Learn Serbian: genitive in Serbian

Showing posts with label genitive in Serbian. Show all posts

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Serbian Genitive - Part 3

Marina genitive in Serbian ,

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

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

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!

Greetings from Genitive - Part 2

Marina easy Serbian , Genetive in Serbian

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

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?

Sunce kaže:
Majmun kaže:
Ptica kaže:
Dečko kaže:

B. Where are = Gde su...

dečko (a boy)
devojčica (a girl)
pingvin (a penguin)
ptica (a bird)
majmun (a monkey)
sunce (the sun)
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:

Ja sam iznad zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja ptica?
Danas sam ispred zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja mačka?
Oni su iznad mene! Ko su oni? Ko sam ja?
On nije iznad mačke! Ja sam iznad mačke! Ko sam ja?

What happens with the following nouns?

zgrada = building
ptica = bird
mačka = cat
devojčica = girl
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:

Iznad zgradE = above the building
Ispod pticE = under the bird
Pored mačkE = beside the cat
Iza devojčicE = behind the girl
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:

Wh-? questions: Ko sam ja = Who am I and Ko su oni? Who are they?
Yes-no questions: Da li sam ja pingvin? = Am I a penguin?

With the verb to be=biti, it is obvious that there is

a wh-? question word before an inversion (ja sam becomes KO sam ja)
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...

Serbian Genitive - Greetings from London, Part 1

Marina genitive in Serbian ,

What a lovely morning for such an easy Serbian Genitive photo lesson:

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:

iz = from
under / below = ispod
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 /Izraela

Days of the Week in Serbian at Three Levels

Marina Accusative in Serbian , genitive in Serbian

I'm sure that you find Serbian days of the week easy to pronounce. However, if you still struggle with Thursday (četvrtak), there's a useful introduction in this video to help you pronounce days well.

Since rarely does anyone use days of the week in its Nominative form:

1. Ponedeljak = Monday = Понедељак

2. Utorak = Tuesday = Уторак

3. Sreda = Wednesday = Среда

4. Četvrtak = Thursday = Четвртак

5. Petak = Friday = Петак

6. Subota = Saturday = Субота

7. Nedelja = Sunday = Недеља

Let me share with you a few exercises at three different levels:

A. Days of the Week in Serbian

a. Flashcards
b. Matching game
c. Gravity game
d. Test

B: What are you doing on + DAY ( Accusative case )? = Šta radiš u subotu?

Let's practice together:

a. Flashcards
b. Matching game
c. Gravity game
d. Test

C: Words "svaki / sledeći / naredni / drugi + day "will trigger the Genitive case of both the adjective and the noun in the question:"What are you doing next Monday?" = "Šta radiš sledećeg ponedeljka?"

Let's practice together:

a. Flashcards
b. Matching game
c. Gravity game
d. Test

Genitive in Serbian - Exercise with Adjectives

Marina genitive in Serbian ,

Genitive in Serbian

Let me announce a series of blog posts about the Genitive in Serbian with exercises. Theory can be easy to learn, but what's more difficult is to actually produce correct sentences and phrases.

That's why I want to encourage you to play with the Quizlets I make for you and keep saying the words in Serbian out loud, especially while playing the SpaceRace :)

Practising Genitive in Serbian

Here comes the answer key:

od čistog zlata - of pure gold
prljave šolje - (of a) dirty mug
od tamnog odela - of dark suit
od svetlih gradova - of light cities
prijatnih žena - (of) pleasant women
od neprijatane dece - (of) unpleasant children
širokog osmeha - (of) broad smile
iz uske ulice - out of narrow street
od visokog čoveka - from the tall man
od niske žene - from the short woman
iz lepog sela - from the beautiful village
od ružnih pasa - of ugly dogs
od pametnih - from smart friends
od glupih političara - from stupid politicians
od duge suknje - of the long skirt
kratkih rukava - (of) short sleeves
od vrednih ljudi - from hardworking people
od lenje dece - from lazy kids
od dobrih roditelja - of good parents
lošeg uticaja - (of) bad influence
jasnih uputstava - (of) clear directions
nejasnih misli - (of) unclear thought
omiljenih kolača - (of) favorite cookies
udobnog kreveta - (of) comfortable bed
prazne kese - (of) empty bag
pune šake - (of a) full hand
srećne žene - (of a) happy woman
prostranih soba - (of) spacious rooms
nesrećnih kolega - (of) unhappy colleagues
bogatog muža - (of a) rich husband

Test with Genitive in Serbian

So you can try to do the test now :)

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Thursday, May 25, 2017