25 Most Common Mistakes Croats Make Speaking English

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Croatians have an amazing command of English, and I am really impressed at the quality of English spoken all over the country. Over the years here, I have noticed some of the most common mistakes speaking English. here are my top 25, with explanations. how many do you not make? Answers in the comments.
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Video produced by Igor Vuk of Vuk Media and Miranda Milicic Bradbury
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[Vesna Visic Ostojic]

I will never forget my English teacher, she was from US and her lessons were always descriptive when it came to common mistakes. Like - juice is concentrated, you are focused 😊

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Very good!

[Mirela Kos]

My nephew, a six year old Australian born, when visiting Croatia with his parents, would yell after my boys: Čekaj za ja, čekaj za ja, which was his translation of "wait for me"!!!!

[Ruby Jet]

"Čekaj na mene." Ja bih tako prevela :"Waith for me. "

[Damir Fux]

@Mirela Kos of course grammar is not a priority, with a six year old child, that's why I didn't say anything about grammar.

[Mirela Kos]

@Damir Fux With a six year old child, here for a months holiday, grammar was not a priority!

[Damir Fux]

"Čekaj za ja" would be "wait for I".

[Damir Glavas]

🤣😂👍👏

[Trinity 3D]

This was so funny and informative and I learned more stuff in this video than in school. The way how you explained all those mistakes is really fun and memorable so now I will always have a picture of the parrot when thinking about when you use on and in haha Please make more videos like this, I wish I had this entertaining teacher while I was learning English in school because now my grammar would be probably much better :)

[Trinity 3D]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert haha after the parrot part, you got me so I am looking forward to your new videos. Have a great day :)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

The parrot is great. Thanks for your kind words. Subscribe to the channel. Plenty more where this came from. Cheers.

[Peter Beslic]

As an English teacher in Split, I have noticed the exact same things - use of Past Tenses, articles and phrasal verbs, collocations... we work tirelessly to avoid these... Thanks for posting - I am going to use this in the classroom every single year!👏👏

[Peter Beslic]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert already done, kind sir!👍🏻

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

haha thanks, nice to hear. We have several more language ones coming next year, so subscribe to the channel if you want to catch them. Cheers!

[John Glasspool]

I've been learning Croatian for about 7 years now. They get their own back on us with their grammar!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

@Darko Bunic you are welcome. Lots more coming if you want to subscribe

[Darko Bunic]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert Thank you for a such nice article and this video. I read article from top to the bottom and it's a quite informative, interesting and funny. Thank you very much.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You might find this useful, from a viewer of this video - fantastic info www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/66160-croatian-language-horrors

[Duffchy]

I'm a Croatian man living in Wales, UK since 2005 and still making some of these mistakes.🙂 Thanks for the great content.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You are very welcome - glad it helped

[SolidBlock]

Thank you for this video, today I'm 43 years old and I'm making the same mistakes.I was not a good student, and I heard English on TV. today i spoke english, swedish, italian. learned everything on the street with people.I appreciate your effort and honesty. Croatia is my homeland. God bless you Mr.

[Gordana Hartmann]

How funny, it is probably not his birthday, he uses today I am 43 instead of now I am 43. Hilariously funny.

[Mirjana Kljajic]

today I speak (not spoke if today)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

thank you and happy birthday!

[trstenik100]

My favorite literal translation is: kako da ne - how yes no

[Stefano Tironi]

is not in

[Stefano Tironi]

well, in that case "da" in "that" and not "yes" so it would be "how that no". anyway, na licu mjesta is one of my favourite

[missthunderstormable]

hahaha, dobra!

[Bojan Stanković]

This is great, good job! I watched a lot of similar videos because I reached a certain level of english where I can speak fluently and understand 99% of the things BUT I'm completely aware I'm simply making (too) many small mistakes. So besides watching videos like this one I also started to read in English (I'm basically just buying books that I enjoyed reading or wanted to read jn Croatian and now reading in English). Is there anything else you'd recommend (apart from watching movies or taking classes)?

