Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Christmas in Serbian

Merry Christmas in Serbian

I am sure you are enjoying these festive days and moments with your family and friends, wherever you are! Let me wish you a peaceful and merry Christmas with this newest version of my favourite Christmas song "Oj Badnjače, Badnjače":



Learning more about Christmas in Serbian


I also want to share with you a list of great links which will help you learn more about Serbian tradition and  Christmas in Serbian:


Monday, December 15, 2014

Greetings in Serbian Pronounced

Greetings in Serbian with Pronunciation

After trying to record the pronunciation for the basic Serbian lesson greetings with my computer running on Ubunty, it hasn't occurred to me to try switching to Windows. Once I did it, I saw how simple it was to make these little Quizlets even more useful! 

Let's learn the greetings by simply listening to the pronunciation of the following words for saying hello and goodbye:

dobar dan - good afternoon
dobro veče - good evening
dobro jutro - good morning
kako ste? - how are You?
kako si? - how are you?
dobro, hvala! - well, thanks!
doviđenja - goodbye
ćao - hi / goodbye
zdravo - bye bye / goodbye
zdravo - hello
laku noć - good night

Exercises with Greetings in Serbian

Now, let's do a dictation!


Games with Greetings in Serbian

The aim of the first game is to connect the Serbian word or words with its English counterpart.



In the second game, which is real fun, you have to type the word in Serbian until its English translation reaches the end of the screen.... so the bigger the screen, the easier, haha!




Greetings in Serbian


Genitive in Serbian - Exercise with Adjectives

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 :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Conjugations in Serbian - to Shave

Why Conjugations of Brijati - To Shave

While I was watching RTS1 today I saw a very interesting and insightful story about a very old "brica", a barber who works in  "berbernica". I looked it up on Youtube, but couldn't find it on RTS1 Channel. However, there was a similar story which can be turned in another interesting lesson at an upper-intermediate or advanced level.



How to use this video and introduce relevant verb conjugations?


  • As usual, it's always great to elicit the vocabulary based on watching the video, without the audio:
  1. BRICA - barber
  2. BRIJATI Present (brijem / brijes/ brije // brijemo / brijete/ briju) -to shave (impf)
  3. BRIJATI Past (brijao / brijala / brijalo // brijali/ brijale/ brijala) - shaved (past)
  4. BRIJANJE - shaving
  5. OBRIJAN - shaved
  6. OBRIJATI - to shave (perf)
  7. IZBRIJATI/IZBRIJVATI/IZBRIJAVANJE - to clean shave
  8. BERBERNICA
  9. Collocations: brijati + bradu/glavu, savladati brijanje, brijanje glave/brade, ucenje brijanja, vezbanje brijanja, oblikovanje brade
  • Now, let's watch the video with audio this time and simply encircle the words, conjugations and collocations as you hear them. 
  • The last step is vocabulary practice, which is soon to be uploaded onto Serbian School website with videos and exercises.



Monday, November 24, 2014

Short Serbian History - Part One

This year I have discovered three real gems for learning Serbian at higher levels:
As I have already written about Naša Snajka and Državni Posao, let me introduce you to  "Mala istorija Srbije" series which present Serbian tradition and history in a didactic and lively manner. For example, while watching the first episode you can learn:



  • until what time it is safe to greet someone saying "dobro jutro"
  • what "stalni gosti" usually drink
  • what "srpski političar" looks like
  • the connotation of the word "stoka"
  • who can save you on February 24th



Now, how can you learn Serbian while watching these videos?




  1. At first turn off the audio and describe what's going on
  2. When watching the video for the second time, do listen to it and ask as many questions as possible (of course, press pause in order to manage this!). So, the aim is to understand what's going on!
  3. Retell the story using the phrases and vocabulary used by Milena, Lane, Vlasta, Vasić and Žika
Have fun! 

Monday, November 17, 2014

Passive Participle Verb Form Exercises

Passive Participle Verb Forms

The Passive Voice in Serbian is not that hard, but the main problem is the verb form called "trpni glagolski pridev", or passive participle in English. Although I have already written about it, it can be useful to mention how to form it:
*VERB STEM + -N/-NA/-NO // -NI/-NE/-NA
Example: NAPISA+TI --- napisaN, napisaNA, napisaNO // napisaNI, napisaNE, napisaNA (to write --- written)

*VERB STEM + -N/-NA/-NO // -NI/-NE/-NA
Example: NAPISA+TI --- napisaN, napisaNA, napisaNO // napisaNI, napisaNE, napisaNA (to write --- written)

*VERB STEM + -T/-TA/-TO // -TI/-TE/-TA
Example: PRODA+TI --- prodaT, prodaTA, prodaTO // prodaTI, prodaTE, prodaTA (to sell --- sold)

*VOICE CHANGES: in some cases with the verb stem ending in  -e or -i:
  • NOSITI - NOŠEN
  • VIDETI - VIĐEN
  • RANITI - RANJEN
*ADDING an infix - V or -J between the stem and the passive suffix:
  • OBUTI - OBUVEN
  • ČUTI - ČUVEN
  • UBITI - UBIJEN
  • ISPITI - ISPIJEN
To exemplify all these changes and forms with real life examples, I am in constant search of good videos. Today I came across a very useful one which I want to share with you! 

Video with Passive Participle 

Passive Participle Verb Practice

You'll be able to practise the passive participle verb forms with the following exercises which are based on the verbs in the first four minutes of the video:


Saturday, November 15, 2014

Past Tense Practice in Serbian

Past Tense Practice in Serbian

You can find lots of useful info on the Simple Past tense in Serbian in some of the previous posts on this blog. Today I'd like to share a cute song I found on Youtube - all you have to do is to listen to it carefully and add the past tense suffixes to the past tense and present tense verbs and a few suffixes with the nouns in plural. 



Dlan_ _ _ ti puni snova
Osmeh boje izazova
Reci, kud si krenu_ _?
U srcu ti ceo svemir
U oč_ _ _ kriješ nemir
Snove si sakri_ _

Zvezd_  su u tvojoj kosi
Kao da te jesen pros_
Nikom neće da te da
Hoda_ lako kao vila
Gde si se do sada kri_ _
To me baš zanima

Samoj sebi već sam čudna
Svake noći ja sam budna
Šta se sa mnom desi_ _
Tvoji prst_ na gitari
I sve te lagane stvar_
Sviraj mi ponovo

Malo čežnje na tvom licu
Leptir slete_ na žicu
Nebo se osmehu_ _
Probaj sa mnom sne da deli_
Šapući mi sve što želiš
Niko nas ne čuje

Hajde da malo proba_ _
Baš to x3
Jagod_ s puno šlaga
Ti si mi tako draga
Pa nek ide sve
Do vraga

Hajde da malo krade_ _
Baš to x3
Osmeh od sladoleda
Noć ima ukus meda
Šta je iza tvog pogleda

Source and download via Youtube channel Vanja Grastić



If you are not sure about the meaning, I prepared a quiz with which you can learn the words, and later on you can try to sing the song :)

Let's learn the vocabulary:
Let's listen:
Let's play:

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
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