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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Personal Pronouns in Accusative

In the previous post you could see the different forms of pronouns in the Accusative case in Serbian:

There are quite a lot of verbs which require the Accusative, and "voleti" or "to love" obviously requires a direct object. Therefore you'll come across this form in many a song:

The same goes for the verb ZVATI. Since we are going to practice Serbian with two songs with this verb, let's start with a bit of theory:


and then let's practice with a game:
If you like these Quizlet exercises, here's one more with the verbs to see and to go to (Videti i Ići u + Akuzativ)

Finally, when you feel confident using the pronouns in Accusative, let's sing the following songs in 
Zovem ______  zovem, a ti tako 
nećeš da čuješ zov iz duše
zovem ______  zovem ko zna gde si
dok moji snovi već se ruše

Ref. 2x
Zovem ______  zovem, noću te sanjam
uzalud širim ruke svoje
zovem ______  zovem, al' čemu sve to
ti drugu ljubiš oko moje

Zovem______ zovem, a ti tako 
ni pismom jednim da se javiš
zovem ______  zovem noći svake
a ti ne čuješ ili se praviš

Ref. 2x

Zovem ______  zovem, gde si mili
traže ______  moje vlažne oči
zovem ______  zovem srećni bi bili
javi mi dal' ćeš nekad doći

Ref. 2x

Poći ću u šume da ____ opet tražim
uz tišinu rijeke da ___  mirno sanjam
i dok mesec sija gledaću u zvijezde
ne bih li ___ sreo sretnu i daleku
aha, aha, aha

Zvao sam ___ Emili
u moj je san ko u svoj ušla dom
zbog nje se dan pretvorio u noć 
i pjesme sve poludjele zbog nje 
kao kiše prolećne

Zvao sam ____ Emili
u danima kad voljesmo se mi
od proljeća do kasne jeseni
zbog nje, zbog nje izgubio sam sve
čak i dobre drugove

Zvao sam ____  Emili

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

How to Practice Personal Pronouns through Cases

If you are familiar with the personal pronouns in Serbian in the Nominative case, it's time for you to their different forms through various cases.

The clever way is to approach these more complicated forms through the texts you've done before, using the pronouns instead of nouns. For example:



If we turn all the nouns into the corresponding pronouns, we would get a fun story:

  • Želim da kupim njih. = Želim da ih kupim.
  • Da li  imate njih, ali u plavoj boji? = Da li ih imate, ali plave?
  • Da li možete da mi pokažete nju i njih = Da li možete da mi je pokažete i da mi ih pokažete?
  • Želim da kupim nju, nju i nju i njih. = Želim da je kupim i želim da ih kupim.
Now I have two questions:
  1. What does each pronoun in bold refer to?
  2. What changes does the word order cause?


However, the easiest way is to learn pronouns is through songs and exercises:

Since the courses Serbian 101 and Serbian 102 deal with the following cases:
  • Nominative (JA - TI/VI - ON - ONA - ON // MI - VI - ONI)
  • Accusative 
in Serbian 102 I introduced the pronouns in the Accusative

  • Accusative (MENE / SEBE - TEBE/ VAS - NJEGA - NJU(JE) - NJEGA // NAS - VAS - NJIH)

In Serbian 201 I introduce the pronouns in the Locative and Instrumental case:



  • Locative ( o MENI/ SEBI - TEBI - VAMA - NJEMU - NJOJ - NJEMU // NAMA - VAMA - NJIMA)
  • Instrumental (SA MNOM/SOBOM - TOBOM - VAMA - NJIM - NJOM - NJIM // NAMA - VAMA - NJIMA)
and we will practice them together in the next post!


Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Beautiful Songs about Serbia - Serbia mía

Have you ever heard of this beautiful song about Serbia, by Mirko Radović? If not, I am sure you will enjoy listening to it now and come back to it because if its gentleness and a catchy tune!


