Croatian Translation and Localization Services
Native Croatian linguists translate, localize and test content for the Croatian market, managed by our project team in Istanbul. The same team builds Croatian datasets for AI model training.
- Languages
- 19
- Languages
- Vetted Native Linguists
- 700+
- Vetted Native Linguists
- Localization Tasks / Year
- 100K+
- Localization Tasks / Year
- Founded
- 2016
- Founded
El Turco supplies Croatian translation and localization services to enterprises, language service providers and AI teams selling into Croatia and the wider EU. Native Croatian linguists from our vetted network translate and review every job. Projects are managed from our production office in Istanbul under ISO 17100 for translation and ISO 18587 for machine translation post-editing, with headquarters in London. Croatian joined our Balkan languages in 2020.
Croatian localization depends on grammar as much as vocabulary. Nouns change across seven cases, verbs agree with gender and counted nouns take three plural forms, so an English string can break once a name or number is inserted. Croatian is also a separate standard from Serbian and Bosnian. Croatian work runs in RWS Trados, memoQ, Phrase and XTM, with What's Wrong?, our own QA tool, checking diacritics and tags before each delivery.
Dialects and variants
Which Croatian do we translate into?
Standard Croatian is based on the Shtokavian dialect in its Ijekavian form ("mlijeko", "rijeka") and is the written norm for business, media, software and public administration in Croatia. Spelling usually follows the Hrvatski pravopis of the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics. Kajkavian and Chakavian dialects matter for speech data and regional copy, but written business content uses the standard.
Standard Croatian (Croatia)
The default target for software, e-commerce, marketing, legal and technical content. As an official EU language, Croatian has established EU terminology in the IATE term base.
Croatian in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatian is also an official language in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Content for a general Bosnian audience needs a Bosnian translation.
Serbian and Bosnian
Mutually intelligible but separate standards. Everyday words differ (tjedan or nedelja for week, kruh or hleb for bread, vlak or voz for train) and Serbian is also written in Cyrillic. A Croatian file is not a Serbian or Bosnian deliverable.
Script and layout
Writing system and layout notes
Croatian uses the Latin alphabet, written left to right, with the additional letters č, ć, dž, đ, lj, nj, š and ž. Dž, lj and nj are digraphs that count as single letters. Unlike Serbian, standard Croatian uses only the Latin script, so one script covers every channel.
- Diacritics: č and ć are different letters, as are dž and đ. Stripping diacritics changes meaning, and đ is often wrongly exported as "dj".
- Sorting: č and ć follow c, dž and đ follow d, lj follows l and nj follows n, so English collation orders Croatian lists wrongly.
- Numbers and prices: comma as decimal separator, period for thousands, euro sign after the amount (1.250,50 €). Croatia replaced the kuna with the euro in 2023, so legacy kn prices need updating.
- Dates and capitalization: dates carry a period after day, month and year (4. 11. 2026.) and months have Slavic names such as studeni for November. Months, weekdays and nationality adjectives are lowercase. Headings use sentence case, not English title case.
- Text expansion: Croatian usually runs longer than English, so buttons and table headers need room. Quotation marks follow Croatian style („tekst“).
Localization pitfalls
What makes Croatian localization different?
Concrete issues our Croatian linguists and engineers check for on every project.
Case endings on placeholders
"Send to {name}" needs a case ending the code cannot produce, and greetings need the vocative (Ivane, not Ivan). We rewrite strings so the placeholder stays in the nominative, often after a label and colon.
Gender agreement
Past-tense verbs and adjectives agree with the gender of the subject. "{user} joined the team" needs "pridružio" for a man and "pridružila" for a woman. We request gender variants or rephrase the string.
Three plural forms
Croatian uses the ICU categories one, few and other: 1 poruka, 2 poruke, 5 poruka. The rule follows the last digits, so 21 takes the singular form and 12 to 14 take "other".
Formality: Vi versus ti
B2B software, banking and public services use formal Vi, which in the past tense also avoids gender ("Prijavili ste se"). Games and consumer apps often use informal ti. The choice is recorded once in the style guide.
Verb aspect in UI
Verbs come in perfective and imperfective pairs, so the English "download" becomes "Preuzmi" on a button, "Preuzimanje…" in progress and "Preuzeto" as a status. Linguists need to see where each string appears.
Croatian versus Serbian terminology
Croatian prefers izbornik for menu, spremi for save and postavke for settings, where Serbian uses meni, sačuvaj and podešavanja. The standard also favors native coinages over loanwords, so Serbian or Bosnian files are never reused as Croatian.
EU regulation and legal language
Croatia is an EU member state, so GDPR, EU consumer law and EU product rules apply. Medicine information follows the EMA templates in Croatian, so regulated content goes to a domain linguist with a second reviewer.
Industries
Which industries do we serve in Croatian?
Industry pages describe the workflows; each one applies to Croatian as summarized here.