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Thanks! Not sure where you are, but chatting to native speakers is always good. There are various expat groups all over Cro on FB, which have a mix of locals and foreigners and they organise meetups and events

[Aleksandar Gospić]

Language related videos are always so interesting and these are good observations and advice's 👍 Yeah, lot of people translate to English directly how something is said in Croatian and in many cases that doesn't make any sense in English. But because of that sometimes we translate Croatian directly to English just for fun :) One thing that I prefer in English is writing every word in the title with first capital letter (except articles), in Croatian it really annoys me that only first word has capital first letter, that just doesn't look nice to me, so sometimes I break that rule and write the title it the English way :) But even though my English is quite good I still haven't mastered fully when to use 'a' and when 'the'

[Ljiljana Nakic-Petrina]

Aleksandar I think it's quite easy - 'a' (or 'an') is used when we don't mean exactly a known thing ... and 'the' is always used when we know something we're talking about ... I want to thank Mr. Paul for such an amazing video and all his other videos are amazing ... really amazing

[Aleksandar Gospić]

@Zoran Orlic looks like it unfortunately :)

[Aleksandar Gospić]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert yes, portals have different approaches when it comes to titles, but when it comes to names of the songs, book titles etc. it is almost always with all caps, I was thinking about that.

[Zoran Orlic]

You never WILL do my friend. It is a near impossible task for a Slav. It still, still drives me round a bend. And, yet, I would almost consider myself a native English speaker.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Interesting. Different portals in English have different approaches, I personally prefer things with capitals.

[Zoran Orlic]

These were some really good examples, Paul. My favourite is: 'a shit of paper", which is how most Croats would pronounce 'sheet'. Generally speaking, most Croats have great difficulty mastering their 'own' language for a variety of historical and political reasons. But, that is a different topic, altogether.

[blizzardvekic]

@aquss33 da, stvar je u narječju. da si odrastao na jugu hrvatske, č,ć,đ,dž bi ti bili mačji kašalj jer se kod nas čuje razlika svakog od tih slova. Apsolutno nitko u mom kraju nema problema s tim. Kod vas je to više-manje neki međuzvuk koji nije ni č ni ć, ali naginje više na ć. Isto tako s đ i dž.

[aquss33]

I probably know English grammar better than Croatian grammar, even though I'm a native speaker, the Croatian grammar is just hard, č and ć, đ and dž, ije i je, just can't hear the difference, all just sounds the same, perks of living in northern Croatia I guess...

[Damir Fux]

@Kit Stamat ovo nisam znao, hvala.

[Kit Stamat]

@Damir Fux Ne, razlika je u naglasku. Shit se izgovara kratko, kao hrv. kit, a sheet dugosilazno, kao hrv. štit.

[Damir Fux]

Waaaaait now, shit and sheet are pronounced the same, aren't they??

[Steve Gaunt]

I am surprised Paul, that you didn't mention my pet peeve; the insistence of English speaking Croats on pronouncing English vowels, specifically A and U in a weird way, so Rugby becomes Ragby (and is spelled that way!) and Cat becomes Ket. I am told they are taught that way in school and it's how they interpret the American version of English (though there are a huge amount of variables in USA alone.) So you get Croatians speaking perfect English but with a pseudo US style and a Croatian accent. When I had a school English teacher call me "e Fanny Men" I knew I had found a crusade. So, to make it absolutely clear, ´"A" in English is pronounced the same as in Croatian. "U" however is almost the same , but if Croatians pronounce it as they would in Croatian, it sounds like a strong Yorkshire accent, so it needs to be a little softer, like the double o in cool. I think I deserve "e pet on the head" for that!

[ferabie]

My fluent Croatian wife mangles the vowels. We had an American friend named Brett and she called him Brat She also can't get the double consonants right. Te nis instead of ten nis.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes agreed. Several other things I could have added. Will be doing a lot more vids in the New Year, and the language ones seem popular. Have a few ideas.

[Vajs]

The adjective/adverb distinction really is a big one. One good meme I found on the topic was when one character said: "I'm doing good." to which the other replies: "No. Superman is doing good, you're doing well." 😆

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha. Yes it is, and quite easy to fix once you understand the distinction. I come across it a lot, but with people from all over the world, not just Croatia.

