


The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Serbo-Croatian (the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian standards thereof) pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-sh}}, {{IPA-sr}}, {{IPA-hr}}, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.


IPA Example Nearest English equivalent
Latin Cyrillic
b bob боб bob
d dan дан doom
[1] đak ђаva jeez
[1][2] ep џeп like George, but retroflex
f film филм film
ɡ gore горе gore
j ja ја yaw
k kola кола score
l Luka Лука fill
bicikl бицикл little
ʎ bilje биље million
m more море more
n ne не no
njutn њутн newton
ŋ[3] banka банка bank
ɲ konj коњ canyon
p pet пет space
r robot робот robot, but trilled
vrba врба US verb, but trilled
s stol стол stole
ʃ[4] šuma шума shell
t tata тата star
[1] ćup ћуп cheese
ts šorc шорц shorts
[1][5] čekić чекић like church, but retroflex
ʋ[6] voda вода van
x hir хир here
z zima зима zoo
ʒ[7] žaba жаба fusion
IPA Example Nearest English equivalent
(long vowels with falling tone)
Latin Cyrillic
a rad рад father
e let лет let
i list лист least
o more море more
u trup труп tool
Tone and vowel length
Tonic marks are not normally written but are found in dictionaries.[8]
IPA Example Explanation
Latin Cyrillic
e sezóna сезо́на non-tonic short vowel
ùzēti у̀зе̄ти non-tonic long vowel[9]
ě djèca дѐца short vowel with rising tone
ěː kréda кре́да long vowel with rising tone
ê sjȅme сȅме short vowel with falling tone
êː rȇp рȇп long vowel with falling tone


  1. ^ a b c d Many speakers in Croatia and some in Bosnia have no distinction between /tɕ/ and /tʃ/ (⟨ć⟩ and ⟨č⟩) or between /dʑ/ and /dʒ/ (⟨đ⟩ and ⟨dž⟩) and are both pronounced [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively.
  2. ^ Sometimes transcribed as [ɖ͡ʐ].
  3. ^ Allophone of /n/ before velar consonants.
  4. ^ Sometimes transcribed as [ʂ].
  5. ^ Sometimes transcribed as [ʈ͡ʂ].
  7. ^ Sometimes transcribed as [ʐ].
  9. ^ Many speakers in Croatia and Serbia pronounce most unstressed long vowels as short.

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