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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Friday, March 04, 2016

Common Phrases in Serbian

Common Phrases in Serbian

I am sure you liked the previous post where you could practice  pronouncing "Laku noć" which means "Good night". Today we are going to practice saying "Dobro jutro" or "Good morning" with this fun commercial:



It is actually based on a well known song by Bajaga, called "Dobro jutro, džezeri".
Džezeri is short for "jazz players", but in this ad this word is changed to "džezVeri", because the word "đezva" or "džezva" means a specific coffee pot, like this one:


At the very end you are also going to hear how chicken's "piu-piu" is used in the meaning of "they drink" = Piju (to drink = piti: conjugations>>> pijem - piješ - pije // pijemo - pijete - piju)

Now, here comes Bajaga's song with the lyrics, so you can compare the two:

Sunday, February 28, 2016

New Lesson to Practice Accusative in Serbian

After two months of adjusting an old course of mine to the new set of quality criteria at Udemy, Serbian 102 has been approved and is visible for anyone interested in learning Serbian at pre-intermediate level. I'm adding now additional new video lessons such as this one:


 Accusative in Serbian


 

and quizzes:

Quizzes with  Accusative in Serbian


TEST - 15 rečenica

Example with Sg. JA + IĆI + CRKVA >>> Idem u crkvu
Example with Pl. TI + VIDETI + MOSTOVI >>> Vidiš mostove

LEARN

SPACERACE

Pronunciation of Exercise 

You can record a similar story with www.Vocaroo.com

 












Saturday, February 27, 2016

Most Common Phrases in Serbian

Common Phrases when Saying Goodnight


Here comes a fun commercial which is great for you to practice authentic language, especially the word "laku noć" = goodnight,  you'll see why :)



I couldn't resist creating a short exercise based on it! Simply pull the words listed above to the appropriate gaps.

Common Phrases Task - Saying Goodnight in Serbian


Sunday, February 21, 2016

International Mother Language Day

Today is the International Mother Language Day. Mother tongue is part of the cultural identity of a people, the point of recognition, diversity, tolerance and understanding. Taking care of the mother tongue is a way of proving the people's awareness of their own identity. 

The legacy of the Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja says: "My dear child, guard your language as your country. Word can be lost as a city, as a country, as a soul. And what is a people if it loses its language, country, soul? Do not take someone else's word in your mouth. If you take a foreign word, know that you didn't conquer it, you've actually alienated yourself. It's better to lose the biggest and the toughest city of your country than the smallest and the least significant word of your language. People who lose their own words cease to exist as people."

***Many thanks to Meet the Serbs FB page for this post and translation:

Данас је Међународни дан матерњег језика. Матерњи језик је део културног идентитета народа, тачка препознавања, различитости али и толеранције и разумевања. Брига о матерњем језику је начин доказивања свести народа о властитом идентитету. 


Завештање Стефана Немање каже: „Чувајте, чедо моје мило, језик као земљу. Реч се може изгубити као град, као земља, као душа. А шта је народ изгуби ли језик, земљу, душу? Не узимајте туђу реч у своја уста. Узмеш ли туђу реч, знај да је ниси освојио, него си себе потуђио. Боље ти је изгубити највећи и најтврђи град своје земље, него најмању и најнензнатнију реч свога језика. Народ који изгуби своје речи престаје бити народ“. („Завештања великог жупана српског Стефана Немање свом сину светом Сави“, аутора Милета Медића).





Saturday, February 20, 2016

Serbian Verb to Go to with Places

The topic of today's lesson is the verb IĆI U/NA(to go to) followed by different places. Because of the preposition U/NA, which mean in/at/on in English, students tend to make a mistake and use the Locative case of a noun instead of the Accusative. However, since IĆI U is the verb which denotes movement, we can translate it with GO TO and then it is followed by the Accusative.

So, with today's Quizlet set we will be  practicing:

  • different conjugations of the verb IĆI in its imperfective form: idem (sada)  = I am going to (now). 
  • prepositions U vs. NA
  • Accusative Singular nouns (there is a change only with the Feminine nouns, which drop the final A and add U)

Learning Serbian Verb to Go to with Places



Practicing Serbian Verb to Go to with Places



Test with Serbian Verb to Go to with Places


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
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