[Damir Fux]

You know when I learnt the difference between adjectives and adverbs - by learning Esperanto. The difference is so clear to me, that I'm surprised that many native English speakers confuse things like good and well.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

It is scary how many native speakers can't get this basic thing right in English.

[S B]

Great video! Thank you Paul! I have heard 'angry at' used quite a lot though - perhaps a regional (or situational) thing in the Antipodes 😊

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Thanks, and I am sure there are some regional differences down under. People here say 'angry on you' a lot as well. Thanks for watching.

[Kristijan Žic]

This video is so incredible! xDD Personally I haven't seen anyone making any of those (probably b/c I'm a Croat myself) but if I spoke English with my countrymen more often those would be the exact mistakes that I'd expect. It's so funny XDDD You've really picked the good ones like blue/blond and sit on a coffee hahah XDD

[Kristijan Žic]

@Stefano Tironi In my opinion, the younger generations often speak close to perfect English. With people being more detached with their local friends, spending more time at home and online especially since Covid-19. For example I'm 26, living in Croatia, working as a software developer, having a (long distance atm) gf from North East India. I hardly ever get a chance to use Croatian today. I find myself thinking in English and it gives me problems when I have to speak Croatian eloquently because I formulate the thought in English in my head but now it has to come out in Croatian. It's a real struggle sometimes.

[Stefano Tironi]

I'm an Italian who speaks Croatian and in my experience I've never heard any of these errors except the use of the articles. Since Croatian doesn't have articles, this is a skill that not many Croats can master properly (the have the same issue when learning Italian, though)

[Vienna1902]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert it would be fun to hear about your challenges while you have been learning Croatian. Thank you for this video, excellent as always!

[Kristijan Žic]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I subscribed instantly :D

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha, glad it helped. Many more to come like this if you want to subscribe to the channel.

[Tompa Noname]

Thank you. Even as a certified translator I can vouch that some things said in here are soooo true.

[Tompa Noname]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I have to agree with you. Maybe Dutch could be compared with us, but Dutch do it, well, the Dutch way... Greetings from Zagreb!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha, but I have to say that the level of English in Croatia is amazing

[DataLog]

These are great observations. Many of these are due to incompatable grammar. Most Croats would fail a Croatian grammar test, because they don't really understand why they are talking the way they're talking. It's just natural. But we also never learn English grammar, so a lot of "translation in the head" is just trying to replace Croatian words with English words. So it's like sentences are written in English but grammar is still Croatian if it makes sense XD First one: How do you say that on English is a literal translation of Kako ti to kažeš NA(on) Engleskom. But with English rules it should be: Kako ti to kažeš U(in) Engleskom. That is very weird for us. It's actually the same as your parrot problem. This would imply that we somehow entered into (like walked into a room) of English language.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes, it is a common language error - English speakers do the same with foreign languages - although we are terrible at languages in general

[Nick Epic]

Yes this is true. We need more informative videos like this one to improve ourselves. Thank you.

[Nick Epic]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert Glad to hear that 💪🏾

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

More to come!

[Filip Socan]

First time someone explained the difference between "than"and "then" to me, that was actually very helpful,so thanks for that! Heh

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Great to hear. Sometimes a simple explanation helps.

[Alex S]

I must admit, you made me laugh as I am native croatian speaker living in Australia for the biggest chunk of my life, I recognize in Croatian community over here ( I mean in Australia ) mistakes like those even people spending decades still unable to master those mistakes. Awesome clip. Goodonya (I had to do that)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha tx. Lots more coming if you want to subscribe

[Marc Shalamov]

Hi Paul, I agree with what you said. My English speaking level is such that I don't make any of the mistakes you mentioned. I'm careful when I speak and if I'm not sure how to say something correctly, I stop and think and only then decide how to express myself. To me, the most disgusting mistake is when Croats want something, so instead of asking, for example "Could I have a beer, please?" they say - "Is possible have a beer?" Anyway, generally we are not bad in English. I also speak Italian, Spanish and Russian which are my favorite languages. Cordiali saluti da Spalato

