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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Showing posts sorted by date for query songs in serbian. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query songs in serbian. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Easy Way to Learn Serbian Pronouns

In order to start speaking Serbian fluently, the best way to automatically recall the whole phrases and chunks of language is to listen to films and songs in Serbian (and  preferably sing along). For example, in the chorus of this song you can hear the following phrase over and over again:
Nije za nju, nije za nju ...za nju je ...
and I bet you won't make any mistakes in the future if you want simply to say:
  • ...for her = ...za nju
  • ... isn't for her = ... nije za nju 


On these pages you can find the :
...and don't forget to make the most of the first Serbian with Songs free e-book!

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Serbian Idioms and Phrases with Verb "nositi" - Part 1

If you enjoyed reading the previous post about different meanings of the verb " nositi " in Serbian, I am sure you'll find this list of common phrases and idioms with the same verb quite interesting :

  • Vreme nosi svoje (breme) / sve u svoje vreme (а)= everything is good in its season
The examples are from the various internet sites:
Svako vreme nosi svoje breme koje ga karakteriše i identifikuje. To breme ga u isto vreme razlikuje i čini sličnim prethodnim epohama. Tako i dvadeset prvi vek, poput svojih prethodnika, donosi pregršt pitanja, problema i nedoumica, stavlja ih pred savremenog čoveka kao izazove, kao svojevrsne zadatke koje ovaj treba da reši.
ili
Vreme nosi svoje. Sedamdesetih godina ljudi su se najviše družili sa gitarom i ljudsko uho je bilo neverovatno naklonjeno zvuku tog angažovanog pesničkog izražavanja uz gitaru koja nije tražila nikakva elektronska pomagala.
  • Nositi glavu u torbi (б)= to live in constant danger, to tempt fate, to stick one's neck out. For example: 
Uprkos visokoj sigurnosti bolida Formule 1 i staza, piloti najbržeg cirkusa na svetu ne smatraju se bez razloga najhrabrijim sportistima današnjice koji, iz trke u trku, nose glavu u torbi.
ili
Oni nose glavu u torbi da bi mi bili sigurni. 
  • Zaklati gusku/koku koja nosi zlatna jaja (в) = to destroy a source of income, to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. For example:
Šta god da se priča, malo je verovatno da će kineski vodji ubiti "koku koja nosi zlatna jaja", odnosno odustati od 9,5 procenata godišnjeg ekonomskog rasta od 1979.
ili
...ova vlada ce nam dati svakome gusku koja nosi zlatna jaja samo da dobiju izbore,a ako dobiju ostaje nam samo perje od guske jer i guska i jaja odose...
  • Nositi zmiju u nedrima & Gajiti guju u nedrima (г) = to befriend a treacherous person, to nurse a viper in one's bosom. For example:
p.s. ovo na dobro ne može da ispadne ima iz istorije poznata epioda koja je sažeta u sintagmi "gajiti zmiju u nedrima Rima"! Taj datum ama baš ništa neće značiti, ja malo pratim medije, i trovanje naroda ponovo ušlo u 4 brzinu.
or
Above the title: "Zmija" u nedrima vlasti 

As you have noticed I added the examples ranging from current affairs articles, folk songs to ordinary people's comments, just to show that these idioms are frequently used. Since there is a list of eight more phrases with the verb "nositi", I'll divide this post into three parts in order to give you as many examples as possible.

Ако учите српски већ дуже време и већ сте на напредном нивоу, сигурно ће вам се свидети вежба да за сваки пример дате различито значење речи "носити" из претходног поста. На пример значење речи "носити", у примеру  а,  је исто као и у примеру б, док је различито од значења у примерима в и г :)

Part 2:
  • Ne zna se šta nosi dan, a šta no
  • Koja kokoš mnogo kokodače, malo jaja nosi
  • Nositi svoj krst
  • Nositi se mišlju
Part 3:
  • Idi gde te (oči vode i) noge nose
  • Pas laje, vetar nosi
  • Plati pa nosi
  • Nositi breme

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Serbian for Children - Numbers

Saturday, June 01, 2013

Practising Serbian Pronouns

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

Saturday, March 09, 2013

Learn Serbian 365 Days with Songs and Poems - Branko Miljković

If you are at upper-intermediate or advanced level of Serbian, I'm sure you'll fall in love with this poem at first sight/hearing :) Zaljubićete se u ovu pesmu Branka Miljkovića na prvi pogled / prvo slušanje :)



If you are not sure about the words and the meanings, you'll  find it on this lyricstranslation.com page.
For all those who'd like to practise the Genitive case after the preposition "zbog" = because of, here is the exercise based on this magnificient poem.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Learn Serbian for 365 Days - Songs and Poems

Last time I explained why I incorporated so many beautiful Serbian songs into my teaching. Besides these popular songs, I'd also like to share the well-known poems, which are the part of Serbian culture and heritage.

