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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Latin Alphabet to/from Cyrillic Serbian Script


Here comes a great link to script conversion. I needed some urgent Latin to Cyrillic script conversion yesterday night, and after trying out a few sites, this one proved to be the best.

So, let's try it out by rewriting the following Serbian proverb from the Cyrillic script into Latin Alphabet:

Ко не плати руком, он ће душом.

Now let's translate the phrase to English using online dictionaries (you might get different funny sentences):

1. Who do not pays handful , him will sweetheart.
2. Who doesn't pay the hand, it is soul.

Well, does it make sense? Does anyone have an idea what the correct translation is?

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Vowels in Serbian

There are five vowels in the Serbian language: a, e, i, o, u.

*A: ako (if), tavan (attic), ali (but), auto (car)


*E: evo (here), ekser (nail), med (honey), lep (beautiful)


*I: imati (to have), ili (or), iako (although), ići (to go)


*O: ovo (this), ono (that), oko (eye), brod (ship)


*U: u (in), uvo (ear), zub (tooth), uspeh (success)


However, in some words, the so called 'syllable forming r' (slogotvorno r) plays the vowel role. That's why some words in Serbian are difficult to pronounce. Let's practise together on our Pronunciation Site:

* R : prst (finger), krst (cross), srce (heart), Srpski (Serbian), pržiti (to fry)

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Uskršnje Jutro

Here is a link to a lovely video clip of a choir singing an Easter song:

Uskršnje Jutro (Easter Morning)

by
Čarolija


Uskršnje jutro kada se javi
Svakom na licu osmeh zablista.
Danas je praznik, danas se slavi
Dan vaskrsenja Isusa Hrista.

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Chorus (x2)
Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

How to pronounce letters in Serbian

While teaching Serbian to speakers of other languages, I noticed that different students have different pronunciation problems with certain Serbian sounds/phonemes. In order to practise together, let's make most of this lovely online learning tool, where you can simply listen to me and other students pronouncing certain words or phrases.

You will always be able to access the recordings from this site and to add your short replies. Let's practise together:

Intro :
* Introduce yourself like this:

Zdravo, ja sam ______. Ja sam _______. Imam _______godina. Živim u _________u/i.


(Hi, I am .... I am a ... I am ... I live in ...)

Pronunciation:

*Ć - ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će (= will)

*Č - čekaj (wait) čuvaj se (take care) čitaj (read)


*Š - šutni (kick) šališ se? (are you kidding?) šta? (what?)

*C - cev (pipe), car (tzar) cvet (flower)


*S - sve (all), svet (world), sutra (tomorrow)


*Đ - đak (pupil, student), đavo (devil), Đorđe (name)

*DŽ -džaba (for free, worthless), džemper (jumper, cardigan), džin (giant)


*NJ - njiva (field), Anja (Anya), šaliti se (to make/tell jokes)


*LJ - ljuljaška (swing), ljubav (love), biljka (plant)

*H - hrčak (hamster), hleb (bread), hladno (cold)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Asking About Location in Serbian



Fourteen years ago on March, 13th 1996, this song was the Song of the Day at the local radio station. I remember listening to it every hour! Take a guess where I was by asking questions, as follows:

1. "Da li ste bili u + city ? "
(when you guess the name of the city, proceed to 2)
2. "Da li ste bili u + place ?"

1/Word Bank: ---> Locative Case

Bečej ----> Bečeju
Senta ----> Senti
Zrenjanin ---> Zrenjaninu
Novi Sad---> Novom Sadu
Šabac ---> Šapcu
Niš ---> Nišu
Kragujevac ---> Kragujevcu
now, you do the same...
Kraljevo --->
Milanovac --->
Paraćin--->
Subotica --->
Zaječar--->
Beograd --->

2/Word Bank for places ---> Locative


škola - školi

crkva - crkvi
centar - centru
važno mesto - važnom mestu
*now, you do the same...
zgrada
vrtić
prodavnica
sajam
knjižara
bolnica

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Why Do We Connect? Zašto se povezujemo?

Recently LearnSerbian participated in "Why Do We Connect" video project. The idea was to post a response to the simple question "Why Do We Connect?" = Zašto se povezujemo?

Our answer was "To get inspired - to create!" = "Da se inspirišemo. Da stvaramo"! There are many more answers, each revealing one piece of ''why-we-connect puzzle''. I'll do my best to translate them slowly, one by one...




Now a question to you - why do you connect with other people on the www?
Zašto se vi povezujete sa drugim ljudima preko interneta?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Serbian With Garfield


JA SAM DUH IZ TEGLE SA KOLAČIMA
JA - I

SAM - am

DUH - ginie / spirit / ghost
IZ - from
TEGLA - jar

SA - with

KOLAČ - cookie

ISPUNIĆU TI TRI ŽELJE

ISPUNITI - fulfil
TI (TEBI) - to you
TRI - three
ŽELJA - wish



NIKAD NEMA KOLAČA KADA SU TI POTREBNI

NIKAD - never
NEMA - there isn't any / negative of 'have'

KADA - when
SU - (they) ARE

TI - you
TREBATI - to need
POTREBNI - needed
********************************************************* pronunciation

STEP 1: CLICK THIS LINK TO PRONOUNCE WORDS SLOWLY
(if you are accessing the audio link for the first time, make sure you click the button 'log in as a guest' when asked for the password and user name)
STEP 2: CLICK THIS LINK TO LISTEN TO THE CARTOON AND READ IT ALONG
(My assistant was happy to act out the dialogue and record it for you - it was me who cut the last vowel 'i' in 'potrebni')
STEP 3: PRACTISE READING YOURSELF

********************************************************* grammar exercises
STEP 1: Singular - Plural Nouns Exercise 2
Write down the plural of the following words:
1. kolač -
2. tegla -
3. duh -
4. želja -
5. potreba -

STEP 2: the Verb TO BE + FROM (IZ) + PLACE with case suffixes
Complete the sentences with the places in brackets:
Ja sam duh iz (tegla)______________.
Ja sam kolač iz (tegla) _______________.
Ja sam duh iz (knjiga) _________________.
Ja sam mačak iz (strip)___________________.
Ja sam Garifld iz (Beograd)__________________.
Ja sam duh iz (London)______________________.

STEP 3: the Personal Pronoun TI - TEBI
Write down the appropriate noun:
Ispuniću ti 1 ___________ željU.
Ispuniću ti 2 ____________ željE.
Ispuniču ti 3 ____________ željE.
Ispuniću ti 4 ____________ željE.
Ispuniću ti 5 ____________ željA.
Ispuniću ti 6 ____________ željA.

STEP 4: the Present Tense Conjugation of the verb TO BE
Ja __________duh iz tegle sa kolačima.
Ti __________
duh iz tegle sa kolačima.
On _________
duh iz tegle sa kolačima.
Ona ___________
duh iz tegle sa kolačima.
Ono ___________
duh iz tegle sa kolačima.

STEP 5: the negative forms + NIKAD (never)
general:
Nikad nema kolača. (There aren't any cakes)
Nikad _____ vremena. (time)
Nikad _____ sreće. (luck)
Nikad ______ čokolade. (chocolate)
Nikad ______
para.(money)

personal (for myself)
Nikad nemaM kolača (I never have any cakes)
Nikad _____ vremena. (time)
Nikad _____ sreće. (luck)
Nikad ______ čokolade. (chocolate)
Nikad ______
para.(money)

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