If you practised the verb TO BE in the Serbian in my previous lessons,  I'm sure this will be an easy task for you:

1. Mute this video before watching it and try to give / write the correct answers for each button. 
2. You can write down the answers and then watch the video again and listen to Jeremija giving his responses. 
3. Has he made any mistakes and if he has, correct the wrong answers (you can write the replies in the comment)

*This is also a smooth intro to the lesson on numbers in Serbian.

I'm sure you enjoyed my last post about Poletarac ! Bilo je zabavno, zar ne ? Today, I'd like to remind you of four great interviews with foreigners living in Serbia, which I posted last year:

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3
• Video 4

They share their view of many different aspects of life and I'm sure you'll enjoy watching them, as well as  doing some extra exercises and video lessons:

• Word order in Serbian, Exercise based on the first video
• Collocations about city life, based on Video 2 (the first two parts of the video)

About two years ago I was tinkering with the free version of Camtasia for a month. The result was one part of the Serbian phrase course, covering three topics, both in the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic script. Now when I look back on my early works, I'm quite disappointed and I recon it's high time I made  much clearer video lessons with better background music and wide scope of topics. I bet you agree :)

Serbian Phrases free e-book

Places in the city in the Cyrillic script:

Giving directions in the Latin alphabet:

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:

Убиство у радној соби


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...

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)

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:

• the names of the capitals
• the Locative case (practice and explanation with the practice)

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:

Youtube is a great source of unique and authentic materials for learning Serbian, which I have been sharing with you under "listening comprehension" tag. One of the best and most comprehensible TV series for learning the Serbian language are surely ancient "Neven", as well as "Poletarac", directed by Timothy Byford and featuring the most prominent actors, actresses and sportsmen from ex-Yugoslavia in the early eighties.

Watch the first part of "Poletarac" and you'll see why it can come in handy when learning Serbian:

1. Part one about swimming (plivanje) and knowing (znanje) from the beginning to minute 3:00

• plivati = to swim
• znati = to know, can (I can swim = Znam da plivam)
• ko zna  da pliva = who knows to / can swim ?
• osim = except
• žaba = frog
• imati = to have
• da li žaba ima zube ? = does a frog have teeth ?
• ne znam = I don't know 

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.


Pozdravi na srpskom (Greetings 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:

• Future tense in Serbian
• Genitive Case
• Plural in Serbian
• Locative
• Conditional sentences
• Holiday songs
• The verb "to be"

For upper-intermediate and advance levels of Serbian I enjoy creating detective stories, where students have  to actively use the language, learn about the Serbian history, culture, customs and language. They ask questions, write e-mails and direct the "investigation".

On Fridays, I intend to share just the beginnings of these stories with you, along with the grammar exercises. So far I've completed the following series of lessons:

• Ubistvo u radnoj sobi (pre-intermediate)
• Misterija otrovanog piva (pre-intermediate to intermediate)
• Tajna drevnog buzdovana (intermediate to upper-intermediate & advanced levels)
• Petar BlOgojević - prvi srpski vampir (intermediate to upper-intermediate & advanced levels)
• Ko je zabiberio kulen ? (upper-intermediate & advanced levels)
• Misterija slavskog kolača (final test for intermediate Serbian202 course)
• Maglovite četvrti srpskih gradova (beginner to pre-intermediate)

Let's practise the Simple Past Tense in the Serbian language. While the beginner and pre-intermediate courses of Serbian  focus is on phrases, present tense, modals and cases, the intermediate course focuses on aspects, explaining the subtle differences between "odmarati" and "odmoriti" and similar.

Since we are at the very beginning of everyday Serbian lesson series, let me introduce you to some of the earlier posts covering this topic:


Text : "Gde si bila ?" (Fem. Sg.) / "Gde si bio?" (Masc. Sg.) = Where were you ?
Fem. Sg. Bila sam u ...
Masc. Sg. Bio sam u ...

In the past five years I've scattered numerous blog posts with lessons of Serbian and corresponding grammatical explanations not only on this blog and Youtube and Youtube but all over the Internet. One of the many reasons for starting 365 Days of Serbian Language was to connect them and tag them correctly.


At the end of each video lesson, let's revisit some of the previous posts covering the same, or similar topic:

• Clothes + in the wardrobe (with the ancient video ) - you can practise it by muting the terrible audio and focusing on JE or SU (Sg. or Pl. ) + u ormanu (both ormaN and ormaR are accepted forms in the Serbian language) - check the clothes 1 and clothes 2 post
• Gapped exercise about the Locative  (really ancient - I must add the new link to the exercise with an instant feedback and translation)
• Prepositions with the Locative / Genitive
• A beautiful "April u Beogradu" song

As you've probably noticed, I recently started making  new series of HD Serbian courses. Each Tuesday I  introduce you the Serbian 101, a course for the real beginners. It is a completely new version of the  Serbian for Beginners 101, which will be available via Udemy and Plimus platforms in February.