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Sounds like you are a true polyglot - congrats! A viewer kindly sent me this, the article in reverse, common mistakes foreigners make speaking Croatia. I learned a lot - www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/66160-croatian-language-horrors

[Nina 妮娜]

One that my dad makes all the time is saying "explain me" instead of "explain to me", it's driving me crazy 😂

[M P]

@Vienna1902 😂😂

[Vienna1902]

Oh yes, and "translate me over the street" :-))

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Very true - and he said me. It is not easy.

[powresitta]

u'r giving 2much credit to Croatian schools, main reason why every1 in Croatia speaks English well is subtitled tv programme. it's to this day my main language learning tool, I can speak English, Spanish, German, now I'm learning Japanese same way. Listening is most important thing is language learning, I believe

[Filip Mihaljević]

Its not television. Its more PC games and internet than television.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Fo sure KZbin etc is the driving force, but that is true elsewhere as well, and the standard of English in Croatia is far above the average.

[Vedran Radić]

few vs a few was really cool to learn :) I've always felt there was a difference, just didn't bother to dive deeper into it I guess. Thx!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Good to hear. It is actually one of the biggest mistakes I come across, and easy to fix. Glad it helped.

[Ivanka Juric]

A translation I saw in a restaurant in Dubrovnik that sent (and still sends!) me into hysterical laughter was a menu item translation of "jaje na oko" (sunny side up) as "egg on eye" !

[sretna zvijezda]

Hope they have hotdogs 😂😂

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Now check these out www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/21467-lost-in-translation-the-croatia-edition

[Mario]

I made exactly the same errors (as a Croatian). Thank you for the correction, I'll try to keep this in mind. At least I know why my auto correction always mark my words in documents :)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

I am glad it was helpful

[Suncana Anic]

Paul, thank you so much for useful advices. But, how is your Croatian going on? Can you put some video clip with your real croatian speaking? 😊

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Useful advice, not advices... (see the video). Me speaking Croatian? Be careful what you wish for facebook.com/TotalSplit/videos/1214333185366614

[Mustafa Fazlinovic]

As long as we understand and respect each other grammar is not that important 🇭🇷🤝🇬🇧

[Visnja Livancic]

BRAVOOO

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Very true

[M K]

Yep, the double plurals are funny... my dear Mum, God rest her soul, used to complain that her 'tits' hurt, (teeth). We used to laugh so much at this. However, on the flip side, Croatian has very difficult grammar too. The change in nouns dependent upon which case, eg: dva oka, (two eyes) vs ispod očiju (under the eyes). To me it always sounded right to say dvije oči 😄Also, you don't say a human being died the same way you say an animal died - umro vs krepao😕

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Thanks for these

[ferabie]

Very interesting. Native English speaker from South Africa living ten years in Zagreb. My wife has a degree in English literature so speaks fluent English. She still however uses funny expressions. I will put the laundry out to dry. Instead of I will hang out or just hang the washing.

[Kristijan Žic]

Oh, I remembered one! My gf always corrects me and says that I'm not "drinking a pill" but "eating a pill" and that it is "drinking a soup" and not "eating a soup". So which is it then? That drives me nuts because every time she says that she drank a soup I get a mental image of her chugging a pint of soup lmao. And every time she says she ate a pill I get a mental image of her chewing on a pill instead of getting it down with a gulp of water.

[Zanna Wu]

Taking a pill is what we usually say, even though we usually drink water to take the pill. Eating soup is correct, even though it's runny it's not a drink 😊

[Josip Horvat]

Hvala vam što ste dodali ovaj video. Našao sam se kriv u nekim izrazima. 😅

[Josip Horvat]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert thank you, I already subscribed.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Glad to hear it. We will have more like this on the channel if you want to subscribe.

