Do They Speak English in Montenegro? Language and 28 Phrases

Montenegro’s official language is Montenegrin, but in the 2023 census only 34.5% of people named it as their mother tongue, against 43.2% for Serbian. In practice it is one language: Montenegrin, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are standard varieties of the same tongue, and their speakers understand one another without an interpreter. It is written in two alphabets, Latin and Cyrillic, which have equal status under the constitution.

As for English, there are no figures. Montenegro does not appear in the EF English Proficiency Index or in Eurostat’s statistics on foreign languages, so we cannot honestly tell you that everyone speaks English, and we will not. What we can give you is how to read the signs and menus, and 28 phrases with pronunciation for restaurants, markets and the road.

In short

• Official language: Montenegrin; Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian are also in official use.
• Mother tongue, 2023 census: Serbian 43.2%, Montenegrin 34.5%, Bosnian 6.97%, Albanian 5.25%.
• Two alphabets: Latin and Cyrillic, equal by law; the Montenegrin alphabet has 32 letters.
• English: there are no statistics on how widely it is spoken.
• Tours: the excursions we cover run with Russian-speaking guides only; diving, paragliding and fishing are also run in English.
• The first word to learn: hvala (HVAH-lah), “thank you”.

What language do they speak in Montenegro?

Article 13 of the 2007 constitution names Montenegrin as the official language and gives the Cyrillic and Latin scripts equal status. Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian are also in official use. The 2023 census counted 623,633 people: 269,307 gave Serbian as their mother tongue and 215,299 Montenegrin; another 2.08% called their language Serbo-Croatian, and 2.36% named Russian.

What to call the language is a personal matter for many people here, and not something to debate with your hosts over dinner. Why that is, and what else counts as good manners, is in Montenegro etiquette and tipping.

Albanian is in official use in municipalities with an Albanian community, such as Ulcinj and Tuzi. Ulcinj is the country’s southernmost town, close to the Albanian border: see Ulcinj and Velika Plaža.

How Montenegrin differs from Serbian. Montenegro uses the ijekavian form: mlijeko (milk), lijevo (left), hljeb (bread), dvije (two), vrijeme (time, weather), where Serbia says mleko, levo, hleb. In everyday speech you will hear đe instead of gdje, “where”, hence Đe je WC?, “where’s the loo?”, as well as śever (north) and neđelja (Sunday). The Montenegrin alphabet has 32 letters: to the Serbian set it adds ś and ź (in Cyrillic, с́ and з́), which stand in for the pairs sj and zj, as in śever. The language’s ISO code, cnr, dates from December 2017.

How do you read Montenegrin?

Every letter is always pronounced the same way, which makes it far more predictable than English. These are the ten worth learning:

Letter	Cyrillic	Sounds like
č	ч	ch in “child”
ć	ћ	a softer ch, like the t in “mature”
š	ш	sh in “ship”
ž	ж	the s in “measure”
đ	ђ	a soft j sound
dž	џ	a harder j, as in “jam”
lj	љ	lli in “million”
nj	њ	ny in “canyon”
j	ј	y in “yes”
c	ц	ts in “cats”

Two catch English speakers out. J is always a “y” sound, so jutro (morning) is YOO-troh. C is always “ts”, so pijaca (market) is PEE-yah-tsah. In Cyrillic, meanwhile, some letters look familiar but are not what they seem: Р is r, С is s, Н is n and В is v.

Menus and signs come in both Latin and Cyrillic, so both columns are worth a glance before you go.

28 useful phrases in Montenegrin

All the phrases are in the local ijekavian form. The pronunciation is approximate; stressed syllables are in capitals.

