Serbian Fun Expressions and Idioms

In one of my more advanced Serbian lessons there came up a few expressions which I wanted to share with you today. I will copy-paste a part of the text about Jeremija, with whom you can learn Serbian from the very start.  I'll list the tasks below this short excerpt:

Jeremija je bio veoma srećan tog jutra, jer je bio potpuno siguran da će dobiti povišicu na poslu. Njegov šef je u nekoliko navrata natuknuo Jeremiji da će od sledećeg meseca omastiti brk, kao i da je to potpuno zaslužio. Jeremija se pravio lud i uspešno se uzdržavao da ne vuče šefa za rukav i postavlja dodatna pitanja. Bio je svestan da sve što bude dobio jeste rezultat njegovog sopstvenog rada i da nije jednostavno palo s neba. Posebno mu je bilo milo što ovaj put nije morao da se kiti tuđim perjem. Njegova zasluga je bila očigledna. Kada je tog jutra stigao na posao i otvorio svoju kancelariju, imao je šta da vidi. Na stolu je stajao potpuno nov kompjuter i pored njega još noviji mobilni, a šef je sav sijao od sreće! "Šta sam ti rekao? Borio sam za tebe kao vučica... i izborio sam se! Najnoviji model? Hm? Šta kažeš?" Jeremija nije morao da se pretvara - na njegovom licu se videlo da su mu sve lađe potonule... Bio je 100% siguran da će dobiti veću platu, a sada mu je postalo jasno da je ostao kratkih rukava! Šta će mu sada Spomenka reći?

Right, now there are three tasks for you:

1. The easiest task: Can you find the synonyms for these words in the text:

• drago
• aludirao
• apsolutno
• pravi
• narednog
• jako
• blesav
• totalno
• puta
• shvatio
• sasvim
• samo

     2. The more difficult task: which phrases and idioms mean:

• down in the dumps/ in the doldrums
• fight like a wolf
• to be absolutely certain about something
• keep asking for something
• get a raise
• take an advantage of something
• to deck oneself in  borrowed finery
• to get the worst of a bargain/ to come away empty-handed

     3. The most difficult task: what will Spomenka say to him when he arrives back home? Try to come      up with a suitable idiom or expression. Let me help you with a few ideas, and you try to guess                which ones are the most appropriate:

• ko drugome jamu kopa sam u nju upada
• svako nosi svoj krst
• nema ti ravna
• prvo skoči pa reci hop
• nije zlato sve što sija
• ko rano rani dve sreće grabi
• doterao je cara do duvara
• poklonu se u zube ne gleda

Easter in Serbian

Happy Easter to all the followers of LearnSerbianBlog.com who are celebrating Uskrs today. Let me share with you the links to the useful info, songs and pronunciation of the greetings for Serbian Easter:

• Pronunciation of the Easter greeting in Serbian
• Easter Morning song
• Video about Easter
• This song dedicated to Uskrs (if it's invisible, try to switch to Firefox browser)

Advanced Serbian Lessons with Državni Posao

Very popular "Državni posao" series are perfect for highly advanced Serbian lessons. One can learn a lot of common Serbian phrases and expressions.  The fun part is to detect mistakes made by famous Đorđe Čvarkov, Dragan Torbica and Boškić (e.g. "lapsitops" instead of "laptop" or "Jututu" instead of "Jutjub").

Let's watch just the first three minutes and try to do the following tasks:

Task 1: Tick the phrases you hear

• Do juče se nisam brinuo
• To je samo fol
• Digneš narod na noge 
• Prazne duše
• Bez i zrna energije, bez i zrna poleta
• I ne bi se digli
• Pogledajte šta nam rade
• Za mnogo manje sitnice
• Nikom ništa
• Mož' misliti
• Čime se ti baviš
• Ukinuli seriju
• To je neka mutna radnja
• Ako nisu umešali prste 
• Imao (seriju) pa nemao
• Nije to bilo koja serija
• Neko će odgovarati
• Nema milosti

Task 2: Even if you don't understand each and every word, can you understand what the problem is?

Task 3: After watching the first part (0:20 - 1:30 - I added the subtitles to make things easier), try to answer the following questions:

a. Da li je Dragan Torbica mislio da je ukidanje serije istina ili ne?
b. Da li Đorđe Čvarkov misli da je narod u depresiji, ili pun energije?
c. Koje reči je Boškić čuo kada je ušao u kancelariju?
d. Na koje tekuće probleme je Boškić mislio kada je pričao o "dizanju naroda"?
e. Ko se čudi Boškiću?
f. Ko objašnjava u čemu je problem i kojim rečima?

Serbian for Kids - Šuma blista, šuma peva

Additional slides on this topic in the Serbian Cyrillic script:

Suma from Gordana Janevska

New Serbian Lesson - HAPPY in Novi Sad

If you have been in Novi Sad, I am sure you  will enjoy doing this fun speaking/writing exercise which can be done along with  Pharrell Williams'  Happy [WE ARE FROM NOVI SAD] version:



You can make simple sentences when you recognize the places where the people are:

• Ovo je autobus. On igra u autobusu.
• Ovo je trg. On igra na trgu. 
• Ovo je kej. Oni igraju na keju....

The verbs you can use are as follows:

• igrati/ plesati u/na + Loc = to dance (deca igraju na ulici)
• nalaziti se  + Loc= there is/are (oni se nalaze u parku)
• prepoznati + Acc = to recognize (prepoznajem Frušku goru)
• biti u/na + Loc = to be (bio/bila sam na ovom mestu)
• videti + Acc = to see (vidim or video/videla sam tvrđavu)

The idea is not to stop the video while making these short sentences :)