Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Les mots serbes d'origine française



Following on the English (international + loan words) presentation , here is another presentation of Serbian words, which look or sound similar to their French counterparts.
For the non-French speaking lot out there:
Lavabo - Washbasin
Formulari - Forms
Biblioteka - Library
the rest - you should be able to guess!

Bien sur! Il y a beaucoup de mots français qu'on peut trouver dans la langue serbe. Voici quelques exemples…


International & Loan Words - 'reči stranog porekla'

If you find learning a new language daunting... lost for words.... then don't despair... There are many international & loan words in most languages and Serbian is no exception either.

For the complete Serbian language novices such as myself, it is really nice to encounter "friendly words". To give you a flavour I have included a link to a presentation. Guess what they are!!

There are many more out there!

Nat

Friday, March 27, 2009

Adjectives and nouns in Serbian

In order to make a correct sentence in Serbian, it is wise to learn nouns according to their grammatical gender. There is a thorough explanation of the nouns and adjectives in Serbian on Unilang site in Lesson 2 and Lesson 3 . Since it is useless to learn adjective suffixes in sets which are different depending whether the noun is:
a. in Singular or Plural
b. Masculine/Feminine/Neuter
c. in different cases

I advise you to learn them in the context and practise one group at a time.

Therefore, I will start with a series of simple formulas with exercises. Feel free to ask questions or post the answers in the comment or to my email under the profile.

Here is a kind of formula for Singurlar + Nominative combination of an ADJECTIVE + NOUN:

Singular & Nominative

1. Adjective + Masculine Noun = zanimljiv tekst (interesting text)
2. AdectiveA + Feminine Noun = zanimljivA knjiga (interesting book)
3. AdjectiveO + Neuter Noun = zanimljivO selo (interesting village)

Exercise: add an adjective with the appropriate ending in front of the following nouns:

adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP

  1. ___________ knjiga.
  2. ___________ momak.
  3. ___________ auto.
  4. ___________ kosa.
  5. ___________ zgrada.
  6. ___________ kuća.
  7. ___________ sto.
  8. ___________ torba.
  9. ___________ dete.
  10. ___________ zrno.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Weather conditions in Serbian

Kakvo je vreme = what is the weather like?

Vreme je lepo /užasno (ružno) = The weather is nice /terrible(nasty)
Kišovito = rainy
Vetrovito = windy
Hladno = cold
Toplo = warm
Maglovito = foggy
Oblačno = cloudy
Sunčano = sunny
Olujno = stormy
Kontinentalna klima = continental climate
Blaga klima = mild climate
Umerena klima = moderate climate
Vremenska prognoza = weather forecast
Kiša će! = it is going to rain!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Present Tense in Serbian - questions and negative forms

Prezent u potvrdnom, upitnom i odričnom obliku

a. one example is with a transitive/intransitive verb, while the
b. example is with the 'se' verb (see the explanation in this post)

affirmative
(I sing every day) > Ja pevam svaki dan

(I comb (myself) ) > Ja se češljam

interrogative
(do you sing every day?) > Da li pevaš svaki dan?
(What do you sing every day?) > Šta pevaš svaki dan?
(Do you comb (myself) ) > Da li se (ja) češljam ?
(Who combs (themselves)? ) > Ko se češlja?


negative
(I don't sing every day) >Ja ne pevam svaki dan OR Ne pevam svaki dan.
(I don't comb (myself)) > Ja se ne češljam. = Ne češljam se.

******** EXERCISE******** mark the sentences as C *correct or I*incorrect :

  1. Ja se igram.
  2. Mi pevam.
  3. Da li se ja umivamo?
  4. Ne doručkujemo u 8.
  5. Ti pereš.
  6. Ja idem u Beograd.
  7. Zovem Mario.
  8. Kupam se svaki dan.
  9. Gde ste se upoznali?
  10. Imam čas svaki dan.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Present Tense Conjugations in Serbian

Fill in the gaps with the suitable form of the verbs in brackets and send the homework to 'learnserbian@gmail.com'. I hope that I will manage to launch the site with similar grammar exercises by April. Watch this space!

- IM
  1. Svako jutro se (1) BUDITI u 8.
  2. Da li ti (2) MISLITI da su jedan plus jedan dva?
  3. Da li Vi (3) MISLITI da u životu jedan i jedan nisu uvek dva?
  4. Dragan se (4) OBLAČITI bar pola sata!
  5. Kada (5) OTVARATI prodavnicu?
- AM
  1. Svaki dan te (6) ČEKATI bar deset minuta!
  2. Moja deca (7) ČITATI knjige - a tvoja?
  3. Danas je baš hladno! Vetar baš (8) DUVATI.
  4. Koliko često (9) GLEDATI tv?
  5. Ana i Sofija se (10) IGRATI.
- (uj)EM

  1. Svaki dan se (11) DOPISIVATI sa drugaricom iz Engleske.
  2. Kada ti (12) DORUČKOVATI?
  3. Šta najčešće (13) PITI tokom dana?
  4. Oni (14) PISATI e-meilove svaki dan.
  5. Kada mi (15) POČINJATI sa učenjem srpskog?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Ko rano rani dve sreće grabi

KO rano rani DVE sreće grabi

The early bird catches the worm

Success comes to those who prepare well and put in effort.

In Serbian, there is a very similar proverb, but it is much more general, and there is neither a bird, nor a worm mentioned. It sounds very general, something like ‘Those who get up early, catch 2 happy events ” (literal translation, don’t laugh)

Your Serbian lesson KO RANO RANI DVE SREĆE GRABI: vocabulary

KO means WHO

RANO means EARLY

RANI means GETS UP EARLY

DVE means TWO

SREĆE means HAPINESS (in Serbian used as plural here)

GRABI means GRABS

Your Serbian lesson KO RANO RANI DVE SREĆE GRABI: grammar

Ko je to? means Who is it?

Ko si ti? means Who are you?

Ko sam ja? means Who am I?

Sooooooooooooo, how do you say in Serbian the following:

I am ?

You are?

It is?

You are right - it isn’t difficult at all!!!

JA SAM means I am

TI SI means You are

ON JE means He is

ONA JE means She is

ONO JE means It is

Now, how about Plural ? Let’s try it again:

1. Ko smo mi?

2. Ko ste vi? Ko ste Vi?

3. Ko su oni? Ko su one? Ko su ona?

If you have any idea for the verb To Be Plural form, send them as comments.


Friday, March 06, 2009

Group lessons of Serbian

I am happy to announce that Myngle introduced group lessons on its platform. Since it is real fun to learn in a group, I would like to invite all of you interested in taking such lessons, to give your suggestions about the time, topics and levels which suit you best. You can write to my gmail address, which will (from now on) be under my profile. For those interested in learning Serbian with the help of a bilingual French/Serbian teacher, check this link.
Enjoy Myngling!

Advanced Serbian - Srpski kao drugi jezik

Gde je ključ? Где је кључ? - Učimo srpski sa Marinom
Gde je ključ? ...
Where is the Key?-...
By Marina Petrović
Photo book