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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Adjectives in Serbian - Part 6

While I am working on my new series of Serbian language courses, I prepared for you a video lesson with a bunch of adjectives, with the verb TO BE and forming simple sentences such as:
  1. DA LI SI LEP/LEPA? - Are you beautiful?
  2. DA LI JE ON UPLAŠEN? - Are you scared?
  3. DA LI STE ZDRAVI? - Are you healthy?
  4. DA LI JE TVOJ SIN GLADAN? - Is your son hungry?
  5. DA LI JE TVOJA ĆERKA GLADNA? - Is your daughter hungry?
  6. DA LI SU TVOJE ĆERKE GLADNE? -Are your daughters hungry?
  7. DA LI SU TVOJI SINOVI GLADNI? - Are your sons hungry?
  8. DA LI JE TVOJ AUTO STAR? - Is your car old?
  9. DA LI JE HLEB JEFTIN? - Is bread cheap?
  10. DA LI SU PSI STARI? - Are the dogs old?



Although I didn't write down my short answers, pay attention to them :)

JESAM - NISAM
JESI - NISI
JESTE -NIJE

JESMO -NISMO
JESTE - NISTE
JESU - NISU

For all of you who told me you LOOOOOVE my new cartoons, here's one covering this topic:

Your task is to figure out which word is missing?

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Serbian Greetings Challenge

Maybe you have noticed that I started creating a series of different video lessons recently. They are going to make up a completely new course, which is based on all your wishes and needs you've been sharing with me since January.


The idea behind the course is for you to:
  • learn the vocabulary sets first 
  • try to guess what's missing in the series of fun and colourful comics with captions in Serbian Cyrillic, Latin script and English.
  • do lots of fun exercises based on the dialogues and texts
  • become proactive by sending me your short texts, dialogues and voice recordings to get my feedback. 
Hope you like my first video lesson. Before to listening to me, mute the audio first and try to guess which words are missing :) Have fun!









Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Why not Having Fun Learning Serbian Verbs?

Monday, June 19, 2017

Verb Conjugations in Serbian - Present Tense of Go

Present Tense of to Go



Here comes a short lesson with the verb IĆI = TO GO to in the Simple Present tense. The conjugations are as follows:

  1. Ja idem - ti ideš - on/ona/ono ide ///// mi idemo - vi idete - oni / one  / ona idu

Common Serbian Phrases with this Verb


How can you use the verb IĆI to create the most common phrases:

  1. Gde ideš? = Where are you going?
  2. Kada ideš u školu? = When are you going to school?
  3. Gde ideš u kupovinu/prodavnicu? = Where are you going shopping?
  4. Zašto ideš na posao tako kasno? = Why are you going to work so late?
  5. Gde ideš na odmor svake godine? = Where do you go on holiday every year?
  6. Kad idete na odmor? = When are you going on holiday?
  7. Ko ide u školu? = Who is going to school?
  8. Ko ide sa mnom? = Who is going with me?
  9. Ko ide ka Beogradu? = Who is going to (towards) Belgrade?
  10. Kada ideš u Beograd sa mamom? = When are you going to Belgrade with me?
As you can see, this is a tricky verb, because it can be followed by nouns in different cases. The most common are:

1. Accusative with the preposition "u / na" = in or to, as in GO TO

examples:
a. Idem na posao.
b. Idemo u školu u 8 ujutro.
c. Idemo na odmor  u avgustu.
d. Svake godine idem na odmor u Grčku.
e. Sutra idem u Beograd sa tobom.
f. Idem ( u Beograd) sa mamom u petak. 
g. Deca idu u školu.

2. Instrumental with the preposition "sa" =with, as in GO with a friend

examples:
h. Baka ide sa mnom.
i. Idem ( u Beograd) sa mamom u petak. 
j. Zato što idem biciklom.

3. Less frequently it will be followed by the Dative, with the preposition "ka / prema" = towards, as in GO TOWARDS.

examples:
k. Mi idemo ka Beogradu. Možete li da nas povedete?


Your task

Try to match the questions 1 to 10 with the answers a to k. and record them with www.Vocaroo.com. You can send them to me and get your replies via Patreon.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Daily Routines in Serbian



Daily Routines in Serbian

1. PRATI RUKE = to wash hands
2. PRATI SUDOVE = to wash the dishes
3. SPAVATI = to sleep
4. UČITI = to learn
5. DRUŽITE SE = to hang out (with friends)
6. DORUČKOVATI = to have breakfast
7. RUČATI = to have lunch
8. VEČERATI = to have dinner
9. PITI VODU = to drink water

For the video lesson, check out my Patreon blog. Thanks for learning with my lessons :D HVALA! .

Let's Practice DAily Routines with Quizlet





Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Serbian Adjective HAPPY - Part 5

Serbian Adjective HAPPY

In the previous lessons about the adjectives in Nominative, we learnt the forms of the adjective HAPPY just for Sg. Masc and Feminine. Here comes the list with all the forms:

Masc. Sg. SREĆAN
Fem. Sg. SREĆNA
Neut. Sg. SREĆNO

Masc. Pl. SREĆNI
Fem. Pl. SREĆNE
Neut. Pl. SREĆNA

Let's expand our short sentences into longer ones, by combining it with the reason - why someone is happy:


Conjugation of the Verb to Go to

In order to figure out how to make the previous sentences, take a look at the conjugations of the verb TO GO = ići:


The full video with the slow pronunciation and explanation and exercises will be posted for my Patreons. Many thanks for supporting these short n fun video lessons - Hvala!

