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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Monday, May 29, 2017

Serbian Adjectives in Nominative - Part 3

The aim of the first two blog posts about the Serbian adjectives was to introduce you to the feminine/masculine change in adjectives in Singular:
  1. GLADAN / GLADNA
  2. SREĆAN / SREĆNA
Today, I'd like to introduce a new adjective "LEP" which means "beautiful". It is universally used for people (men, women, children), animals, plants, objects as well as abstract concepts.

This time you can see that the word in neuter singular is introduced and you can see how the adjective changes along with it. 
  • LEP MOST (a beautiful bridge)
  • LEPA ZGRADA ( a beautiful building)
  • LEPO DRVO (a beautiful tree)
Made with ToonyTool.com

You can practice answering the following questions as well:

  1. Kakav je Kip slobode? (What is the Statue of Liberty like?)
  2. Kakva je reka? (What is the river like?)
  3. Kakvo je nebo? (What is the sky like?)

In the background you can see some objects in plural and I invite you to think how the same adjective "lep" ends when describing:


  • zgradE (buildings)
  • balonI (baloons)
The answer with the pronunciation waits for you at my Patreon blog.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Fun Serbian - Pronouns

Before watching the video try to figure out which words are missing in this short exercise:
Tramp brutalno odgurnuo Markovića

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Serbian Genitive - Part 3

While in the previous simple Serbian cartoons we ppractised the prepositions followed by the Genitive:

  1. Iz = From
  2. Ispod / Iznad / Pored etc.
today we are revising the same case, with words, both in Masc. and Feminine Singular, such as: 
  • Rim, London, Pariz >>> iz RimA, iz LondonA, od ParizA - Sg. Masc.
  • Srbija, Engleska >>> iz SrbijE, iz EngleskE - Sg. Fem.
However, this time I am also introducing demonstrative adjectives this and these in Serbian:

This and These in Serbian

  • for "she" (like in "this girl" - devojčica) >>> Ova devojčica
  • for "he" (like in "this boy" - dečko) >>>Ovaj dečko
  • for "it" (like in "this sun" - sunce) >>> Ovo sunce
  • for they Masc. Pl or Masc. and Fem. Pl. together (like in "these people" - ljudi) >>>Ovi ljudi
  • for "they" Fem. Pl.(like in "these women" - žene) >>> Ove žene
  • for "they" Neut. Pl. (like in "these kids" - deca) >>> Ova deca

Made with ToonyTool.com

Serbian Genitive Task

I'm going to write the translations of these captions. Your task is to match them with colours :)

Boje (colours)  su: narandžasta (1), crvena (2), tamno plava (3), ljubičasta (4), tamno ljubičasta (5), zelena (6)

  • a) My village is more beautiful than Paris (the preposition "than" in comparison always requires the Genitive case)
  • b) This one with an umbrella is from London for sure (the preposition "from" requires the Genitive)
  • c) If they are from Rome, we are from Paris!
  • d) If this sun sees me, it must think I am from Paris!
  • e) This little one (=a girl) is surely from Serbia!
  • f) These postcards from Italy are funnier than the ones from France!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Giving directions in Serbian - Part 1

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Giving Directions in Serbian


  • Izvinite = excuse me (although izvinite can mean sorry as well)
  • da li = the way to start "yes -no" question
  • ovo = this
  • put = way
  • za = to
  • aerodrom = airport (masc. sg.)
  • ali = but
  • na raskrsnici = at the crossroads
  • skrenite = turn (formal, informal is "skreni") 
  • desno = right 



Saturday, May 20, 2017

What are you having for breakfast?

Let me introduce you to one of my pets, a guinea pig called Beba. If it is a boy or a girl, you'll find out in our future lessons with it :)

The idea is for you to practice this short dialogue asking each other what you are having for breakfast:



a: Šta radiš = What are you doing?
b: Doručkujem = I'm having breakfast.
a: Šta doručkuješ? = What are you having for breakfast?
b: Doručkujem (travu) = I'm having grass for breakfast. (trava = grass)

For this, you'll need some knowledge about food & the accusative case. I'm sure this video will help:



Have fun!


Friday, May 19, 2017

Serbian Adjectives 2

If you mastered the word hungry: gladAN - gladNA, you are ready to deal with happiness :D

Made with ToonyTool.com

He is happy = On je srećan.
She is happy = Ona je srećna.
They are happy = Oni su srećni.