[Esthetique Sophistique]

A is used with consonant sound (a toy, a sheep, a tie) AN is used with vowel sound (an apple, an idea, an orange, an umbrella) it's that simple! 💪

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

a v an is the easier part - but would you say 'it was an unique event' or 'it was a unique event', for example? And what about the letter h - a historic or an historic

[The Grim Reaper]

I am croatian and I only did 3 of these mistakes. I actually make more mistakes in croatian lol. I kinda grew up with both english and coratian. I speak and understand english like its my own language.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

22 out of 25 is a good score, well done

[ⰈⰀⰄⰑⰏⰔⰒⰓⰅⰏⰐⰉ]

I studied German and Italian at school. Learned English through movies 😛 In the end I didn't use German and Italian for 20 years, so in the end I only know English 😑

[Valentina]

Yes, it's important we learn something in an interesting way.

[Biserka Sertić]

Same here.Movies and music.

[luka luka]

I read English perfectly but I struggle a bit speaking it because I don't really have a chance to speak it a lot

[Hrvoje Vasilj]

Thanks for these tips as a future professor of English language a piece of advice from a native speaker is allways wellcome.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You are very welcome. You guys speak excellent English, but with just a few tips, if can be even better

[Dolfo13]

Thank you! A very useful video! Greetings from Croatia!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Glad it was helpful!

[Sapienti Sat]

lol i`ve waited for than and then....I am 41y old and I still remember my first english textbook when i was in 4th grade. but perhaps our best teacher of english language is tv set. we use subtitled not dubbed movies or series. don`t you agree? it does help a lot

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes subtitles are a great asset

[Erikk Carte Blanche]

thank you Mr. Bradbury.You have explained some things that were a bit off for years to me and my rusty english.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You are very welcome

[Masa Gregurek]

That is true, a lot of Croats make these mistakes because they literally translate Croatian to English, so they speak English the Croatian way instead of speaking English the English way :D

[Biserka Sertić]

LeptirMariposa "Translate me across the street!"😜

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes, we English are not much better, but hope the video helped.

[Kristijan Žic]

Blue hair hahaha :''), I never actually heard anyone say that when speaking English but I always wondered why we call the blond hair a blue hair and how that would sound to an English native speaker if we said that. Makes no sense when you think about it XD

[Nana D]

My children grew up England and they could never understand how we say blue hair - plava kosa when it is not blue. That is probably the weirdest thing in Croatian for them.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

There is a lot more in English that makes no sense. The joys of language.

[wowathena]

People got this habit of forming up sentence in their mind on croatian first, and then they try to translate "that" sentence directly into English instead just speaking English naturally right away. And it comes out so weird at times its actually funny. Like for example, instead of saying "me too" or " i would like the same", they fire out "me same" xD

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha

[m m]

We all fall to same trap,speaking as we used to in our native language.

[Ananda & Davor Vdovic]

I often hear for "sitting in the sun(light)" : " I am sitting ON the sun!" A direct translation from Croatian! Of course then I imagine them sitting on top of the sun - hot!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Even hotter than sitting on a coffee

[Retete si Calatorii]

These are common mistakes for Romanians, too. Truth be told, I am amazed of how many grammatical mistakes I notice in the language of native speakers, things that our students don't make. For example, "should OF said" instead of "should HAVE" said. Bottom line, Croatia is one of the countries I visited where I had no problem whatsoever in getting to understand people. Everywhere I turned around, people would speak English and that is absolutely great.

[Retete si Calatorii]

@ivrtaric indeed, they naturally know this. And they also know very well the difference between "there", "their" and "they're", which a lot of natives don't know nowadays.

[ivrtaric]

The Romanians at least have a natural understanding of when to use "the" vs "a/an" (Romanian has the suffix -ul which pretty much means "the")

[Retete si Calatorii]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert that would be interesting. I'd also redirect it to my students.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Totally agree with you. Perhaps I should do a vid 25 most common mistakes native speakers make speaking English

[Ante L]

I stayn with my mistakes and using my short English, learned from country pop rock songs couse I often been around school, even catched two years of study but war for Croatia independent begun and I broke with study. Now bordering with my English but people can understand what I trying to say sometime, and that is inaf for me.