In this series of blog posts which will be published every day, I'll be posting some of the new video lessons together with accompanying exercises. I'm sure you'll enjoy it !

The verb To Be in Serbian:

Additional exercises:

• speaking
• Serbian language exercise 1
• Serbian language exercise 2

That's why it struck me that I should use this blog, and all the digital teaching content I've created in years, not only to encourage you to perservere, but provide you with meaningful and graded content to learn Serbian regularly. Even if you skip a day or two,  or an entire week/month, you know that you  have everything in one place, right here !

Merry Saint Sava day to all the schools, learners of the Serbian language and all the faithful followers of this blog,  with this magnificient hymn (click here for the lyrics and translation & click here for the exercise.)

Here comes a short video wishing you Merry Christmas (Srećan Božić) and a Happy New Year (srećnu Novu godinu) to all the followers of LearnSerbianBlog!

The Serbian idiom "doterati cara do duvara" has the similar meaning as the English one "to come to a head". I have often heard  this phrase in my childhood, always wondering what "duvar" might mean.

The word "duvar" is a loan word, and if you go to Google translate and check it at Turkish-English translation, you'll find out that the meaning of the word is "zid" (wall). So, the literal translation would resemble the expression "to drive someone (in this case "the tzar") up the wall" and yet, Serbian phrase for this expression (drive someone up the wall) is "dovesti nekog do ludila" (or litterally "make someone crazy"). You can check the pronunciation of these two idioms here, at our audio forum (and I hope you'll surprise your Serbian family or friends by pronouncing the phrases correctly and using them appropriately).

Talking about the usage, I was really surprised that in my group of eight teenage students only one had heard of  "doterati cara do duvara". She explained that her teacher of Serbian insists on students learning and using proverbs and idioms, but she also hasn't heard of the phrase being used outside of the classroom!  Does this mean that we tend to use idioms less frequently, or is it the case just with this idiom ? Maybe the world has changed for better and  retko iko ikada (rarely does anyone) "dotera cara do duvara" :)

What do you think ?

How to say "what is something like in Serbian" ? Listen to this song and answer my questions in the quiz. Make sure you click "Finish Survey" at the end in order to get an instant feedback:



Uradite kviz odmah = Do the quiz immediately!

Fill in the gaps with the correct verb form - you'll be able to see the Serbian verbs conjugated, above the text. You can write your answer in the comment below. For all those who'd like to more actively participate in learning Serbian, do join free Activator newsletter.

Write the answers to these questions in the comment: Start like this:
Ja sam iz...
Rođen sam u...

Listen to this podcast about Jeremija's family and write in the comment the names of your relatives.

For example: Tatin brat se zove Slobodan. On je moj stric/čika.

Listen to this short podcast about church weddings in Serbia and what one should know before they take the plunge. Try to answer the questions posted in the quiz:

If you watched our previous podcast, you'll be aware of the fact that Jeremija keeps making mistakes, and I do my best to help him understand which correct forms to use. This time the topic was "bio" or "bila":

Are there any other mistakes which I didn't correct ?

Let's practise pronunciation of the Serbian letters "lj" and "nj". In the video you'll be able to see their counterparts in the Cyrillic script. Try to listen and repeat:

This is a short video with Jeremija, who was pretty tired when answering my questions, so he made quite a few mistakes. Try to figure out which numbers are wrong, and what he should have said:



If you want to watch the video lessons covering the same topic and level, check out this page with beginner Serbian lessons.

How do you like this Learn Serbian Podcast video ?

Listen to this video and answer the questions, which refer to the interview with Nebojša Dugalić, in the second part:

1. Koliko dece ima Nebojša ?
2. Da li čita bajke svojoj deci ?
3. Zašto on čita bajke svojoj deci ?
4. Da li je "Ružno pače" film ?
5. Kome je prvenstveno namenjen ovaj CD ?
6. Da li Vi čitate bajke na srpskom ? 
7. Da li Vama neko čita bajke na srpskom ?
8. Da li volite bajke ? Zašto ?

Listening comprehension for the pre-intermediate level :

1. Does Nebojša have any kids ?
2.  If yes, how many ?
3. Does Nebojša read fairy tales to his children ?
4. Is "Ružno pače" in the video a film or just CD ?

If you want to practise your pronunciation and recognition of the letters "č", "ć", "š", "s", "đ" and "d", listen to this video without watching first. Try to figure out if Jeremija makes any mistakes when pronouncing greetings in Serbian, and then watch the video. Have fun!

Watch this video with the Serbian pronouns in the Genitive and Accusative cases.


I added all the forms of the Personal Pronouns in Serbian below (source:wikipedia), but what's more important for you is to practise them in context. That's why I'd suggest you watch this video and then try to mute it and say the sentences while watching. 