Now, for a more difficult task! How would you say the following phrases:


  1. I am happy (said by a girl)
  2. I am happy (said by a boy)
  3. We are happy (for a boy and girl)

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Hteti - Will or Want?

One of the frequent questions is how to translate Serbian "hteti" into English?

Made with ToonyTool.com

Hteti - Will or Want?

The simple truth is that the verb "hteti" can be translated into English in both ways, either will or want to, or even wish. The best way is to learn through some examples.

Želeti vs. Hteti

  1. Hoćeš li mi  pomoći? Will you help me? (pure future ) - Hoću! Pomoći ću ti (Yes, I'll help you)
  2. Hoćeš li prestati već jednom? Will you stop it once and for all? - Neću! (I won't)
  3. Hoćeš li da mi pomogneš? Do you want to help me? (a bit stronger than "want") - Naravno! Of course! Svakako! Sure! 
  4. Da li hoćeš da idemo u Beograd? Do you want us to go to Belgrade?
  5. Želiš li da mi pomogneš? Do you wish/want to help me? (a bit more like "wish" than "want") - Kako da ne! Sure!
  6. Šta želiš da ti kupim u Beogradu? What do you want me to buy you in Belgrade?

Accepting and Declining 


The other set of useful phrases which we can learn from is how to best respond to questions starting with "Will you?" or "Do you want to....?"

Prihvatanje/potvrđivanje = Accepting
  • Naravno
  • Svakako
  • Nema problema
  • Kako da ne
  • Hoću (if the question starts with Hoćeš li...?)
  • Želim (if the question starts with Želiš li...?)
  • Da
  • Jašta (colloquial + archaic, but fun)
Odbijanje = Declining

  • Nema šanse (no way)
  • Nikako (no way)
  • Neću / Ne želim
  • Ne, hvala (no, thanks)
  • Jok (colloquial + archaic, but fun)


Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Adjectives and Genders in Serbian - 1

Many of my students have asked me to create a series of video lessons or similar teaching materials dedicated only to adjectives contrasting Masculine and Feminine forms. Here comes the first one in this series - something reeeeaaaaally simple:


Made with ToonyTool.com

Masculine Sg. of hungry>>> gladAn
Feminine Sg. of hungry >>> gladnA
Neuter Sg. of hungry >>> gladNo

Exercise with this photo lesson



  1. Ko je gladan? Who is hungry?
  2. On je gladan! He is hungry!
  3. Ona je gladna! She is hungry!
  4. Ja nisam gladan! I am not hungry!

Here comes a trick question: Da li sam JA dečko ili devojčica? Am I (JA in sentence 4) a boy or a girl?

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Greetings from Genitive - Part 2

If you really had fun learning Genitive yesterday, I'm sure you'll have a blast  today:


Made with ToonyTool.com

As you can see, there's a bunch of characters speaking to you in Serbian (written both in the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet :) Because they are talking about where they are right now, they are using (guess what?) the Genitive case. Now, I have a few tasks for you. Let's find out:

A. Who is saying what? = Ko šta kaže?

  1. Sunce kaže: 
  2. Majmun kaže:
  3. Ptica kaže:
  4. Dečko kaže:

B. Where are = Gde su...

  1. dečko (a boy)
  2. devojčica (a girl)
  3. pingvin (a penguin)
  4. ptica (a bird)
  5. majmun (a monkey)
  6. sunce (the sun)
  7. mačka (a cat)

C. One Cyrillic text is missing - which one? Write it in the comment below:


Serbian Genitive with Sg. Feminine Nouns


I hope you have mastered your Genitive with Sg. Masc. nouns. That's why we are working on  the nouns which are Fem. Sg. today. Look at the examples:

  1. Ja sam iznad zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja ptica?
  2. Danas sam ispred zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja mačka?
  3. Oni su iznad mene! Ko su oni? Ko sam ja?
  4. On nije iznad mačke! Ja sam iznad mačke! Ko sam ja?
What happens with the following nouns?
  1. zgrada = building
  2. ptica = bird
  3. mačka = cat
  4. devojčica = girl
  5. voda = water
when they follow the prepositions: 
  • iznad = above or over
  • ispod = below or under
  • iz = from
  • pored = near or beside
By looking the examples, you can see that the final -a disappears, becoming an -e:

  1. Iznad zgradE = above the building
  2. Ispod pticE = under the bird
  3. Pored mačkE = beside the cat
  4. Iza devojčicE = behind the girl
  5. Iznad vodE = above the water

Asking simple questions with the verb TO BE in Serbian

I am sure you have noticed two types of questions in this exercise:
  1. Wh-? questions: Ko sam ja = Who am I and Ko su oni? Who are they?
  2. Yes-no questions: Da li sam ja pingvin? = Am I a penguin? 
With the verb to be=biti, it is obvious that there is
  1. a wh-? question word before an inversion (ja sam becomes KO sam ja)
  2. da li question phrase before an inversion (ja sam becomes DA LI sam ja)
Yes, it's that simple :)

Rešenje = Solution


Now that you understand EVERYTHING, it's time to solve the mystery...

