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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Serbian 401 - Must in Serbian

Must and Had to in Serbian - Serbian 401 

There is a series of lessons in Serbian 401 course about Dragana, Zvonko and Boris. This is an introductory one where your task is to guess what they do for living based on the short text. 

The first step would be to see which of the following modal verbs are missing in these three short texts:

MORATI  (have to ) - SMETI  (be allowed to) - MOĆI (can) 
NE MORATI (not have to ) - NE SMETI (mustn't) - NE MOĆI (cannot)



Must be  = mora da je 

  • Ako Dragana radi u operacionoj sali, znači da radi u bolnici i  može biti lekar, medicinska sestra ili anesteziolog. 
  • Ako Zvonko radi u sudu, ali samo po pozivu, onda mora da je sudski veštak.
  • Ako boris puno putuje, upoznaje puno uspešnih ljudi i mora da trenira mozak svakog dana, može biti ili menadžer/direktor ili simultani prevodilac. 

Must, Can and Mustn't in Serbian - Exercise



Monday, November 11, 2019

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions with Verbs which Require Accusative


In the previous lessons of Serbian 301, you practiced:

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions


Now, let's practice asking questions about these photos! Let me give you a few examples.


  1. Šta žena čita? Ona čita novine.
  2. Gde sedi žena koja čita novine?  Sedi u kafiću.
  3. Da li žena  koja  sedi u kafiću pije kafu ili vino? Ona pije kafu.
  4. Šta nosi žena  koja  čita novine? Nosi beretku.
  5. Gde ide žena koja  nosi kafu? Ide na posao.
  6. Gde su ljudi? Oni su u muzeju.
  7. Šta ljudi  koji su u muzeju gledaju? Gledaju veliku sliku.
  8. Gde su ove devojčice? One su u vozu.
  9. Šta čitaju devojčice  koje su u vozu? Čitaju Hari Potera
  10. Gde je ova crkva? Na Novom Zelandu.
  11. Kako izgledaju ljudi koji idu u crkvu? Ljudi koji posećuju crkvu su stari.

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions in Cyrillic Script

Let's fill in the gaps while reading the same questions in the Cyrillic script.







Wednesday, November 06, 2019

Serbian 201 - Present and Past of Raditi

One of the best ways to practice different tenses is to contrast them.  Today, the focus is on the verb TO WORK = raditi. Can you figure out which one is PAST and which one is PRESENT tense?

  1. Šta radiš?
  2. Šta si radila?
  3. Radimo u školi. 
  4. Radili smo u bolnici. 
  5. Sada ništa ne radim.
  6. Nisam ništa radila.
Yes, I am sure you guessed that 1-3-5 sentences are in the present tense and the others are in the past. Now, let's do one exercise to choose the verb which is missing

Present and Past of Raditi - Exercise




Exercise with Present and Past of Raditi


Game with Present and Past of Raditi


Present and Past of Raditi - Test





Monday, November 04, 2019

Serbian 101 - Telling Time in Serbian Exercise

Telling Time in Serbian - Exercises


Let's practice telling the time in Serbian with the following series of exercises:



Telling Time in Serbian - Learning



Telling Time in Serbian - Game



Telling Time in Serbian - Test






Friday, November 01, 2019

Srpski 102 - Lokativ, drugi deo

I am sure you managed to find all the page numbers in the book Ko je ko? Here comes a mobile friendly exercise to help you with pages number 28 to 26. Have fun



Don't forget to flick through the pages in the sample version. If you like it, the book can be purchased through Amazon, or at a special price for the bulk purchase, for the followers of the blog through my BookMe page :)

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Serbian for Kids - Locative Case Fun Way




Serbian for Kids - Locative Case

There are two parts in this video. In the first part you are just listening to me searching for and finding numbers. In the second part, I added the answer key to the left and right, so you can see why some words get an "i" at the end, and the others get an "u" at the end. 
So, whenever you want to say that you are somewhere, we use the Locative case which will change the ending of the word which describes your the location. The same is with the numbers in this video. 

Locative Case Fun Way

Words ending in -a (most of Feminine, Singular)
GDE su brojevi stranica? 
OGRADA -  4 je na ogradi
ČARAPA - 6 je na čarapi
TRAVA - 8 je na travi
PATIKA - 10 je na patici
MAJICA - 14 je na majici
KOŠULJA - 14 je na košulji
ŠKOLA - 16 je na školi
KLACKALICA - 18 je na klackalici
PALMA -  20 je na palmi
KOSA - 22 je na kosi
TRAMPOLINA - 24 je na trampolini 
 Words ending in a consonant (Masc. Sg.) or -E/O (Neut. Sg.)
BALON - 5 je na balonu
OBLAK - 7 je na oblaku
CVET  - 9 je na cvetu
DRVO - 11 je na drvetu
ŠORC  - 13 je na šorcu
TOBOGAN - 15 je na toboganu
CIRKUS - 21 je na cirkusu
KROV - 21 je na krovu
OBRAZ - 23 je na obrazu
LICE  - 23 je na licu
U potrazi za ostalim brojevima = Searching for other numbers
Now it's time for you to search the other part of the book and write in the comments where all the other numbers are... I'm curious! Jedva čekam vaše odgovore :)

