With so many youtube videos with beautiful Serbian songs being deleted, I somehow stopped creating blog posts covering this topic, although I keep using songs in my lessons on a regular basis. However, with a new tool at hand, I'll be able to recreate all my song-exercises and post them on my server with exercises based on the lyrics.

Learn Serbian by Singing - Ne vredi plakati

Let me start with the beautiful song "It's not worth crying" - NE VREDI PLAKATI, Zvonko Bogdan

Exercises with Serbian Songs

An old song is a grammar lesson in disguise

Ne vredi plakati is built on a construction worth knowing: an impersonal expression followed by an infinitive. Ne vredi plakati — it is not worth crying. There is no subject at all, and the same pattern gives you ne treba žuriti, lako je reći, teško je zaboraviti. One song line and you have a sentence type you will use constantly.

Older songs also carry vocabulary that has drifted out of everyday speech but stayed alive in music and literature. You do not need to use those words yourself, but recognising them opens a whole layer of Serbian that a course book will never reach.

Impersonal expressions with the infinitive

Latinica	Ћирилица	English
Ne vredi žaliti za prošlim danima.	Не вреди жалити за прошлим данима.	It is not worth regretting past days.
Lako je obećati, teže je uraditi.	Лако је обећати, теже је урадити.	It is easy to promise, harder to do.
Ne treba se ljutiti zbog sitnica.	Не треба се љутити због ситница.	One should not get angry over small things.
Teško je zaboraviti staru pesmu.	Тешко је заборавити стару песму.	It is hard to forget an old song.
Vredi slušati ovu izvedbu do kraja.	Вреди слушати ову изведбу до краја.	This performance is worth listening to till the end.

Learn the line, keep the pattern

Take the four impersonal openings — ne vredi, lako je, teško je, ne treba — and finish each one with an infinitive of your own. Four sentences about your own life. That is the whole construction, learned in the time it takes to play the song once.

Say it impersonally

Build each sentence with an impersonal expression plus an infinitive, then write it in both alphabets.

It is not worth arguing.
It is easy to learn this song.
One should not smoke here.
It is difficult to sing in a foreign language.
It is worth trying again.

Answers for the song lesson

English	Latinica	Ћирилица
It is not worth arguing.	Ne vredi se svađati.	Не вреди се свађати.
It is easy to learn this song.	Lako je naučiti ovu pesmu.	Лако је научити ову песму.
One should not smoke here.	Ne treba pušiti ovde.	Не треба пушити овде.
It is difficult to sing in a foreign language.	Teško je pevati na stranom jeziku.	Тешко је певати на страном језику.
It is worth trying again.	Vredi pokušati ponovo.	Вреди покушати поново.