and 45)
iznad (above)
Zrakoplov leti iznad nas (The airplane is flying above us)
izvan (outside, beyond)
Živimo izvan grada (We live outside the city)
kod (at, by, near concerning place)
Doći ću kod vas (I will come to your place)
kraj (next to, beside)
Stajao je kraj prozora (He stood beside the window)
mimo (past, by)
Opet sam prošao mimo pekarnice (I passed by the bakery again)
nakon (after)
Nakon škole idemo u kafić (After school, we go to the café)
namjesto (instead of)
On će to učiniti namjesto mene (He will do it instead of me)
nasred (in the middle of)
Dete je sedelo nasred sobe (The child sat in the middle of the room)
od (from, of, since)
Otišli smo od kuće u 7 sati ujutro (We left home at 7 in the morning)
oko (around, about)
Došli su oko 18 sati (They arrived around 6 PM)
osim (except)
Tamo nema nikoga osim nas (There's no one there except us)
pomoću (by means of, with the help of)
Prijava pomoću pričuvnog telefona (Login with the backup phone)
posred (in the middle, amid)
Posred spavaće sobe (In the middle of the bedroom)
prije (before)
Prije nove ere (Before the Common Era)
protiv (against)
Mi smo protiv rata (We are against war)
radi (for, because of)
Subota je stvorena radi čovjeka (Saturday was created for man)
uoči (on the eve of)
Uoči rođendana (On the eve of the birthday)
zbog (because of, due to)
Zbog kiše smo ostali kod kuće (We stayed home because of the rain)
Prepositions used with the dative case:
k, ka (to, towards)
Na putu ka kući (On the way home)
nasuprot (opposite, across from)
Vrt nasuprot rijeke (Garden across from the river)
unatoč / usprkos (despite, in spite of)
Unatoč kiši, nije uzeo kišobran (Despite the rain, he didn't take an umbrella)
prema (towards)
Vozi se prema Zagrebu (He is driving towards Zagreb)
Prepositions used with the accusative case:
kroz (through)
Ušao je kroz vrata (He entered through the door)
na (on, to, about)
Na posao idem autom (I'm going to work by car)
po (along, for)
Idem u pekaru po kruh (I'm going to the bakery for bread)
pod (under)
Stavi to pod stol (Put that under the table)
pred (in front of)
On je stao pred vrata (He stood in front of the door)
u (in, to, at)
Budim se u 7 ujutro (I wake up at 7 in the morning)
uz (beside, near, with)
Njegova kuća je uz rijeku (His house is by the river)
za (for)
Kupio je cvijeće za svoju ženu (He bought flowers for his wife)
Prepositions used with the instrumental case:
među (between, among)
Prazan prostor među nama (Empty space between us)
nad (above)
Pobjeda nad neprijateljem (Victory over the enemy)
pod (under)
Pod prozorom spavaće sobe (Under the bedroom window)
pred (in front of)
Pred potpisom ugovora (Before signing the contract)
s (with)
Odlazak na odmor s prijateljima (Going on vacation with friends)
za (for)
Idi za kruhom (Go for bread)
Prepositions used with the locative case:
na (on, in, at)
Živi na planini (He lives in the mountains)
o (about)
Sanja o odmoru (She dreams about a vacation)
po (after)
Po povratku kući (After returning home)
Of course, not all prepositions are covered in this lesson. As you continue to study Croatian, you'll add more prepositions and phrases where these prepositions are used to your vocabulary. For the initial stage of learning, the small list provided above should be sufficient. Good luck in learning Croatian, and see you in the next lessons.