Monday, May 15, 2017

Serbian Genitive - Greetings from London, Part 1

What a lovely morning for such an easy Serbian Genitive photo lesson:
  Made with ToonyTool.com
Dobro jutro iz sunčanog LondonA! Pogodite odakle šaljem pozdrave: ispod ili iznad mostA?

Добро јутро из сунчаног ЛондонА! Погодите одакле шаљем поздраве: испод или изнад мостА?

Good morning from sunny London! Guess where I am sending the greetings from: under or above the bridge?

Serbian Genitive with Masculine Singular

London and most (bridge) are two Masc. Sg. nouns in this case. What endings showed up when we used them after the prepositions:

  1. iz = from
  2. under / below = ispod
  3. above / over = iznad
Yes, the answer is -A. So, if you are from the following cities/countries you will always  say "I am from ..."

  • Ja sam  iz Londona / Beograda / Lisabona / Bostona / Čikaga (Čikago) / Sidneja / Frankfurta /Minhena / Beča / Pariza
  • Moja mama je iz Perua / Irana / Iraka / Luksemburga / Portugala /Izrael


Sunday, May 14, 2017

Where are you today? Part 2

What do you want to do TODAY?
Šta želite da radite DANAS?

Today I am in Paris. I want to see the Mona Lisa.
DANAS sam u Parizu.  Želim da vidim Mona Lizu.

Made with ToonyTool.com While in the previous lesson we noticed that the Locative Singular ending was only -i, it was like that simply because we were in places which are in Feminine Singular (U Moskvi, Aziji, Evropi, Budimpešti...)

However, today we are in having fun  in places which are Masculine Singular and that's why we add the suffix -u at the end of each place:


  1. Ja sam danas u Parizu. = Danas sam u Parizu.
  2. ...Beograd >>> Beogradu
  3. ...Lisabon >>> Lisabonu
  4. ... Sidnej >>> Sidneju
  5. ... Niš >>> Nišu
  6. ...muzej >>> muzeju
  7. ... centar >>> centru 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Let's Play Guessing Game

Let's take a guess:

Is this my room?

Made with ToonyTool.com

To master this topic, check out the following video

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Where are you today?

Where are you today?

Today we are in Moscow. Moscow is in Russia. Russia is in Europe and Asia. Where are you today? Let's say this in Serbian! Made with ToonyTool.com Latin Script Version

Danas smo u Moskvi :) Moskva je u Rusiji. Rusija je u Evropi i Aziji. Gde ste vi danas?

Cyrillic Script Version

Данас смо у Москви :) Москва је у Русији. Русија је у Европи и Азији. Где сте ви данас?


Let's practice the Locative in Serbian

Feminine Singular

  • Moskva >>>Moskvi
  • Rusija >>> Rusiji
  • Azija >>> Aziji
  • Evropa >>> Evropi
  • Lima >>> ???
  • Barselona >>> ???
  • Budimpešta >>> ???
  • zgrada (building) >>> ???

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Photo Serbian - Simple Yes/No Questions

Made with ToonyTool.com Let's play with fun photos and comics! All you have to do is ask simple questions:


  1. Da li si u Serbiji? (Are you in Serbia?)
  2. Da li čekaš da pređeš ulicu? (Are you waiting to cross the street?)
  3. Da li je rasprodaja u prodavnici? (Is there a sale in the shop?)

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Family Members and Friends in Serbian



Another Quizlet video exercise for you to practice the pronunciation of the following words:
  • mama = mother
  • tata = father
  • sestra = sister
  • brat = brother
  • sin = son
  • ćerka = daughter
  • drug = close friend masc.
  • drugarica = close friend fem.
  • prijatelj = friend masc.
  • prijateljica = friend fem.
  • kolega =colleague masc.
  • koleginica = colleague fem.

Best Way to Learn 






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