Although learning them by heart is not very popular nowadays, I still remember many a verse because we had to learn them by heart at school a few decades ago (yes, I'm that old). Once you mention a few lines of a well-known verse, it will surely enrich the conversation, triggering some deeper layers of meaning and connotation.

That's why I'll create a follow-up exercise, for each poem or song, which you can do while listening to the pronunciation. I'll emphasize in bold the most prominent and recognizable lines, so you can learn them if you wish to :)

Let me start with the beautiful Santa Maria Della Salute by one of the most notable Serbian poets, Laza Kostić:



Sunday, February 17, 2013

Serbian Language 365 - Day 6 Phrases in Serbian

Many of you who have joined my online lessons, accompanying Serbian language courses, already know that I've had so much precious insight into learning Serbian from my mother-in-law who is French. She told me how difficult it was for her to learn the language from books, and she actually started speaking the language and becoming fluent when she threw away all her grammar books and textbooks and started learning phrases and letting her children correct her mistakes. You can imagine why: since Serbian is a highly flective language, one can come across many suffixes which are the same, denoting different cases (like "vidim pitU" (Acc.Sg.Fem.) in contrast with "ja sam u BeogradU" (Locative, Sg. Masc.)), which can only confuse you.

In reality, if you stopped to think what you'd say, you'd never become fluent. The key to learning ANY language is always immersion, either by spending time in the country where the language is spoken, or watching films, singing songs or being surrounded by  people speaking only the target language. In case none of the above is possible, you can always  learn the set phrases, which will help you become fluent.

Learning grammar is always a "reverse engineering" process  - and it should stay that way. That's why I will always publish one "Serbian phrases video lesson" based on a situation covered in my Serbian phrases e-book on Sundays. Lots of my students told me it was highly useful and practical, and I'm sure you'll find it the same!



Pozdravi na srpskom (Greetings in Serbian)

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Serbian Language 365 - Day 5 Singing in Serbian

If you have been following this blog, you've certainly noticed that there are a lot of songs with which you can practise your language. The main reason is that songs will help you with fluency, because while singing you repeat the same structures, collocations and fixed verb+case noun sets, and this boosts your confidence and automatic responses.

Before I continue creating new songs+exercises, such as this one, let me give you a short review of the past songs and grammar points which my students really loved:

Saturday, December 24, 2011

New Year Songs in Serbian

Listen to these New Year and Christmas songs in Serbian and match the titles with the songs:
А- Анђели певају
Б - Деда Мраз
В- Зима, зима е па шта је
Г - Падајте, падајте с неба беле звезде
Д - Звончићи

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Practise Genitive Case in Serbian

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Adjective Comparison in Serbian

Want to practise comparing adjectives in Serbian ? Best way is to do it in relaxed atomsphere, while listening to "old-town songs" and  playing the comparison  game I made for you, rather than learning the myriads of sound change rules :) Hope you like it!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Serbian School Activator Revisited

In January I proudly presented my most beautiful site, www.skolasrpskog.com and the new concept of teaching Serbian online, which I called SkolaSrpskog Activator. It's been working for six months now, and I am really satisfied with all the language materials I've created in this period:

1. My Youtube channel www.youtube.com/learnserbian has 100 videos more (there were only about 20 up to 2011, and now there are 125, with 99 being visible).

2. The initial concept of an online session which was to consist of a language exercise, recipe and a song, has been changed, according to the feedback of all the subscribers. Still, at the end of each session, we enjoy singing one of the songs which I carefully choose each week.

3. I started adding all the explanations and exercises into pdf files, and also creating fun quizzes with the instand feedback. Some of the pages based on the situational phrases can be downloaded in pdf format from www.SkolaSrpskog.com.

4. During Easter, I organized some kind of an "online language quest" and we all had fun chasing Easter eggs on the site (some of them are still hidden there :) and doing fun exercises in Serbian. Some of the participants won  free SkolaSrpskog Activator subscription, some won free 1:1 lessons, and I won many new friends and great ideas for our lessons :-)

5. I started gathering anonymous feedback, and here are just a few lines:
"Everything is super"
"I appreciate the amount of work the instructor puts into the experience. The YouTube videos are helpful"
"Everithing, and my teacher is lovely and flexibile, she love teaching us"

However, all that I've done and created so far is hardly mentioning  in comparison to the effort my students have put into their work. They regularly attend the lessons and I am really proud of each one of them.

Today, on Britannia bookshop site, one of my most proficient students of Serbian, Jelena from Санкт-Петербург, Russia  published  the first part of our interview, which was very much inspired by our SkolaSrpskog Activator lessons.

Hvala Jelena i hvala svim đacima, Jani, Fabijanu, Matiji, Lari, Mirku, Milici, Toniju, Silvini, Ljubi i Tini na ukazanom poverenju, istrajnosti i velikom trudu :) U avgustu ćemo napraviti mali raspust, i onda opet nastavljamo sa časovima u septembru.