Monday, June 12, 2017

Where is Marko Now - Serbian Locative 3

In our fun Serbian comics we can learn where people are, or where they were in the past. Today we are using the same case, the Locative case to express where we are in a house and after that we can also say what we are doing in the house.




Instead of a comic, I recorded a video for you, so you can practice saying simple sentences:


  • Ovo je HODNIK. Ovo je Marko. Marko je u hodnikU. On ne radi ništa u hodniku.
  • Ovo je KUHINJA. Ovo je Marko. Marko je u kuhinjI. On pravi doručak u kuhinji.
Can you listen to the rest of the story and make similar sentences for:

  1. KUPATILO
  2. TRPEZARIJA
  3. SPAVAĆA SOBA
  4. RADNA SOBA
  5. TERASA
  6. TAVAN
  7. DNEVNA SOBA

Singular Nouns in Locative in Serbian

Before thinking about the grammar, try to hear how I am using these words with the prepositon U or NA. If you are not sure, here comes a bit of advice:

Sg. Masc >>> add -U (u hodniku, u Londonu, u muzeju)
Sg. Fem >>> add - I (u kuhinji, u Moskvi, u galeriji)

Exercises and Practice


For more exercises with the activities and the locative case, check out my Patreon blog!

Friday, June 09, 2017

Common Phrases in Serbian - Destinacija broj jedan

Today we are learning two simple phrases in Serbian:


For the pronunciation and additional exercises, check out my Patreon blog :)

Thursday, June 08, 2017

Listening Comprehension - Advanced Serbian, Numbers

Let's listen to this short piece of news and jot down the numbers you hear!







Many thanks to Kratke vesti portal for sharing the news on a regular basis!

Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Advanced Serbian - Sports Events on 5th June 2017

Let's work on our sports vocabulary today :)


Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Plural Nouns in Serbian - Delfin

The Plural form in Serbian can be tricky. That's why I'd like to start with really easy Singular - Plural pairs for you to enjoy learning it :D

Delfin - Delfini 




More examples:

Animals
  • pingvin - pingvini (penguins)
  • konj - konji (horses)
  • jelen - jeleni (deer)
Buildings
  • muzej - muzeji (museums)
  • neboder - neboderi (skyscrapers)
  • stadion - stadioni (stadiums)

Advanced Serbian exercises - Sixth June

I have always enjoyed doing short tasks based on authentic news and fun texts. That is why I want to create and share with you the same kind of exercises based on daily news, both in the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic script. Today I'm sharing with you one of the common news section called "Dogodilo se na današnji dan" - "On this day in history" from KratkeVesti :)

 Cyrillic version Latin alphabet version

Friday, June 02, 2017

Photo Serbian - From To Genitive 4

Odakle je ova lasta?
Where is this sparrow from?

Odakle leti ova lasta?
Where does this sparrow fly from?

Ona leti od Beograda do Londona.
It (she) flies / is flying from Belgrade to London. 

Ma neee, ona leti od Afrike do Evrope.
Nooo, it flies/ is flying  from AFrica to Europe.

Ova deca nemaju pojma!!!
These kids have no clue!!!

Ona leti od kuće do reke.
It flies/ is flying  from the house to the river.

It's really complicated. Does anyone know the answer? 


I think there is no correct answer, but we can enjoy learning Serbian by playing with this sentence using the Genitive case.

Genitive in Serbian


With the prepositions "from - to", you'll use the Genitive case. In the singular it changes as we have described before:

Singular
  • London - od LondonA Masc. Sg. adds an -A
  • Moskva - od MoskvE  Fem. Sg. changes an -a into -E
  • Selo - od selA Neut. Sg. changes an -o into -A

Practicing Genitive in Serbian

Your task is to think about these places and give your own answer about the sparrow using the same form: 

Lasta leti od  ... do ...

  1. Lisabon - Budimpešta
  2. Madrid - Atina
  3. Kopenhagen - Ankara
  4. Zagreb - Ljubljana
  5. Boston - Peking
  6. Moskva - Oslo
  7. Lima - Kairo
  8. Čikago - Berlin
  9. Subotica - Niš
  10. Temišvar - Bratislava
Photo Serbian with Gavrilo

If you are wondering who took this wonderful photo of a sparrow, OR "Od koga je ova slika?", let me tell you that the author is Gavrilo! 

He has been my dear friend since forever and he has allowed me to use his beautiful photos in my photo lessons of Serbian. He is doing a great job promoting Serbia and its beauties and I invite all of you to thank him on his Pixoto page by liking and leaving comments under his photos :) Хвала Гојко! 




Thursday, June 01, 2017

Serbian Adjectives - Part 4

I am sure you are confident using the simple word "lep" thanks to the previous posts about adjectives in Serbian! You learnt that "lep" (beautiful) will change as follows:

Singular
  • Masc. LEP grad = grad je lep (beautiful city - the city is beautiful)
  • Fem. LEPA zgrada = zgrada je lepa (beautiful building)
  • Neut. LEPO dete = dete je lepo (beautiful child)
Plural
  • Masc. LEPI mostovi = mostovi su lepi (beautiful bridges)
  • Fem. LEPE zgrade = zgrade su lepe (beautiful buildings)
  • Neut. LEPA deca = deca su lepa (beautiful kids)
That's why I'm sure you will be able to decide which forms of "lep" are missing in the gaps: 
  1.  _______ nebo (sky)
  2. _______noć (night)
  3. _______ dan (day)

Made with ToonyTool.com

Yes, the answers are as follows:
  1. lepo
  2. lepa
  3. lep
If you are still wondering why "noć" is "lepa", check out my video explanation and translation :D

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