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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Friday, January 10, 2014

Serbian Pronunciation Practice with Đ and DŽ

If you started learning Serbian and you are confused as to what might be the difference between DŽ and Đ sounds, let me help you by taking you through these five steps:

Step 1
Which of these two sounds is softer to your ear ? 
Dž/dž (or Џ џ  in Cyrillic)

or 

Đ / đ (or in Cyrillic script: Ђ ђ)?

Step 2: If you don't hear ANY difference, let me tell you that the sound Đ is much softer than DŽ.
*You'll get this sound to be softer, i.e. produce Đ, by pressing the tongue onto the lower teeth. Repeat "đ" several times and feel the tongue low, behind the teeth, touching them.

*To get the harsh "DŽ" curl your tongue behind the upper teeth, slightly above them. You'll notice that the sound becomes less soft as you raise your tongue upwards. (even curling it backwards). Now repeat it several times.

Step 3: Try to contrast the soft Đ with harsh DŽ, paying attention to the tongue position and listening to yourself. Can you hear the difference ?

Now it's time to practise with minimal pairs and not-so-minimal pairs, because there aren't that many words with Đ and DŽ:

Step 4:
Listen and repeat:
  • đak              džak
  • leđa             odžak
  • đinđuva       dživdžan
  • ceđenje        karakondžula
  • đubre           dželat
  • đurđevak     džanarika
  • đakonije      džangrizalo
  • đavo            džem
  • đevrek         džemper

Step 5:
Encircle the word you hear me say:
  1. đubre     džak        đak           odžak
  2. đevrek   džaba       đavo         džem
  3. džoker   đon          džomba     đozluci
  4. džudo    đevrek     džukela     đuveč
  5. ceđenje  dživdžan  đinđuva    dželat  
For more pronunciation practice visit the previous blog posts tagged "pronunciation in Serbian"

Monday, January 06, 2014

Serbian Christmas Customs and Songs

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Happy Holidays !

Thursday, December 19, 2013

About St Nicholas and Krsna Slava in Serbian

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Let's Practice Serbian Cyrillic Script - Answer to Part 2

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Let's Practice Serbian Cyrillic Script - Part 2

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Grammar Tests in Serbian - Key to Test 1

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Serbian Language Tests - Locative 1

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Learning Serbian with Songs

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Serbian Lessons Online - Colours

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Serbian Language for Kids

If you enjoyed learning Serbian by watching Neven or Poletarac or Kefalica, I am sure you will love  "Slovo na Slovo" series, too :)

Monday, November 18, 2013

Places in the City - Video Exercise

If you haven't been to Novi Sad, you'll surely look forward to visiting it after you watch this video by Daniel Erdeg :















You can also practise making simple sentences as I did in the classroom exercise and prepare to do one or few tasks based with this video explanation (if necesarry, check the vocabulary video):
  • Exercise for Serbian 102: What can you see ? Šta vidite ?

  • Exercise for Serbian 201: Šta se nalazi ispred Vas / s leve ili desne strane ? Šta ste videli ? or Šta ćete videti kada dođete u Novi Sad

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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