Fluent speech begins long before perfection, in the brave moment when a half-ready thought is allowed to become sound.

If you'd like to practice speaking Serbian and you don't have a clue how, the best way is to do the following:

  1. Pick any of the video lessons I created on my YouTube channel SerbianLessons. For example this one: adjectives in Serbian  
  2. After listening and repeating after me (for as many times as you wish), play the video again, but mute it
  3. Turn on the www.Vocaroo.com / or any other voice recording platform/service and record yourself speaking while watching the muted video
  4. Save your Vocaroo (click Save, and you'll see a shareable link below - don't share it with the world, but simply send it to me to check it out and give you the video feedback - this can be arranged while I still have time)

Speaking Exercise Video - Informal Greetings




With this video the idea is to read the dialogue and fill in the gaps yourself, until the end where you have to remember everything on your own :) The version with the explanation and slow pronunciation is coming tomorrow!

Five sentences about speaking practice

Latin scriptCyrillic scriptEnglish
Na kraju snimam svoj odgovor.На крају снимам свој одговор.Finally, I record my answer.
Prvo slušam bez titlova.Прво слушам без титлова.First I listen without subtitles.
Zatim zapisujem tri korisna izraza.Затим записујем три корисна израза.Then I write down three useful expressions.
Prepričavam tekst svojim rečima.Препричавам текст својим речима.I retell the text in my own words.
Ne zaustavljam snimak posle svake reči.Не заустављам снимак после сваке речи.I do not stop the recording after every word.

Listen to yourself, not only to others

Treat How to Practise Speaking Serbian? as spoken language before analysing it on the page. Read or play the original once for the main message, return for the key forms, and finish by producing one sentence without looking.

From understanding to speaking

Effective practice moves from global understanding to detail and finally to production. Listen or read once without stopping, identify a few useful chunks, and then retell the message in your own Serbian. In this particular lesson, use that principle to interpret the examples connected with How to Practise Speaking Serbian?.

Describe how you practise

Select the sentence closest to your life and make it true for you. Add a reason or time expression, ask another person a related question, and answer it without reading. For this post, keep your final version connected with the situation in How to Practise Speaking Serbian?.

The middle column is not a translation but the same sentence in Cyrillic. Compare it with the Latin version, close the English column and check whether both forms trigger the same meaning. Apply that script strategy to the vocabulary in How to Practise Speaking Serbian?.

Check your Serbian: How to Practise Speaking Serbian?

Test active production: cover the examples, translate each cue and supply two Serbian spellings—Latin and Cyrillic—before opening the answer key. Keep every answer connected with How to Practise Speaking Serbian?.

  1. Finally, I record my answer.
  2. First I listen without subtitles.
  3. Then I write down three useful expressions.
  4. I retell the text in my own words.
  5. I do not stop the recording after every word.

Answers for the speaking lesson

  1. Na kraju snimam svoj odgovor.
    На крају снимам свој одговор.
  2. Prvo slušam bez titlova.
    Прво слушам без титлова.
  3. Zatim zapisujem tri korisna izraza.
    Затим записујем три корисна израза.
  4. Prepričavam tekst svojim rečima.
    Препричавам текст својим речима.
  5. Ne zaustavljam snimak posle svake reči.
    Не заустављам снимак после сваке речи.