In case you don't understand Spanish, I'll share with you the author's words about the song, 

"Rodio sam se daleko, i tek nakon više od 50 godina sam uspeo da se povežem sa mojom porodicom. Nikada neću zaboraviti taj trenutak. Siguran sam da su me moj otac i baba i deda gledali sa neba i da su danas jako srećni zbog toga. Ova pesma je istinita priča o mom ponovnom susretu sa domovinom, pretočena u stihove."
along with the lyrics in Spanish

*** Lyrics ***
          Serbia mía
Siento el silbido que despierta, Siento el dulce aroma de un café

Siento cada abrazo, cada beso y las caricias
Que la noche nos dejó tan solo ayer
Siento que mis manos aún te buscan
Siento que tuvimos que partir
Siento cada calle, cada plaza, cada parque
Los rincones que nos vieron sonreir…
Lo siento, Serbía mía, y volver será un nuevo empezar
Siento cada pena, cada angustia, cada llanto
Que tu rostro inocente ayer marcó
Y si la noche se acaba, celebra conmigo que el día volvió


Lo siento, Serbía mía, y lo siento cada día más y más
Siento recordar lo que fuímos, siento el fuego vil que nos quebró
No importa que estés muy lejos, la paz es tu abrigo, el sol es tu voz
Y si la noche se acaba, celebra conmigo que el día volvió
and its translation:

*** Translation *** 
Srbijo moja
Osećam zvuk koji me budi,
osećam slatki miris jutra.
Osećam svaki zagrljaj, svaki poljubac i dodire
koje nam je prošla noć ostavila.
Osećam da mi ruke još tebe traže.
Osećam da smo morali otići.
Osećam svaku ulicu, svaki trg, svaki park,
sva mesta koja su nas videla.

Osećam te, Srbijo moja
i osećam te svakim danom više i više
Osećam te Srbijo moja
i vratiću se tebi ponovo.
Sećam se što smo nekada bili.
Osećam vatru koja rastavlja
Osećam svaki bol, svaku muku, svaki krik
koje je proslost na licu ostavila.
Nije važno što si daleko,
mir je tvoj spas,
Sunce je tvoj glas.
Iako je noći kraj,
slavi sa mnom,

jer dan se vratio.

Although the song was released a few years ago, a wonderful piece of news was to learn that this song dedicated to Serbia was picked by a Peruvian corporate chain to be played in their offices :) No wonder why! Congratulations, Mirko!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Vocabulary in Serbian - Rooms and Furniture

While working on my Serbian language courses, I keep creating tests, exercises, video lessons and fun games. The beauty of technology nowadays is that everything is so "shareable" and "embedable" :)

Furniture in Serbian - Flash Cards with Pronunciation

Simply type the word you hear (on the right hand side you'll see the explanation in English)


Practicing Serbian Cyrillic with New Vocabulary

Match the same words in Latin and Cyrillic script


Doing Fun Rooms 'n' Furniture Vocabulary Exercises in Serbian

Exercise 1: Unfortunately, this one is not embeddable, simply click here.

Exercise 2 is very similar to the previous one - simply click on the point which shows the word written at the top of the picture.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Practicing Superlatives - Advanced Serbian

It really makes my day when I come across an excellent video in Serbian with perfect pronunciation,  along with subtitles. This is exactly what I want to share with you today! After watching this video you could choose only five photos out of ten to tell me which photo is the funniest, the most incredible, the stupidest, the best and the most interesting one!

Speaking Exercise with Superlatives in Serbian 


Dok gledate video odlučite koja fotografija je
  • najsmešnija (smešan = funny)
  • najneverovatnija (neverovatan = impossible)
  • najgluplja (glup =stupid)
  • najbolja (dobar = good)
  • najinteresantnija (interesantan = interesting)


i ostavite (audio) odgovor u komentaru ispod:

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Serbian for Children with Songs

A few weeks ago I started creating simple lessons for children who are learning Serbian across the world. At first I thought there would be lack of simple and fun songs for the first few lessons, but as it transpired I was wrong. On  Nykk Deetronic's Youtube channel I came across a few great songs, such as:

as well as easy to understand short cartoons, such as 
Today I would like to share a version of Nykk's "Pilići smo mi" by IDJKids, with additional fun exercises I created:


 

Serbian for Children with Songs


Which words are missing? (More about the verb TO BE in Serbian)

Piju, piju, piju - piju, piju, piju x 3
Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju x3
Mama govori "Koko roko koko da"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "Kukuriku kukuku"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "av, av, av, av, av"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "mjau x5"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "mu, mu, mu, mu,mu"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "grok, grok, grok, grok, grok"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "me, me, me, me,me"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "kva, kva, kva, kva, kva"

Exercise for Serbian for Children Lesson





Lekcija 7 - Glagol biti

If you like the exercises and Serbian video lessons and courses I am creating, I'd like to invite you to support me through Patreon. Your help is much appreciated :)

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