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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Speaking practice with Accusative, Questions and Conjugations

Watch this video and do the following exercises:



Speaking Exercise 1.
***Say the coulours as you see them (key in the comment)
Speaking Exercise 2.
*** Start with simple sentences such as:
''I like (green colour)/I don't like (blue colour)"
= VOLIM ZELENu /NE VOLIM PLAVu
(bear in mind that after this verb you need Accusative case:
plava boja --->plavu boju )
Speaking Exercise 3.
*** Say what you see (videti) "I can see (blue colour)" = VIDIM PLAVu BOJu
Speaking Exercise 4.
*** Ask a question "Can you see blue or green colour?"
a. form > DA LI VIDIŠ PLAVu ILI ZELENu BOJu?
b. form> VIDIŠ LI PLAVu ILI ZELENu BOJu?
--- exercises 3 and 4 include Present Simple Conjugations for the first and second person Singular, but you can make it for the plural and/or Past Simple as well (I'll give you one example in the following exercise)
Speaking Exercise 5.
*** Say what you've seen "I've seen/saw blue colour"
(Fem) VIDELA SAM PLAVu BOJu
(Masc) VIDEO SAM PLAVu BOJu
Speaking Exercise 6.
*** Ask a question in the past :
"Which colour have you seen?"
(Fem) KOJU SI BOJu VIDELA?
(Masc) KOJU SI BOJu VIDEO?
"Did you see blue colour?"
(Fem) DA LI SI VIDELA PLAVu BOJu?
(Masc) DA LI SI VIDEO PLAVu BOJu?

HAVE FUN = UŽIVAJTE

Friday, June 25, 2010

Festival Time soon

The Serbian National Tourist Office has produced a handy mini-dictionary on their webpage:

MINI-DICTIONARY

http://www.srbija.travel/about-serbia/typically-serbian/mini-dictionary/?lang=en

This may be useful for those of you intending to visit Serbia.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Little Library in Serbian




As you probably know, extensive reading and listening are the best way to learn a language easily and naturally. That's why I'd like to invite all the readers of this blog to become regular followers/listeners of this precious site:www.malabiblioteka.com. I am sure you'll enjoy building up your listening and reading skills by simply flicking through its colourful pages.

Uživajte!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Nouns with Prefixes in Serbian

Srpske imenice sa prefiksima

1. BEZ- (meaning of this prefix: 'without')
n.p. (e.g.) beskućnik, bezakonje, bezvlašće

2. ZA- (meaning of this prefix is 'behind')
n.p. zavetrina, zauške, zapećak

3. MEĐU- (meaning 'between', both for time and space)
n.p. međusprat, međuprostor, međuigra

4. NA- (meaning 'on')
n.p. načelnik (head of the dept/institution, literally '0n forehead person'), narečje (dialect)

5. NAD - ('above')
n.p. nadvojvoda, nadbiskup, nadstrešnica

6. NE- ('non')
n.p. neznanje (znanje=knowledge), neuspeh (uspeh=success)

7. NUZ- ('additional')
n.p. nusprostorija, nuspojava

8. PO- ('after, afterwards', 'adoptive')
n.p. pogovor, ponedeljak (after Sunday), pomajka, pobratim, poglavlje, poslastica

9. POD- ('under or sub')
n.p. podnaslov (subtitle), potkošulja (vest), podstanar (tenant), podsvest (subconsciousness)

10. PRA- ('ancestry')
n.p. prababa (great grandma), pradeda (great grandpa), pračovek ('prehistoric man')

11. PRED- ('before', 'front')
n.p. predstraža, predjelo, predvečerje

12. PRI- ('close, near')
n.p. primorje (coastal = close to the see (more)), prikolica, prikrajak, priručnik

13. PROTIV- ('against')
n.p. protivnapad, protivprimer, protivteža, protivusluga

14. RAZ- ('dividing')
n.p. razdoblje, raskršće (krst =cross, crossroads)

15. SA- ('together or with')
n.p. saputnik (putnik=passenger, companion), saborac, sazvučje

16. SU- (similar to 'SA-')
n.p. suosnivač=saosnivač (cofounder), sugrađanin, suvlasnik, suvozač (or nowadays borrowed 'KO', as in kopilot (copilot), koatuor (coauthor)...)

17. U- ('in')
n.p. ukućanin (living 'in house'), ukosnica

18. UZ- (similar to 'along or with')
n.p. uzrečica, uzglavlje

19. O- ('about, around', or sometimes used without any specific meaning)
n.p. ogrlica, okučnica, opušak, ogranak

Monday, June 07, 2010

"Nepostojano a" in Serbian Adjectives

''Nepostojano a'' (movable, or fleeting 'a' ) with adjectives :

Masculine - Feminine - Neuter

... čovek (man) - ... žena (woman) - ... dete (child)

dobar čovek - dobra žena - dobro dete (good)

hitar - hitra - hitro (fast)

čudan - čudna - čudno (funny, strange)

važan - važna - važno (important)

ogroman - ogromna - ogromno (huge, enormous)

tanak - tanka - tanko (thin)

šupalj - šuplja - šuplje (hollow)


šuplje drvo

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Declension in Serbian - Plural, practice

Ovo je prodavnica igracaka. Pogledajte, imamo veliki izbor! Mozete kupiti sta god pozelite za svoje dete:

brod-1, auto -2, cekic -3, lutka-4, kompjuter-5, kockica-6, knjiga-7, maketa aviona -8, karta-9, bojica-10, traktor -11

(now write the appropriate plural forms of the following nouns - boat, car, hammer, doll, computer, builiding block, book, model plane, card, coloured pencil, tractor ...)

