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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Monday, August 19, 2013

Who is More Dangerous ?

I surely wasn't doing a great job tagging and linking the blog posts properly when I first started it back in 2007 - 2008. As it transpired, it seems there were only two posts covering the topic of comparison of adjectives in Serbian ! Shame on me ! This should be urgently fixed...

For now, try to compare the animals you see in the video sticking to the following sentence structure, using only the adjective "dangerous" = opasan (comparative : Singular: opasniji (masc) - opasnija(fem) - opasnije (neut.) Plural: opasniji (masc) - opasnije (fem) - opasnija (neut) )

  • For pre-intermediate level: Lav je opasniji od zebre (Gen. of "zebra")
  • For intermediate and upper levels: Mislim da je lav opasniji od zebre.



Animals in the video with their Genitive form:

  1. zebra - od zebre
  2. tigar  - od tigra
  3. ajkula - od ajkule
  4. orao - od orla
  5. medved = od medveda
  6. lav = od lava
  7. panda = od pande
  8. vuk = od vuka
  9. žirafa = od žirafe
  10. aligator = od aligatora
  11. golub = od goluba
  12. zmija = od zmije
  13. lane = od laneta


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Serbian Idioms and Phrases with "faliti"

If you are wondering how I choose the topics for everyday blog posts, the answer is very simple: they are based on the questions my students ask me in our online lessons.

One of the recent ones was to list phrases with the verb "faliti", which can mean "to miss", "not to have", "to lack", but in some idioms it cannot be translated in such a simplistic manner:

  • Šta fali ? = So what ? or What's wrong with that ? This phrase is often used to strongly disagree with someone who has a different point of view. Let me make up a short dialogue: 
Ana:   Nemoj piti tu vodu !
Pera:  Što ? Šta joj fali ????


  • Fali joj/mu daska u glavi ! = To have a screw loose in one's head or Not to have all their marbles. 
Na primer: Šta ovaj bunca ? - Ma pusti ga!  Očigledno mu fali daska u glavi !


  • Neće ti faliti ni dlaka s glave ! = Not a hair on your head will be harmed ! 
Na primer: Ne smeju ti ništa dok sam ja uz tebe! Ne brini, neće ti faliti ni dlaka s glave !

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment box below ;-)

Serbian for Kids - Bedtime Stories

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).


Thursday, August 15, 2013

What Does it Mean in Serbian ?

A  photo I took the other day - just for you  :)

If you don't understand what's being said ( or written ) in Serbian, you can always ask questions such as:
  • Šta znači " Gazda bio, gazda ost'o 100 % " ? = What does "..." mean ?
  • Ne razumem = I don't understand
  • Možeš li da mi objasniš (šta znači) "..." ? = Can you explain what  "..." mean ?
  • Možeš li da ponoviš "..." ? = Can you repeat "..." ?
  • Ponovi još jednom, molim te ? = Repeat once again, please ?
  • Molim ? = Pardon ?
  • Možeš li da ponoviš malo sporije ? = Can you repeat it a bit slower ?
  • Kako se izgovara ova reč ? = How do you pronounce this word ?
  • Kako se čita ova reč / ovo slovo ? = How do I read this word / letter ?
  • Kako se piše slovo "ć" ? = How do you write letter "ć" ?
Da li neko ima ideju kako najbolje prevesti " Gazda bio, gazda ost'o 100 %" ?


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