A word which is similar in form of derivation but different in meaning is known as a Paronym. In other words, paronyms may refer to words that are linked by a similarity of a form. Precisely due to a similar form, speakers often deviate from the norm when using paronymic verbs in everyday communication. The theoretical part of the paper discusses their semantic, formative, and morphological formation, the main differences in the meaning of certain pairs, a list of suffixes and prefixes, as well as similarities and differences between them. The second part of the paper presents the research which involved 109 respondents divided into three groups according to the level of their education, mother tongue and the concept of “jat“ in their mother tongue (long and short forms of some morphemes - “ije/e/i“). The research was based on a questionnaire consisting of the three main tasks, each containing ten sentences. All the answers were then presented, and divided into three groups - according to the criteria mentioned above (education, mother tongue and the concept of “jat“). The aim of the research was to determine whether speakers distinguish paronymic verbs and whether they deviate from the norm of the Croatian standard language, as well as to detect the most common mistakes. Some attempts are made to explain the causes of these deviations. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the respondents are familiar with the difference between the prefixal paronymic pairs, which were examined in the second task. The third task was somewhat more difficult, which required recognizing the standard and non-standard form of the verb. Finaly, the worst results were achieved in the first task, in which the respondents were asked to recognize the roots of paronymic pairs in a certain context. The results of the research confirm Tafra's (2003) conclusion drawn from the necessity of making a dictionary of paronyms, which would contain an explanation of each paronymic pair, as well as a list of the most common mistakes in their use.