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Noun Declensions in Serbian - practice

Imam _______1_______ (prijatelj) koji živi u ______2_______ (Italija). On je _____3_______ (doktor) po zanimanju. Prošle _______4_____ (godina) sam prolazio kroz _____5_____ (Italija) i odlučio sam da ga posetim. Hteo sam da ga iznenadim, pa sam ga pozvao _____6_____ (telefon). Kada sam čuo njegov _____7_____(glas), rekao sam: " ______8______ (doktor) i ______9_____ (prijatelj), izgubio sam se u ovoj prelepoj _____10_____(zemlja), mislim da se zove ______11____ (Italija)." On se samo nasmejao i odgovorio:" Ako si ti moj _____12______ (prijatelj) iz ____13______ (Srbije), onda svrati na ___14______ (kafa). Živim u visokoj _____15______ (zgrada) na ___16______ (ugao), u ____17_______ (stan) na poslednjem _____18______ (sprat). Ako se opet izgubiš, stvarno ti treba _______19________ (doktor)."

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

"What's the matter with you?" in Serbian



"Koji ti je andrak?" (what's the matter with you? what is wrong with you?) ... a blast from the past ! I was so happy when I came across this phrase which I haven't heard for ages :o) Where do words hide when they grow old?

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Noun Declension in Serbian: 1st Declension, part 1

According to the case suffixes, nouns in Serbian can be grouped into three or four declensions (the order and number hasn't been established yet). I'll list the three most commonly presented ones, starting from the most complex one, which is often subdivided, depending on the noun gender and its stem ending:

1. Declension:

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant
Neuter nouns ending in -o or -e

*Note that Masc. nouns in Sg. Acc. is the same as the Genetive if the noun denotes an 'animate concept', like human being or an animal, while the 'inanimate' ones are objects, but also plants and groups of people or animals (like 'a people'= 'narod' or pack (of wolves)= 'čopor')

** All Neuter nouns have the same form for Nominative, Accusative and Vocative, which is really great :o)

*** With Masc. nouns ending in palatal 'j, lj, nj, č, dž, đ, ć, š, ž'
a/ in Sg. Instrumental case it will end in 'em', instead of 'om'
b/ in Sg. Vocative case it will end in 'u' instead of 'e'

ANIMATE ANIMATE non-ANIMATE non-ANIMATE
Sing.




non-palatal ending palatal non-palatal palatal ending
Nom DOKTOR PRIJATELJ BROD ČEKIĆ
Gen DOKTOR-A PRIJATELJ-A BROD-A ČEKIĆ-A
Dative DOKTOR-U PRIJATELJ-U BROD-U ČEKIĆ-U
Acc DOKTOR-E PRIJATELJ-A BROD ČEKIĆ
Voc DOKTOR-E PRIJATELJ-U BROD-E ČEKIĆ-U
Inst DOKTOR-OM PRIJATELJ-EM BROD-OM ČEKIĆ-EM
Loc DOKTOR-U PRIJATELJ-U BROD-U ČEKIĆ-U

****The pattern for Plural being the same for all the forms:
Nom DOKTOR-I
Gen DOKTOR-A
Dative DOKTOR-IMA
Acc DOKTOR-E
Voc DOKTOR-I
Inst DOKTOR-IMA
Loc DOKTOR-IMA

*****Elongated Plural can be seen in the majority of one syllable and a good part of two syllable nouns. In the plural they get 'OV' or with palatal ones 'EV':



Elongated' = longer form
Nom STAN-ov-I
Gen STAN-ov-A
Dative STAN-ov-IMA
Acc STAN-ov-E
Voc STAN-ov-I
Inst STAN-ov-IMA
Loc STAN-ov-IMA

******* Sometimes, if the noun ends in -c, -s, -z or -t, there is an ending in -ev (e.g. vicevi (jokes), nosevi (noses) , putevi (roads) )

Well, as you can see, this is just the beginning of the story about Noun Declensions. If you are learning Serbian, I'd like to ask you if you find it easier to learn the language in this 'grammar oriented' fashion, or simply 'by ear'?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Latin Alphabet to/from Cyrillic Serbian Script


Here comes a great link to script conversion. I needed some urgent Latin to Cyrillic script conversion yesterday night, and after trying out a few sites, this one proved to be the best.

So, let's try it out by rewriting the following Serbian proverb from the Cyrillic script into Latin Alphabet:

Ко не плати руком, он ће душом.

Now let's translate the phrase to English using online dictionaries (you might get different funny sentences):

1. Who do not pays handful , him will sweetheart.
2. Who doesn't pay the hand, it is soul.

Well, does it make sense? Does anyone have an idea what the correct translation is?

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Vowels in Serbian

There are five vowels in the Serbian language: a, e, i, o, u.

*A: ako (if), tavan (attic), ali (but), auto (car)


*E: evo (here), ekser (nail), med (honey), lep (beautiful)


*I: imati (to have), ili (or), iako (although), ići (to go)


*O: ovo (this), ono (that), oko (eye), brod (ship)


*U: u (in), uvo (ear), zub (tooth), uspeh (success)


However, in some words, the so called 'syllable forming r' (slogotvorno r) plays the vowel role. That's why some words in Serbian are difficult to pronounce. Let's practise together on our Pronunciation Site:

* R : prst (finger), krst (cross), srce (heart), Srpski (Serbian), pržiti (to fry)

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Uskršnje Jutro

Here is a link to a lovely video clip of a choir singing an Easter song:

Uskršnje Jutro (Easter Morning)

by
Čarolija


Uskršnje jutro kada se javi
Svakom na licu osmeh zablista.
Danas je praznik, danas se slavi
Dan vaskrsenja Isusa Hrista.

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Chorus (x2)
Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

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