Croatian typing practice
Learn to touch type in Croatian, free in your browser: lessons built from real Croatian words, passages from Hlapić to Zlatarovo zlato, and the keys for č, ć, đ, š and ž on a Croatian, US or UK keyboard.
What you can practise
Smart Lessons in Croatian
Real Croatian words, built around your slowest key. You start on six keys, and č, ć, đ, š and ž join as the others come up to speed.
The Croatian alphabet
Every letter in order against the clock, with how to type each Croatian letter on your keyboard.
Typing games in Croatian
Pilot and Spaceship: steer through the gaps or shoot down enemy ships by typing Croatian words.
6 Croatian books
Classic Croatian books, out of copyright, typed a passage at a time.
Croatian letters
Croatian adds five letters to a to z: č and ć, two different ch sounds, đ, š and ž. Dž, lj and nj are letters of the alphabet too, but are typed as two keys. The five fill everyday words, "kuća", "čovjek", "đak", "šuma" and "žena", and leaving the marks off changes words: "kuća" is a house, "kuca" knocks.
The Croatian keyboard is QWERTZ: š and đ sit to the right of P, č and ć to the right of L, and ž by Enter. On a US or UK keyboard, Windows US-International types none of them, so add the Croatian layout; on a Mac, ABC – Extended types them with dead keys: Option V for the caron, Option E for ć and Option L for đ.
On a Croatian keyboard
Windows: Croatian · macOS: Croatian · Linux: Croatian
Add it in Windows under Settings > Time & language > Language & region, in macOS under System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources, in Linux under Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources.
| Letter | Windows | macOS | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| č | Č | Č | Č |
| ć | Ć | Ć | Ć |
| đ | Đ | Đ | Đ |
| š | Š | Š | Š |
| ž | Ž | Ž | Ž |
On a US or UK keyboard
Windows: United States-International · macOS: ABC – Extended · Linux: English (US, intl., with dead keys)
Add it the same way. On US-International ' and " become dead keys: type a space after one for the mark itself.
| Letter | Windows | macOS | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| č | Not on this layout | Option Vthen C | AltGr Shift .then C |
| ć | Not on this layout | Option Ethen C | 'then C |
| đ | Not on this layout | Option Lthen D | AltGr Shift Xthen D |
| š | Not on this layout | Option Vthen S | AltGr Shift .then S |
| ž | Not on this layout | Option Vthen Z | AltGr Shift .then Z |
Tips for typing Croatian
Č and ć sit side by side
Č is right of L and ć one key further, both for the right little finger. Say the word as you type it, "čaša" with the harder č and "noć" with the softer ć, and the finger learns which key goes with which sound.
Š and đ are one row up
Š sits right of P and đ right of š, again for the right little finger. Đ is the rarest of the five, so give words like "đak" and "rođendan" a few extra rounds.
Lj, nj and dž are two keys
Each is one letter in the alphabet but two keys on the keyboard. At the start of a capitalised word only the first is a capital: "Ljubljana", "Njemačka", "Džakarta".
Learn where Z is
On QWERTZ the Z sits where QWERTY has Y, typed with the right index finger, and Y moves to the bottom left. Croatian uses z often, in "za", "zato" and "zemlja", so the swap shows up in almost every line.