Industry
Gaming & Esports
Mobile, PC and console titles with in-build LQA by Croatian testers.
Industry
E-Commerce & Retail
Catalogs, marketplace listings, travel booking content and support macros.
Industry
Technology & IT
SaaS and app UI, help centers and release notes localized sprint by sprint.
Industry
Finance & Fintech
Banking, fintech and payments content using EU and Croatian financial terminology.
Industry
Life Sciences
Clinical, regulatory and medical device documentation aligned with EMA templates.
Services
Croatian services we offer
Every service below is available in Croatian. Pricing is per-word, hourly or project-based, quoted after scoping.
Translation & Localization
TEP translation
Two-step ISO 17100 workflow: a native Croatian translator, then a separate editor and proofreader.
Translation & Localization
Software, website and game localization
Resource files, CMS pages and game text with plural, gender and case checks.
Translation & Localization
MTPE
Post-editing to ISO 18587, preceded by an engine test on a sample of your Croatian files.
Translation & Localization
Transcreation
Campaigns, slogans and store listings rewritten for Croatian readers.
Translation & Localization
LQA and testing
Native testers review the Croatian build for truncation, broken agreement and missing diacritics.
Integrations
Continuous localization
Hub connects your TMS or repository to our team so new Croatian strings are picked up as soon as they land.
AI Data Solutions
Croatian AI training data
Croatian speech recordings, labeled text, RLHF rankings and MT corpora for your models.
AI training data
Croatian AI training data
Croatian has much less training data available than English. Web text often mixes Croatian with Serbian and Bosnian, so models slip into Serbian vocabulary and wrong case endings. El Turco builds Croatian datasets for AI teams fixing those errors: speech collection across regions and ages, transcription, text annotation for intent, sentiment and entities, RLHF ranking of Croatian model responses, parallel corpora for custom MT and moderation data covering slang and code-switching with English. Gold tasks run before production and inter-annotator agreement is reported with every delivery. A free Croatian pilot batch can be arranged first.
Related languages
Languages that regularly appear in the same project plan.
Language
Serbian
Native Serbian linguists for software, game, e-commerce and finance content in Cyrillic or Latin script, plus Serbian AI training data.
Language
Bosnian
Native Bosnian linguists for software, e-commerce, finance and game content aimed at Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus Bosnian AI training data.
Language
Macedonian
Macedonian Cyrillic for software, games, e-commerce and regulated content, with triple articles, clitics and denar formatting handled per string.
Language
Albanian
Standard Albanian for Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, with definite endings, linking articles and market conventions handled in every string.
FAQ
Croatian translation FAQ
Can one translation serve Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian readers?
No. Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian are mutually intelligible but have separate standards with different vocabulary and spelling. Serbian is also written in Cyrillic. Croatian readers notice Serbian words such as sačuvaj or računar at once, which weakens trust in the product. El Turco translates each language with its own native linguists and keeps a separate glossary and style guide for each market.
Which source languages do you translate into Croatian from?
El Turco accepts English, German, French, Chinese, Turkish and Arabic source files for Croatian translation. Croatian into English is offered as well. In every pair the Croatian side is handled by a native Croatian linguist, with a second linguist reviewing under ISO 17100. Requests for other source languages are checked against linguist availability before we quote.
How do you handle Croatian plurals, gender and cases in software?
Croatian strings are translated with the code context and sample placeholder values in view. Plurals use the three ICU categories one, few and other. Gender-dependent messages get separate variants or are rephrased so the verb does not depend on the user. Placeholders stay in the nominative case, usually after a label and colon, so inserted names and numbers never need a different ending.
Is machine translation good enough for Croatian?
Machine translation for Croatian is usable for some content but still makes case, gender and aspect errors and often mixes in Serbian vocabulary. Croatian MTPE at El Turco follows ISO 18587: engine output on a sample of your content is evaluated first, the post-editing level is agreed and native linguists then edit the text. Full human translation is the recommendation for Croatian marketing, legal and UI copy.
Who translates Croatian at El Turco?
Croatian translation at El Turco is done by native Croatian linguists from our vetted network, selected by subject domain. Croatian jobs are coordinated by in-house project managers in Istanbul, and each translation is reviewed by a second Croatian linguist under ISO 17100. All linguists sign NDAs and work in the client CAT tool or ours, inside an ISO/IEC 27001 certified information security management system.
How do I start a Croatian localization project?
Croatian localization projects start with a short brief through the contact form covering content type, volume, source language and timeline. Enterprises are offered a free pilot and LSPs a free test translation of up to 300 words. The glossary, style guide, file formats and delivery rhythm are agreed next. Pricing is per-word, hourly or project-based, quoted after scoping.
Planning Croatian Content?
Tell us what Croatian content you have, how much of it and when it is due. We reply with a scoped plan and can start with a free pilot or a free 300-word test translation.