[DictatorYug]

This is better than a comedy show!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha

[Dado Pršo]

100 mistakes australians make while speaking croatian number 1: pronounciation of every word

[ivrtaric]

Roit, mayte.

[Martin Mayhew]

"Plava" as in "blond hair" would be "pale" in English - etymology comes via Latin and German :)

[Martin Mayhew]

Wasn't meant to be a correction, just a linguistic observation 😉

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

An Englishman correcting an Englishman in Croatia - whatever next? Interesting, thanks for etymology.

[Danijel Bacelic]

powerful observations :D all of them pretty correct and few of them I still can't get rid off. especially whit :D

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha, I even find myself spelling it this was on occasion

[Mario Zaccaria]

you're right. It is our litterally translation of Croatian expressions

[Mario Zaccaria]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert It happens to me also with Italian as I am part of the national minority in Croatia. A lot of black wine :D

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

I do the same from English to Croatian - it is not easy!

[Sinisa Banic]

Thank you for this video, I have learned something new.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Glad it was helpful!

[ValleysOfSaturn]

Good video, sir! I am guilty for a few of them. ;) (this is probably incorrect, too ha ha)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

haha - well is it is almost none then few of them, if it is more than that, then a few.

[Mama Veganka]

Thank you for this feedback. It is mostly helpful.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Glad it was helpful!

[marin mikulic]

The last phrase "a little way" caught me off guard, I've heard of a wee bit, but this is just another level of BrE

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to my English, it is full of strange things. I am the only person I know, for example, who say sprint, sprant, have sprunted

[Viktor Matić]

Get on the bus, but once you get on, you're in, correct? "Get on the plane! ... I say f*** you I'm getting in the plane! There seems to be less wind in here" - George Carlin

[Biserka Sertić]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert How about bicycle?

[Viktor Matić]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert It's amusing.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes it is quite tricky. You get on a bus, plane, ferry and train, but you get in a car. Once you are in, you are still on, I think - Where are you? I am on the bus to Split, but I guess you could also say I am in a bus to Split, but that sounds strange. Best advice to avoid confusion is to walk.

[Nenad Bach]

Perfect!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

thanks

[nakkie wildvangst]

If I may add: pronouncing a K sound, instead of a G sound, at the end of the - ING syllable,... e. g. 'workinK' It's pure a phonetics issue, probably an issue other Slavic language speakers encounter

[none4tube]

Until we stumble on Alanis Morissette's lyrics from Canada: "It always looked GOOD on paper, sounded GOOD in theory!" Feels good. Seems good to me ;) Yes, he can't play "good" but you see what I'm talking about, don't you?

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha

[DahlingDoeJane 55]

I am a Croatian woman, but don't have a habit of making those kind of mistakes. I am not saying that my English is perfect or that I'm better than everyone else, but these mistakes are common among Croats.I hope you understand that many Croats learn English on the principle: let me learn as much as I need to communicate with others on a basic level. The rest is not interesting to them. I am not talking about all Croats here, but there are quite a few of them. For example, I learned English through series and movies. I never used a book to learn grammar. I learned to speak the language and grammar correctly by ear. I am happy that you love our country.

[DahlingDoeJane 55]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert It is quite high, yes.Thank you. I had to come back to this video to see if you responded. Unfortunately I didn't get notified about your response. I am happy you love Croatia and that you enjoy living here.

[Zanna Wu]

Yes, as long as you understand what others say and others can understand what you are saying that is fine 😊

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Good for you - I am amazed at the high standard of English here - really impressive.

[Tomislav Solak]

great video, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of people, who studied English, didn't study grammar properly either, because they didn't feel like it,...

