Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Showing posts with label Learn Serbian online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learn Serbian online. Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2019

Ordinal Numbers in Serbian - Part 1

Ordinal numbers in Serbian behave as adjectives, so they change according to the noun's:

  • number (singular or plural - prva kolona vs. prve kolone)
  • gender (masc. fem or neuter - prvi red vs. prvA kolona vs. prvO mesto)
  • case (after the basic form of Nominative, there will be all six cases - prvi čovek - prvog čoveka - prvom čoveku - prvog čoveka / prvi hamburger - prvi čoveče - sa prvim čovekom - o prvom čoveku)
That's why we are starting just with a very simple list of 12 ordinal numbers in masc. sg. Nominative to learn the form, hear it, pronounce it and practice it. 


In our next lessons we'll be practicing more complex structures with the ordinal numbers in Serbian :)
I know it looks complicated, but it can be fun, and it is certainly good for your brain!

The list of exercises both in the Latin and Cyrillic script can be found on my Patreon page.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Free Serbian Language Course

If you have followed my blog posts this summer, you have noticed fun photos with short dialogues. These mini lessons grew into the first course, which can help you learn Serbian greetings. It is at the beginner level, so that is why I named it Super Easy Serbian - Greetings A1!

It took me quite a while to create it, as I flicked through thousands of photos, downloaded them and then put everything together. I have had problems with my low quality headset, because of which I had to heavily edit the videos. I hope to get a new cam in October and continue making such courses much faster. My plan is always to offer you three versions of the course:

In order to access the course, you can simply click here to see it online, or download it:



It is visible online, fully accessible from any device and you can play the videos while flicking through it. If you prefer a PDF file, you can download it here, but when you want to watch the video, when you click play, the video will open in the new window, so you will have to restart the PDF file again.

Although there is the list to the additional exercises, which are made for this course, I'll list them below:

Greetings Practice
  1. Flashcards - link
  2. Learn- link
  3. MicroMatch- link
  4. Gravity- link
  5. Test- link




Thursday, June 19, 2014

Jesam or Sam in Serbian?

After uploading a hundred of videos both from Serbian 101 and Serbian 102 course, and revising each of them, Ivan decided to help me with his 3D effects vidos. So far he's made 30 short videos with the verbs used in the course, in the present and past tense so far, but he plans to make 5 more each day.

I'll post some of them here on the blog, but for the complete version, refer to the Serbian101-102 course. Here comes its short description:

Serbian 101 &102 is perfect for absolute and false beginners in Serbian. It is organized in such a way that you can either follow it chronologically, or choose only the topics you are interested in. Each topic consists of an explanatory video lesson and then video exercises with links to follow-up quizzes with instant feedback. 
There are more than 100 lessons making well over 10 hours of video lessons and exercises which take you from the very start to the pre-intermediate level, covering:
  • Tenses: Present Simple and Past Simple Tense
  • Cases: Nominative, Accusative, Instrumental and Locative
  • Modals: Can, Must
  • Pronouns: Personal and Possessive Pronouns
  • Adjectives: Possessive Adjectives and Noun-adjective Agreement
  • Numbers: Cardinal and Ordinal
as well as basic:
  • functions such as:
    • Greetings
    • Introductions
    • Asking for Clarification/Explanation
    • Asking about Directions
    • Giving Directions
    • Requesting 
    • Offering
    • Expressing Likes and Dislikes
    • Asking about Likes and Dislikes
  • situations such as:
      • Meeting People
      • Small Talk
      • In a Restaurant
      • Shopping
      • Arranging a Meeting
      • Talking about Family
      • Talking about Routines
      • Talking about your Life
  • vocabulary topics such as:
    • Family members
    • Numbers
    • Food
    • Souvenirs
    • Places in a city
    • Countries and Cities
    • Means of transport
    • Colours
    • Jobs and occupations

Friday, August 16, 2013

Funny Grammatical Categories in Serbian

One of the funny grammatical categories you might come across in Serbian are "animate" vs. "inanimate"  nouns, which is for instance reflected in the Accusative declensions, only for Sg. Masculine. This means that just because you've seen (to see = videti)  or taken a photo ((u)slikati) of a person, not a thing, a noun like "dečak" will take the Genitive declension markers (suffix -a)  instead of Accusative (zero suffix), although it's still an Accusative case. (I'm talking only about the form here).

For example: Ovo je dečak. Videla sam dečaka. Slikala sam dečaka. (there's also a stress change from the first to the second syllable).



