Free Croatian learning resources
33 free resources, checked and categorised.
Every link is usable without paying. Some ask for a free account or keep extras behind a paid tier, and those are labelled.
Everything below is usable without paying; where a resource asks for a free account or keeps extras behind a paid tier, the row says so. The list covers the main ways people study Croatian: structured courses to build a foundation, dictionaries to look things up, and listening and reading material to spend real time in the language. Start with one course and one dictionary, then add listening once you can follow simple sentences.
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Croatian travel phrase guide with chaptered audio MP3s and printable PDF booklets covering greetings, transport, hotel, shopping, dining, and going out
Open online Croatian A1 course with 80 units, each using listening, pronunciation, writing, comprehension, and basic grammar practice; enroll and work through lessons in order.
Short Croatian course with chapters on pronunciation, basic sentences, core grammar, verb lists, tests, and downloadable PDF or Kindle versions
Free Croatian beginner course with audio phrases, repetition, and listening, meaning, reorder, and fill-in tests on everyday expressions
Free online Croatian courses with interactive lessons, exercises, and quizzes for students and business users, using Croatian and English materials
Blog posts with free video lessons and grammar guides for Croatian learners, plus travel articles about places in Croatia
Free Foreign Service Institute Serbo-Croatian course materials with 2 ebooks and 68 audio lessons, which learners read online, listen to, and practice pronunciation with.
Open-access Croatian journal archive with scholarly articles, conference reports, reviews, and literary texts in authentic Čakavian dialects from 1971 onward
Searchable dictionary of Croatian idioms arranged by phrase component, where learners browse entries alphabetically and look up set expressions in contemporary usage
Croatian grammar and usage articles explaining standard forms, word choices, and inflections through short readable posts.
Croatian language blog with short articles explaining standard usage, word forms, and grammar questions through individual posts
Croatian learning portal with vocabulary lists, grammar, a Croatian-German dictionary, and interactive community features for tracking progress and exchanging help
Categorized directory of Croatian news and information portals; learners browse links to read current articles across topics like politics, business, culture, and sport
ORF’s Croatian-language news page for Austria’s Croatian minority, with current articles and an archive on sport, politics, local news, culture, weather, and events
Weekly news site in Burgenland Croatian with articles on politics, culture, education, religion, sport, and community life to read current coverage and opinion pieces
Searchable Croatian dictionary with grammatical forms for many entries; use it to look up words, readings, and related inflected forms
Croatian spelling reference with sections for rules, a dictionary, and terminology, which learners can use to check orthography and word forms
Searchable Croatian dialect dictionary of Istrian words, with over 19,000 entries and instructions for browsing, registering, and contributing new terms
Searchable dictionary of similar words, phrases, synonyms, and inflections in Croatian, Slovenian, and Serbian, with automatically generated context-based lists for each term
Croatian-language reading blog with literary summaries and analyses, plus short articles on writers and literature topics for students to study.
Community page about HNK Rijeka fan culture, with news posts and articles on club history, supporters, quizzes, and Rijeka-related local topics
HRT’s radio portal for Croatian news and programme schedules, where you can follow live regional stations and browse current broadcasts and stories
Croatian grammar and vocabulary reference listing common abbreviations, with usage notes and examples of how to write them.
Forum-style community dictionary of Dalmatian (Split) Croatian slang terms, with searchable alphabetized entries and discussion posts across multiple pages
Croatian geography dictionary and glossary entries for Dinaric regions, with definitions, encyclopedic articles, maps, and place-specific mountain and river lists
Croatian reading site with linked poems, stories, and a word list, plus photos and family notes from Ženaglava
Mixcloud archive of Croatian student radio shows and podcast episodes from the University of Dubrovnik, with individual recordings you can stream by title and date
Croatian public broadcaster page with live radio and TV links, plus news, schedules, and program listings you can browse or open.
Alphabetized Croatian literary texts and folk tales to read online, with browsing by author or source category and search within the publication text
Croatian news portal with current articles and sections on politics, world news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and business for reading headlines and opening stories
Croatian slang dictionary with alphabet browsing and user-submitted entries, where learners look up urban and professional jargon plus example usage
Learn it there, practise it here
Free resources are great for input: reading, listening, explanations. They are weaker at the two things that actually move you forward: speaking Croatian out loud, and remembering what you met once. That is what OwnSlides is for.
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Practise what you read
Turn a grammar point or article into exercises, so it moves from recognised to usable.
Keep the words
Save new words to My Words and let spaced repetition bring them back before you forget them.
This directory began from a community-built list of free language resources, a year of collecting and checking by Joanna (u/chlebka) and dozens of contributors who suggested links, shared freely. See the original list. We have since expanded, re-checked and re-categorised it, and we keep the per-resource credits where the original list recorded them.