Greetings and politeness

Montenegrin	Say it	Meaning
Dobar dan	DOH-bar dahn	Hello (literally “good day”)
Dobro jutro	DOH-broh YOO-troh	Good morning
Dobro veče	DOH-broh VEH-cheh	Good evening
Laku noć	LAH-koo noch	Good night
Zdravo / Ćao	ZDRAH-voh / chow	Hi
Doviđenja	doh-vee-JEH-nyah	Goodbye
Hvala	HVAH-lah	Thank you
Molim	MOH-leem	Please
Nema na čemu	NEH-mah nah CHEH-moo	You’re welcome
Izvinite	eez-VEE-nee-teh	Excuse me, sorry
Da / Ne	dah / neh	Yes / No

In restaurants and at the market

Montenegrin	Say it	Meaning
Koliko košta?	KOH-lee-koh KOSH-tah	How much is it?
Koliko košta kilogram?	KOH-lee-koh KOSH-tah kee-LOH-gram	How much is a kilo?
Skupo / jeftino	SKOO-poh / YEF-tee-noh	Expensive / cheap
Uzimam	OO-zee-mahm	I’ll take it
Mogu li platiti karticom?	MOH-goo lee PLAH-tee-tee KAR-tee-tsom	Can I pay by card?
Sto za dvije osobe, molim	stoh zah DVEE-yeh OH-soh-beh, MOH-leem	A table for two, please
Jelovnik	YEH-lov-neek	Menu
Račun, molim	RAH-choon, MOH-leem	The bill, please
Koliko je teška ova riba?	KOH-lee-koh yeh TESH-kah OH-vah REE-bah	How much does this fish weigh?
Da li je riba divlja ili iz uzgoja?	dah lee yeh REE-bah DEEV-lyah EE-lee eez OOZ-goh-yah	Is the fish wild or farmed?
Voda, hljeb, riba, vino, pivo	VOH-dah, hlyeb, REE-bah, VEE-noh, PEE-voh	Water, bread, fish, wine, beer
Živjeli!	ZHEE-vyeh-lee	Cheers!

Why it pays to ask about the weight and origin of your fish is explained in fish and seafood in Montenegro; where koliko košta and uzimam come in handy, in markets in Montenegro.

On the road, and if something goes wrong

Montenegrin	Say it	Meaning
Ne razumijem	neh rah-ZOO-mee-yem	I don’t understand
Govorite li engleski?	goh-VOH-ree-teh lee EN-gleh-skee	Do you speak English?
Lijevo / desno / pravo	LEE-yeh-voh / DEHS-noh / PRAH-voh	Left / right / straight on
Đe je toalet?	jeh yeh toh-AH-let	Where’s the toilet?
Upomoć!	OO-poh-moch	Help!

Words you will recognise on the menu

The waiter is a konobar, or in everyday speech a kelner, from the German Kellner. The ticket or service window is a šalter, also from German (Schalter).

Turkish words. Abdulah Škaljić’s 1965 dictionary lists 8,742 words of Turkish origin, and about 3,000 are still in everyday use. You will spot them on menus straight away: čorba (soup), kajmak, burek and rakija. Beyond the menu there is čaršija (the old commercial heart of a town), komšija (neighbour) and kašika (spoon).

Will English get me by in Montenegro?

English, and German too. There are no data on how many people speak them. Montenegro is missing from the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index and from Eurostat’s figures on foreign languages. That is why we do not write “everyone speaks English”: there is nothing to check it against. Our advice is to learn the handful of phrases above and to open with Dobar dan and Govorite li engleski? rather than launching straight into English; it is simply polite.

Tours. The group and private excursions we cover in tours run only with Russian-speaking guides, which rules them out for most English speakers. The exceptions are the active trips: diving, paragliding, sea fishing and fishing on Lake Skadar are run in Russian, English or Serbian; say which language you need when you book.

Transfers. The driver’s language is not guaranteed in advance. Keep your hotel’s address on your phone in Latin script so you can simply show it: Tivat airport transfers. Services are provided by independent companies; you book and pay directly with them.

Translation apps and maps work best with local data: a SIM with a tourist bundle costs €15 for 500 GB over 15 days. More in mobile internet in Montenegro.

Words for the road

Lijevo, desno and pravo (left, right and straight on) are the ones you need when asking the way. Which driving licence you need and what surprises visitors on Montenegrin roads is covered in driving in Montenegro. You can pick up a car at the airport: options are on the car rental page.

Checked in September 2026. Sources: Constitution of Montenegro, 2023 census (MONSTAT), Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, EF English Proficiency Index, Eurostat.