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

and they still speak really well

[Lidge1994]

As a Croat, I learned English at 6 years old thanks to Cartoon Network and I'd say I'm at a pretty good level of fluency, even if I don't speak the language too often. I usually type it. edit: Additionally, these mistakes are usually because two of your words are the same word in Croatian. To learn - Učiti To teach - Učiti or Predavati, but that's more to educate or to teach a class. I Learned - Naučio sam I taught you - Naučio sam te See, it's just a matter of learning the words, basically a vocabularic issue..if that's even a word.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

KZbin and those who went before it have really helped people with improved English

[Vladimir Ivica]

when i was in the croatian army we had to write some universal test on english and the resoults give u representation on how good u know english i had 90 % i was proud and i can wreally comunicate grate on english but when i listen to this man afther this video i feel stupid .

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha you are doing great

[Ivanka Juric]

Mr Bradbury, could you please delve a little deeper into those "pesky" definite and indefinite articles? You are a great teacher!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Thank you, but the articles would take months. Explaining the general rule is simple, but then the exceptions - i am still learning how, but I will try and do one when I have time (not this year)

[Sanja Peručić - Ivezić]

What was said about wine is actually not correct, in Croatia "red wine" is actually "rose" and how Italians call dark wine "vino tinto" which means truly "dark" and it would be completely wrong to expect to get dark wine if you used the word "red" because you will get "rosé" (true red wine) It is correct to order dark wine and not black wine and there will be no confusion 🙂

[Roman Papec]

@Sanja Peručić - Ivezić Pošto je to konobar s Korčule on mora zasigurno odlično se razumjet u vina, pa joj s namjerom donio rosé jer je to crveno vino. Ili bi moglo bit da je rekao "a evo ti rosé kad ti je već svejedno".

[Josipa G]

@Biserka Sertić But you can't say that in english like that, it doesn't mean that. In Croatia we have white, red (crno), and rosé (also rosé, maybe few of them call that one crveno or rozo). You can't translate that in english, it makes no sense. Black vine doesn't exist in english.

[Biserka Sertić]

@Josipa G I know there is no black wine in english.I said""In Croatia we have black, white and red wine"=we call it that way in Croatia.

[Josipa G]

Italians call vino rosso, that literally comes from latin, and Spaniards call red vine vino tinto. Rosé is rosé. Pretty much, everywhere. Maybe two Croats call rosé crveno, but red vine is crno, not crveno.

[Kresimir]

Very common mistake is also "peoples", I have heard that not only from Croatian people :)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes agreed

[Domagoj Lojan]

That's excellent content

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Thank you so much! A lot more to come if you want to subscribe

[konj]

Actualy, you confuse me with wine. I mean, where is the black one? :D We have 3 types of wine, crno-black, crveno-red, bijelo-white. :)

[Josip coc]

Thank you, pozdrav from Croatia :)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You are very welcome

[Krešo]

Tnx mate for the adviceS 🤣🤣🤣....great video 👍

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha thanks - lots more coming if you want to subscribe

[Domagoj Jakopović Ribafish]

Više te nikad neću vozit na festival vina :) Učim, hvala puno

[Biserka Sertić]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert 😜😜😜😜👍!Love your sence of humor.(I nearly wrote "...FOR humor")🥴

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Relax Riba, there is a special dialect of English called Ribafinglish which is protected by UNESCO.

[Allin One]

A brate bas si mi simpatican :D pozdrav iz svice

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha, thank you

[MrUneTeube]

"Th" pronunciation is also often incorrect. There are many people there who want to "tank" you.

[Ozbiljno upozorenje]

Very common is ”to cook a coffee - skuhati kavu” instead of ”to make a coffee"

[ivrtaric]

I still can't wrap my mind around Bosnians' "to bake a coffee" - "ispeći kavu" :D

[Dannyboy-vtc]

Usually if you make it yourself, is "to brew a coffee".

[Sanja Peručić - Ivezić]

Skuhati kavu 😄 Isto kao popiti tabletu ili 💊 You can take tablets or pills with water but also without so you will take them but not drink them

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes true, forgot that one.