While the linguists dwell on these topics and enjoy discussing whys and ifs of such irregularities, I always enjoy helping you in the most practical way. That's why Ivan and I created these two videos, carefully choosing nouns both in singular and then in plural and grouping them. With both videos you can practice saying simple sentences, with the verbs:
  • videti (to see )
  • fotografisati  = slikati = uslikati (to take a photo of )
  • snimati (to record)
The first video covers the grammatical category of "inanimate" objects:

The second one is obviously all about "animate" category - this time the topic is "people " (so switch to the Genitive endings for masc. please).


Saturday, August 03, 2013

How to Use the Serbian Conjugator ?

If you've practised the Accusative form of the nouns and pronouns with the video in the previous post, it's time to expand your confidence onto the verbs which require a noun/pronoun in this case. With all the listed nouns (TV, pegla, mobilni telefon, mašina za veš ...), the following verbs, properly conjugated, will make sense:
  • videti (to see) Present Tense conjugations: Sg: vidIM, vidIŠ, vidI Pl: vidIMO, vidITE, vidE           Past Tense : Sg: videO, videLA, videLO Pl: videLI, videLE, videLA
  • gledati (to watch) gledAM, gledAŠ, gledA - gledAMO, gledATE, gledAJU ( for the following verbs you'll see only: PRESENT Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju and for the PAST Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la )
  • imati (to have)  Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju (imaJU) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • koristiti (to use) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (koristE) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • raditi (to work) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (rade) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • popravljati (to fix) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju (popravljaju) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • uključiti (to turn on) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (uključe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • isključiti (to turn off) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (isključe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • kupiti (to buy) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (kupe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • prodati (to sell) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (prodate) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • vratiti (to return) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (vrate) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • (po)kvariti se (to break down) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (pokvare) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
  • baciti (to throw away) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (bace) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
If you are a beginner in Serbian, let's focus on the present simple tense and practise conjugating out loud with the:

Present tense examples:
  • Imam telefon, ali GA ne gledam.
  • Moj brat ima mašinu za sudove i često JE koristi.
If you are at an intermediate level, I guess that dealing with the past simple won't be much of the problem. The idea of this blog post is to encourage you to become more fluent and confident. That's why you can simply learn/revise past simple in Serbian and make a few similar sentences like in the example:

Past tense examples:
  • Kupili smo mobilni telefon i čim smo GA uključili, odmah se pokvario.
  • Moj sin je popravio peglu i kada sam videla kako dobro radi bacila sam JE. 

Monday, April 01, 2013

Easy Serbian Lessons -365 days of Serbian

If you downloaded Serbian 101 e-book, you can easily access the video lessons explaining how to use the verb TO BE and practice both writing and speaking with it:


Uvod = Introduction

Watch the videos and try to pronounce the personal pronouns  and the verb TO BE together.

Video with explanations
To Be - Classroom Practice
Online Exercise 1
 Online Exercise 2


Let me remind you that the previous beginner lessons can be found under Serbian for beginners tag, as well as on SerbianLesson pages.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Learn Serbian by Singing

Learning any language by singing songs is certainly much more appealing than learning the grammar rules and doing  boring tasks. Since all the students ask for the grammar explanations in order to make sense of what is being spoken, I decided to create a few web pages with songs followed by grammar exercises, based on the lyrics. I'm curious to know if you like it ? Here comes the first 20 songs (click on the cover or the following link):

Sing &  Learn

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Parts of Speech - Exercise for Intermediate Level

One of the best ways to expand your Serbian vocabulary is to learn different parts of speech. I know it may sound difficult, but if you approach it as a game, nothing is difficult = ništa nije teško:

Don't forget to revise the previous lessons at the intermediate level!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

365 Days of Serbian Language - Beginner Lesson 3

If you practised the verb TO BE in the Serbian in my previous lessons,  I'm sure this will be an easy task for you:
  1. Mute this video before watching it and try to give / write the correct answers for each button. 
  2. You can write down the answers and then watch the video again and listen to Jeremija giving his responses. 
  3. Has he made any mistakes and if he has, correct the wrong answers (you can write the replies in the comment)


*This is also a smooth intro to the lesson on numbers in Serbian.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Serbian Language Day 9 - Pre-intermediate Course, Lesson 2

You can always revise the simple structures by following the Serbian for Beginner course tag, as well as Serbian Lesson Pages.

In our previous pre-intermediate lesson we covered:
Let's use the similar group of words, this time "places in the city" to express our whereabouts:

  • "Ćao! Gde si ?" = Hi, where are you ?
  • "Zdravo! Sada sam u muzeju. A ti ? " = Hello, I'm in the museum. And you ?
  • "Ja sam na autobuskoj stanicu ! Vidimo se za pet minuta!" = I'm at the square ! See you in five minutes! 

