Names of the months in Croatian

In most European languages the names of the months are based on the Roman calendar.

As a result they are easy to recognise and understand for speakers of any of those languages.

Take the month of February, for example:

February (English)
Februar (German)
фебруар Februar (Serbian)
Februar (Bosnian)
Février (French)
Febbraio (Italian)
Februari (Swedish)
Φεβρουάριος Februarios (Greek)

The months and their meanings in Croatian

In contrast to this, in Croatian the months originate from archaic Slavic words and phrases which poetically depict the changing of the seasons and the different tasks related to those seasons:

siječanj – January
timber-cutting time

veljača – February
probably from the pagan Slavic festival “Velja noć”

ožujak – March
“lying month”, the weather’s very unstable

travanj – April
the season of growing grass

svibanj – May
the time of budding trees and plants

lipanj – June
linden-blossom time

srpanj – July
harvest time

kolovoz – August
time for driving the harvest wagon

rujan – September
season of animal mating

listopad – October
leaves are staring to fall

studeni – November
month of cold

prosinac – December
month of begging

Did you know?
Croatians often refer to the months informally by number, e.g. prvi (short version of prvi mjesec – first month, i.e. January), drugi (second month, February), treći (third month, March), rather than by using their proper names.

How about other slavic languages?

Although the names of the months are similar in Polish and Czech, some of them represent different months! For example, in Czech and Polish listopad means November – rather than October in Croatian – perhaps because the leaves stay on the trees longer in those countries?

As illustrated in the example above, both Bosnian and Serbian use the Latin month names. This is one of the reasons why you'll be generally understood in Croatia if you use these relatively 'standard' words.

Did you know?
In most languages the word for month originates from the word moon, since months originally corresponded to lunar phases. In Croatian the same word mjesec means both moon and month.

Some useful vocabulary when talking about months!

kalendar – calendar

mjesec – month

godina – year

prošli mjesec – last month

sljedeći mjesec – next month

svaki mjesec – each month

godišnje doba – season

mjesečno – monthly

proljeće – spring

ljeto – summer

jesen – autumn

zima – winter

Test yourself with our vocabulary trainer!

Below you'll find a multiple choice quiz for the days of the week set. If you enjoy the quiz, take a look at our vocabulary trainer page, there are lots more word groups to test yourself on!