[Mari Callo]

You missed to reflect, at least a little bit, on the issue of pronunciation of the "th" sound, be it voiced or unvoiced, which always ends up being pronounced as hard "d" or "t", also "W" being pronounced the same as "V" or vice versa.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes true. There are a lot of things to add - I will try and do another video of 25 more

[Mladen Ivosevic]

Much appreciated, thank You.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You're welcome! Lots more coming if you want to subscribe

[Marc van Bloemen]

I think you could do a special clip on menus

[Kristijan Žic]

Hahahaha, as a menu designer myself I can tell you, I've seen people bring me their old menus with such butchered English to the point of people thinking it's a completely new cocktail or something xD Though I'm also guilty of butchering German. I can fix the English translation but the German is all google translate baby XDDDD

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Oh we have some great material on menus lined up

[Davorin Ruševljan]

Thank you!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You're welcome!

[Antonio Juradin]

The last one is the one I have been waiting for.The worst.

[Stipe]

I know i make all mistakes you just talked about lol

[Stipe]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert Yes! It's more about the thing that i usually think in Croatian so when i switch to English it is like CPU unit that is called brain starts to slow down and filter information in different way .

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha, well at least you know now and can improve if you choose.

[silvia h]

some natives in the UK could do with learning he does instead of saying he don't hahaha

[silvia h]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert hahaha

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

True story, David Beckham among them

[gojko27]

Actually you can say fishes when discussing different species or referring to more species. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm Croatian:D

[gojko27]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert that's true, sorry

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

As I said in some previous comment, there are some very specific instances where that is true, but the speaker who is using fishes in general use will probably not get to that level of complication in discussion

[Svasta]

a=general the=specific and I don't know about an, or should I say I don't know how to explain it and it just kinda comes naturally for me even tho I'm not a native English speaker

[Svasta]

also, you could say let's sit down for a coffee, also also you could use fishes if you refer to different types of fishes once again it's not fair as I am in touch with the English language all day every day and so I can understand the mistakes that you pointed out about my lovely countrymen

[Dovla Cro]

You say red wine because you look wine through glass. We say black wine because we look wine through bottle.

[Dovla Cro]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I mean wine color in glass or plastic cup (čaša) in comparation with glass or plastic bottle (boca) and big bottle (demižonka)

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

haha, nice try, but seeing as more red wine in cro is drunk from plastic bottles, i wonder if that really is true...

[rio Babic]

I’m paranoid of mixing up masculine and feminine sentences or words in Croatian !

[rio Babic]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I’ll have a Travarica !

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Have a rakija and carry on. You will be fine

[Chef]

Big help 👍🏻

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Great!

[Me Shark_T]

Black wine (red wine) is common for whole Balkan countries.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes, direct translation from crno

[Soldier of Haven]

You are good man. Thank you Pozdrav iz Zadra

[Soldier of Haven]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I live in Sukošan. Near Zadar 13 km, 15 min. Svako selo prica drugacije, susjedno selo Bibinje mi nerazumijemo neke rijeci. Mi smo fenomeni po jeziku i dijalektu

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Love Zadar

[Marc Martinovic]

Mr. Paul you are good man!

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Haha

[BrunoV]

Did you learn Croatian while living here 20 years?

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Da

[teo klass]

Thank You!

[teo klass]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert It comes with time:-) Thanks a lot! I would add one common mistake: many people pronounce OF as OFF, don't you think?

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Hope it helps a little. It is not easy.

[Parker Eads]

Many English-only speakers get 'then vs. than' confused still...let alone Croatians.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Very true

[Russell]

🙏 Promo-SM!!

[Josip Juric]

The sink is full of fishes She's got dirty dishes on the brain Oasis taught me wrong

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

There is always oasis english

[Patriota]

Those mistakes are made because many Croatians trying to translate Croatian in to English strait but it dasn't works like that.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes, and the same in reverse - red wine to crveno vino, not crno vino

[Lidge1994]

Than and then is a universal issue with non-native and some native English speakers.

[Lidge1994]

@Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert I get it, just saying the similar sounding words with one letter off are what connects all English speakers of a certain level of fluency.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

Yes, so are several others. But these were the 25 most common i came across in Croatia

[Katarina Novak]

Thank You.

[Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert]

You're welcome

[ferabie]

Then there is the problem of have or ima. He has his birthday today. And I ask am I invited? 😄