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Serbian Language Day 8 - Beginner Serbian, Lesson 2

Serbian for beginners, lesson 2:

If you successfully completed the previous lesson, and vežbe = exercises jedan and dva, you are ready for the followin lesson covering the phrase "This is ..." and "This isn't ...". Watch the video exercise and try to guess:
  1. what "OVO" means ?
  2. what is the negative form of "JE" ?


Answers:

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Serbian Language 365 Day 3 - Intermediate level & Past Tense

Let's practise the Simple Past Tense in the Serbian language. While the beginner and pre-intermediate courses of Serbian  focus is on phrases, present tense, modals and cases, the intermediate course focuses on aspects, explaining the subtle differences between "odmarati" and "odmoriti" and similar.

Since we are at the very beginning of everyday Serbian lesson series, let me introduce you to some of the earlier posts covering this topic:
...as well as one of the Youtube videos, which somehow connect with the yesterday's post, so now it can be easily understood:


Text : "Gde si bila ?" (Fem. Sg.) / "Gde si bio?" (Masc. Sg.) = Where were you ?
Fem. Sg. Bila sam u ...
Masc. Sg. Bio sam u ...

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Serbian Language 365 Day 2 - Serbian for Pre-intermediate Level

In the past five years I've scattered numerous blog posts with lessons of Serbian and corresponding grammatical explanations not only on this blog and Youtube and Youtube but all over the Internet. One of the many reasons for starting 365 Days of Serbian Language was to connect them and tag them correctly.

Since the previous post covered the verb TO BE in the Simple Present tense, I think that all the students who are either at elementary and pre-intermediate level can easily learn to use the same form with the Locative case, saying where you are:



At the end of each video lesson, let's revisit some of the previous posts covering the same, or similar topic:





Monday, February 11, 2013

365 Days of Learning Serbian

I've recently reread a great book "First Things First" by Stephen Covey  and it reminded me, yet again, how important it is to organize our activities well and dedicate our time to people we love and  things that matter. Learning a new language on a daily basis, or any other skill for that matter,  can make a huge difference in the long run, once we urgently need it.

That's why it struck me that I should use this blog, and all the digital teaching content I've created in years, not only to encourage you to perservere, but provide you with meaningful and graded content to learn Serbian regularly. Even if you skip a day or two,  or an entire week/month, you know that you  have everything in one place, right here !

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Serbian Verb Conjugations



Fill in the gaps with the correct verb form - you'll be able to see the Serbian verbs conjugated, above the text. You can write your answer in the comment below. For all those who'd like to more actively participate in learning Serbian, do join free Activator newsletter.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Past Tense in Serbian - Common Mistakes

If you watched our previous podcast, you'll be aware of the fact that Jeremija keeps making mistakes, and I do my best to help him understand which correct forms to use. This time the topic was "bio" or "bila":

Are there any other mistakes which I didn't correct ?

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Serbian Pronunciation - Lj and Nj

Let's practise pronunciation of the Serbian letters "lj" and "nj". In the video you'll be able to see their counterparts in the Cyrillic script. Try to listen and repeat:

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Study Serbian Pronouns

Watch this video with the Serbian pronouns in the Genitive and Accusative cases.


I added all the forms of the Personal Pronouns in Serbian below (source:wikipedia), but what's more important for you is to practise them in context. That's why I'd suggest you watch this video and then try to mute it and say the sentences while watching. 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Serbian for Beginners - Easy Lessons

If you've been following super easy lessons of Serbian, you'll be familiar with Jeremija's family and I'm sure you'll be able to solve this mystery:
Conjugation of the verb "imati" in the Present Tense:

Task:


You can leave your replies in the comments below:
Beginner lesson course: Serbian 101

Friday, June 08, 2012

Advanced Serbian - Listening Exercises

If you liked one of the previous listening comprehension lessons of Serbian at the advanced level, I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to this interview with  Biljana Krstić:



  1. Kako se zove grupa Biljane Krstić ?
  2. Kada je objavljeno licencno izdanje albuma "Bistrik" ?
  3. Gde se sve album "Tarpoš" prodaje ?
  4. Ko je sve uticao na Biljanu da se počne baviti etno muzikom ?
  5. Da li je Biljana bežala sa časova ?
  6. Šta znači reč "bistrik" ?
  7. Koliko godina postoji grupa "Bistrik" ?

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