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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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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:



Friday, February 22, 2013

Serbian Language 365 Day 11 - Detective Story "Ubistvo u radnoj sobi" part 1


Убиство у радној соби
Part 1: Who is Who


I'm sure you've been hardly waiting for my detective stories from intermediate to advanced levels of Serbian. They'll all be in the Cyrillic script!

Your task: Read the text carefully and correct the grammar mistakes. The first mistake is already shown. You should say:
  •  "It's not "nađena", but "nađen", because Đorđe Belić is a man! " or 
  • " Ne kaže se "nađena" već "nađen", zato što je Đorđe muškarac, a ne žena!"
Introduction to the case:
  1. Ђорђе Белић, 60, , чувени глумац из Београда, нађена је мртав у својој радној собy, 2. фебруар у 18 часови и 5 минута. (3 mistakes, without the example)
  2. Иако је полиција позвани на лице места због случаја самоубиства.   Током увиђаја је утврђено да је у питању убиство и да је усмрћен пиштољима марке Глоцк, Модел 26.  (2 mistakes)
  3. Тог тренутака, у његовој кућaмa у Гроздићевој 142, налазило се још четири лица: (2 mistakes)
a. Војислав Симеуновић, стари 48 година, ради у обезбеђењу кућне већ 4 годинa.  (3 mistakes)

b.  Снежана Ранковић, стар 33 године, ради као куварица већ 3 година.  (2 mistakes)

c. Радивој  Шошкић, стар 44 годину, запослен као возач убијену Ђорђа Белића - на овом послу скоро 1 годинe  (прецизније, 11 месеција и 6 данa)  (3 mistakes)

d. Мирјана Белић, старица  21 година, ћерка убијеноме. (3 mistakes)

Наставиће се...


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Serbian Language Day 10 - Aspect in Serbian

I hope you enjoyed revising the Simple Past in Serbian and wondering why the last lesson was so easy for someone at an intermediate level. The obvious reason is the introduction into this tense, because it'll lead us to the trickiest aspect of the Serbian language:

While in the English language there's an elaborate system of tenses (level of syntax) in order to express whether an action took place, was talking place or has been talking place, in the Serbian language, these distinctions are inferred mainly from the verb, at the lexical level. For example:
  • odmorio (had a rest) or odmarao (was having a rest)
That's why I prepared quite a lot video lessons about Jeremija and Spomenka, and the follow-up exercises, hoping that it'll help you clarify the aspect in Serbian. Let me start with this  difficult one, but if it's too easy, check this one out :)














  • PROBUDITI = to wake up (perfective)
  • BUDITI = to wake up (imperfective)
  • RAZBUDITI = to wake up (perfective)
Kada se obično budiš ? = When do you usually wake up ?
Koliko ti treba vremena da se probudiš ? = How much time does it take for you to wake up ?
Kada si se jutros probudio ? When did you wake up yesterday ?
Jutros sam se probudio u pola šest (5.30) = This morning I woke up at 5.30

In the "she-version", Jeremija made a few mistakes. Here're the correct text:

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Serbian Language Day 9 - Pre-intermediate Course, Lesson 2

You can always revise the simple structures by following the Serbian for Beginner course tag, as well as Serbian Lesson Pages.

In our previous pre-intermediate lesson we covered:
Let's use the similar group of words, this time "places in the city" to express our whereabouts:

  • "Ćao! Gde si ?" = Hi, where are you ?
  • "Zdravo! Sada sam u muzeju. A ti ? " = Hello, I'm in the museum. And you ?
  • "Ja sam na autobuskoj stanicu ! Vidimo se za pet minuta!" = I'm at the square ! See you in five minutes! 

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Serbian Language Day 8 - Beginner Serbian, Lesson 2

Serbian for beginners, lesson 2:

If you successfully completed the previous lesson, and vežbe = exercises jedan and dva, you are ready for the followin lesson covering the phrase "This is ..." and "This isn't ...". Watch the video exercise and try to guess:
  1. what "OVO" means ?
  2. what is the negative form of "JE" ?


Answers:

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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