For all of you who'd like to learn more about SkolaSrpskog Activator, do join FB SkolaSrpskog Podcast group and you will be invited to attend our Third Friday Free Serbian lessons.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Learn Serbian with Children's Songs

Let's practise the Genetive case in Serbian with this lovely song:



Nema __________ ni planete (world =svet)
Gde _________ stići dete, (can not)
Jer sve ______________ staze vode (children's = deca)
Od igre do _________________.(freedom = sloboda)

Nema __________ ni planete (world =svet)
Gde _________ stići dete, (can not)
Jer sve ______________ staze vode (children's = deca)
Od igre do _________________.(freedom = sloboda)

Chorus:
Cveće je ukras ______________ (of garden = bašta)
Leptir je ukras _____________, (of flower= cvet)
A deca puna _____________ (of imagination = mašta)
Deca __________ (are)
Ukras _____________... (of the world = svet)

Chorus

_____________ pesme tihe tajne (beautiful=lep)
Sve ljubavi _____________ sjajne, (of children's = deca)
Neka planu _________ se rode (let's)
Od ___________ do slobode. (from game/play = igra)

Chorus

Happy Holidays from Ivan&Marina & Nat (AhoyThere)

Saturday, January 02, 2010

What are you doing in Serbian

Endings for the 1st, -am, conjugation group of verbs in Serbian in the Present Tense are
-am - aš - a -amo -ate -aju


Endings for the Accusative Fem. Nouns:

Nouns in Singular
+ question ''šta'' (what) requires the noun in Accusative - find out what the rule is for the Nouns which are Feminine Singular:
  1. ŠTA ČEKAŠ? ČEKam tvoj ODGOVOR. (odgovor - answer)
  2. ŠTA ČITAŠ? ČITam KNJIGU. (knjiga - book)
  3. ŠTA GLEDAŠ? GLEDam PRIREDBU. (priredba - show)
  4. ŠTA IGRAŠ? IGRam ODBOJKU. (odbojka - volleyball)
  5. ŠTA IMAŠ? IMam SVESKU. (sveska - notebook)
Let's practise: 

Yes, you are right, the ending for Sg. Fem. Noun in Accusative is - U, while
Sg. Masc and neuter have no endings (at least not in the inanimate category).
Now, let's check what's happening in the Plural with Fem. nouns:
  1. ŠTA OBOŽAVAŠ? OBOŽAVAM KNJIGe. (knjiga - knjige = book - books)
  2. ŠTA PEVAŠ? PEVAM PESMe. (pesma - pesme = song -songs)
  3. ŠTA PRIČAŠ? PRIČAM PRIČe. (priča - priče = story - stories)
  4. ŠTA KUPUJEŠ? KUPUJEM HALJINe. (haljina - haljine = dress - dresses)
  5. ŠTA RUČAŠ? RUČAM PEČURKe. (pečurka - pečurke = mashrooms)
  6. ŠTA ČEKAŠ ? ČEKAM ODGOVORe (odgovori - odgovore = answers)
Yeees, you are rigth again - since Fem. Nouns in Plural take -e, in Accusative Pl, nothing changes ;)

Pl. Masc. gets an -i ending, and it also changes to  -e, like in "odgovor" - so for plural, don't think
twice, simply add -E and you'll do it splendidly :)

Neuter nouns in Pl. add -a, but then they don't change in Accusative, which is also very nice. So, we
have the example "odelo" in Sg., "odela" in Pl. and then, "Kupio sam odela" IN Acc. is the same.

Let's practise:


Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Children's songs in Serbian


Listen to the song and write the appropriate form of the word in brackets. Good luck = Srećno!

Vuče, vuče, bubo lenja



Neko pliva u ____________
(Sava - one of the longest rivers in Serbia)
Neko živi u ____________
(Ruma - name of a city in Vojvodina)
Neko raste u ____________
(trava - grass)
A vuk živi u ____________
(šuma - forest)


U __________ (škola - school) ga ne vide
__________ (nemati - doesn't have) ni maturu
U muzeje ne _________ (ići - go)
Prezire kulturu


Vuuuče vuučue bubo leenjaa
Štaa će reeći pokoleenjaa
Vodio si život buuuraan
Pa ostao nekultuuuuraaaan


Usta su _________
(his) snažna
Duša _________
(his) je drumska
Obećanja lažna
A ćud ________
(his) je šumska


Kad _________
(is) srećan leži
Kad _________
(is) ljut on reži
Ka zverstvima teži
_______
(when) ga vidiš beži

Vuuuče vuučue bubo leenjaa
Štaa će reeći pokoleenjaa
Vodio si život buuuraan
Pa ostao nekultuuuuraaaan!

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