If you've been following super easy lessons of Serbian, you'll be familiar with Jeremija's family and I'm sure you'll be able to solve this mystery:
Conjugation of the verb "imati" in the Present Tense:

Task:


You can leave your replies in the comments below:
Beginner lesson course: Serbian 101

If you liked one of the previous listening comprehension lessons of Serbian at the advanced level, I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to this interview with  Biljana Krstić:

1. Kako se zove grupa Biljane Krstić ?
2. Kada je objavljeno licencno izdanje albuma "Bistrik" ?
3. Gde se sve album "Tarpoš" prodaje ?
4. Ko je sve uticao na Biljanu da se počne baviti etno muzikom ?
5. Da li je Biljana bežala sa časova ?
6. Šta znači reč "bistrik" ?
7. Koliko godina postoji grupa "Bistrik" ?

Thanks to my diligent student of Serbian, Mirko Radović, from now on you'll be able to follow easy Serbian lessons with explanations in Spanish. I send many thanks to Mirko and all the members of the FaceBook community Serbios en Latino America!

I believe many of you interested in learning to read the Serbian Cyrillic script have enjoyed an excellent blog post by Nat, published back in 2009. Now, if you'd like to practise reading, I'm adding all the easy texts both in the Latin Alphabet and Cyrillic script into Serbian101 and Serbian102 courses:

You can access the full version with pronunciation, explanations and numerous interactive lessons either via Serbian 101 course. Here comes the useful vocabulary from the video lesson:
1. je iz = is from
2. on živi = he lives
3. u = in
4. sa = with
5. supruga = spouse (fem.)
6. troje = three
7. deca = children
8. njegova = his
9. žena = wife
10 zvati se = to be called
11. imati = to have
12. godina = year
13. raditi = to work
14. kao =as
15. inspektor = inspector
16. slobodno vreme = free time
17. igrati = to play
18. ići = to go
19. pozorište = theatre

Words which you might not know are as follows:

1. on = he
2. iz = from 
3. godina = year
4. godine = years
5. imati = to have
6. on ima = he has
7. star = old
8. inspektor = inspector
9. raditi = to work
10. on radi = he works
11. oženjen = married
12. udata = married
13. dete = child
14. deca = children
15. sin = son
16. ćerka = daughter

If you carefully followed Facebook statuses during Easter time in Serbia, you've probably noticed three different greetings:

• Hristos Vaskrese
• Hristos Vaskrse
• Hristos Voskrese

• Neven episode 1

• Neven episode 2
• Neven episode 3
• Neven episode 4
• Neven episode 5
• Neven episode 6
• Neven episode 7

Listen to this beautiful song and without reading the lyrics try to answer the questions as follows:

1. Gde se dešavala ova priča ?
2. Koje godišnje doba je opisano ?
3. Šta je to "salaš" ?
4. Šta je to "petrolejka" ?
5. Da li se u pesmi pominje belo ili crno vino ?
6. Kako se kaže "let's sing altogether" ?
7. Šta znači "dobro nam došli" ?

For all the real beginners in Serbian, I started refreshing Serbian 101 course on Udemy platform with the new series of super slow video lessons. I uploaded one of them to my Youtube channel, so you can see if you like it.


I'm sure you're going to like it !

Govori se da me varaš
i da _______ me ostaviti
a znaš dobro da sam bolan
i da ___________ ozdraviti

Znam da više prava nemam
na te tvoje oči crne
slaži makar da me voliš
ne daj da mi duša trne

Ti _______ opet ić' u kolo
dolazit  ______  polivači
pivat _________ pisme stare
pratit _______ vas tamburaši

A nediljom kad _____ šetaš
šuškat će na tebi svila
sigurno ________ zaboravit'
da si kadgod moja bila
ne lomi mi srcu grane
sačekaj da samo stane.

СРЕЋНА ПРАВОСЛАВНА НОВА ГОДИНА !

We just had an online party to celebrate Serbian New Year... the internet connection wasn't perfect, but  it was fun nevertheless :) Wishing you all a very happy Ortodox New Year - you can also enjoy listening and singing to the songs I prepared for this party :)

I'll be starting a new series of online lessons for the course Serbian 102 which takes approximately 2 months to finish. When you enroll the course, you'll be able to

In January and February I'll be adding "Winter Special Edition" of easy Serbian lessons to all of my online courses of Serbian, starting from Serbian101, Serbian 102, Serbian 103 and Serbian 201. Some of these, I'll be posting to this blog, so you can follow them and have an idea what they are about. Through these "horoscope lessons of Serbian" I'll be trying to help you learn how to speak as a man/woman through different  tenses.

Accompanying Presentation with the explanations in English will be posted on each course. It looks like this:

Christmas greeting in Serbian:

Hristos se rodi!

Христос се роди!

Response:
Vaistinu se rodi!

Ваистину се роди!