Friday, October 25, 2019

Serbian 401 - Mala istorija Srbije, drugi deo

Serbian 401 - Mala istorija Srbije, drugi deo


Sigurna sam da ste uživali vežbajući srpski uz Malu istoriju Srbije, prvi deo. Danas stiže drugi deo da vidim koliko se sećate i šta ste naučili do sada ;)

Mala istorija Srbije - vežba, Serbian 401




Perfective and imperfective "se" verbs in  Serbian 401 - Mala istorija Srbije, drugi deo

  1. SMEJATI SE = to laugh (nasmejem se/nasmejao sam se - smejem se/smejao sam se)
  2. UDARATI SE = to hit oneself (udarim se/udario sam se - udaram se/udarao sam se)
  3. ZAGRCNUTI SE /zadaviti se = to choke oneself with food (zagrcnem se/zagrncuo sam se - zadavim se/zadavio sam se)
  4. DEŠAVATI SE = to happen (desi se/ desilo se - dešava se / dešavalo se)
  5. ZVATI SE = to be called (this is used both as a perf. and imperf. verb, but I can add a similar perf. form with a slight change in meaning (give oneself a name): prozovem se/prozvao sam se - zovem se / zvao sam se)... this reminded me of two-aspect verbs, which we could cover in the future!
Nadam se da ste uživali gledajući seriju Mala istorija Srbije i radeći vežbe!

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Serbian 301 - Retelling Story

In Serbian 301 one is practicing to confidently ask and answer questions about some past tense events. This can be practiced in different ways:

  • talking about your past, or past events in your life
  • talking about your friends and family and their experiences
  • retelling a short story that we have previously learnt
  • retelling an interesting film/book plot
Additionally, you can also practice telling a story based on a suitable song. Let's take Kristing by Zdravko Čolić, for example!

Retelling Story in Serbian - Song 


Retelling Story in Serbian

For the sake of understanding here comes a page with the lyrics translation (not the perfect one, though, but you'll get the gist) and now you can practice retelling the story with the following set of exercises:







Retelling Story by asking questions

Now that you know what has actually happen, can you add your questions in the comments below?
Let me start with just a few:
  1. Kada je Zdravko išao na salaš?
  2. Gde je bio salaš?
  3. Šta sve znači "društvo"?
  4. Ko je stajao na vratima?
  5. Šta je petrolejka?

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Serbian 201 - Zvati SE in Past Tense

In the previous post we practiced the phrase "what's your name" or "how are you called" = "kako se zoveš" in Present Tense. Today we are practicing the same phrase but in the past tense with the family vocabulary :)

Zvati se in Past Tense - MATCH



Learning Zvati se in Past  



Test with zvati se in Past


Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Serbian 102 - Word order with SE

It can be tricky to learn how to cope with some simple sentences and questions when this "se" word shows up. The best way to cope with it is to practice with a set of familiar phrases:

Word order with SE - Learn


Word order with SE - Flashcards


Word order with SE - Match


Monday, October 21, 2019

Serbian 101 - Asking Simple Questions in Serbian

Asking Questions about different topics


In the previous posts there are a bunch of exercises to practice asking questions in Serbian. You can find all of them here.

Today, I'll add some exercises for you to practice and play with:



Asking Questions with Ti 

Flashcards



Match



Learn


Asking Questions with Vi 


Flashcards



Match



Learn

Friday, October 11, 2019

PO- Prefix with Verbs - Serbian 701

One of the common and very productive ways of expanding a verb meaning is the process of "prefixation" in Serbian. While in English this additional meaning is conveyed through use of different tenses or prepositions in phrasal verbs, at a sentence level, in Serbian it is achieved through only one word, at the lexicology level.

Today we are talking about PO- prefix and its meanings.

Meaning of Po- Prefix in Serbian

There are five main meanings of PO- prefix when added to a verb. These are as follows:
  1. making a perfective verb out of an imperfective one: jesti - pojesti
  2. adding up "distributive meaning", often combined with the word "sve": krasti - pokrasti (there will be a special post dedicated to this)
  3. beginning of the action: leteti -  poleteti
  4. spatial meaning (additional meaning "over") : bacati -  pobacati
  5. action which lasts for a long time: živeti - poživeti

Exercise with Po- Prefix in Serbian

Let me add five lists of verbs for which you have to decide which group they belong to:

Can you think of any other examples?

Here are some of my ideas:

  1. pokisnuti
  2. poleteti
  3. pozlatiti
  4. pokrenuti 
  5. polupati
  6. posvađati 
  7. porazbijati
  8. pokrasti



Examples with Po- Prefix in Serbian Literature

Here comes the famous story Sve će to narod pozlatiti by Laza Lazarević, written back in 1881. 




- What is the meaning of the noun ZLATO and verb POzlatiTI?
- What meaning(s) does this prefix add?
- What is the gist of the story?

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