Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Thursday, June 19, 2014

Jesam or Sam in Serbian?

After uploading a hundred of videos both from Serbian 101 and Serbian 102 course, and revising each of them, Ivan decided to help me with his 3D effects vidos. So far he's made 30 short videos with the verbs used in the course, in the present and past tense so far, but he plans to make 5 more each day.

I'll post some of them here on the blog, but for the complete version, refer to the Serbian101-102 course. Here comes its short description:

Serbian 101 &102 is perfect for absolute and false beginners in Serbian. It is organized in such a way that you can either follow it chronologically, or choose only the topics you are interested in. Each topic consists of an explanatory video lesson and then video exercises with links to follow-up quizzes with instant feedback. 
There are more than 100 lessons making well over 10 hours of video lessons and exercises which take you from the very start to the pre-intermediate level, covering:
  • Tenses: Present Simple and Past Simple Tense
  • Cases: Nominative, Accusative, Instrumental and Locative
  • Modals: Can, Must
  • Pronouns: Personal and Possessive Pronouns
  • Adjectives: Possessive Adjectives and Noun-adjective Agreement
  • Numbers: Cardinal and Ordinal
as well as basic:
  • functions such as:
    • Greetings
    • Introductions
    • Asking for Clarification/Explanation
    • Asking about Directions
    • Giving Directions
    • Requesting 
    • Offering
    • Expressing Likes and Dislikes
    • Asking about Likes and Dislikes
  • situations such as:
      • Meeting People
      • Small Talk
      • In a Restaurant
      • Shopping
      • Arranging a Meeting
      • Talking about Family
      • Talking about Routines
      • Talking about your Life
  • vocabulary topics such as:
    • Family members
    • Numbers
    • Food
    • Souvenirs
    • Places in a city
    • Countries and Cities
    • Means of transport
    • Colours
    • Jobs and occupations

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Shift = Smena

Here comes an ancient song called "Za treću smenu" = "For (people working) night/third shift" by Djordje Balašević. I want to share it with you here because this version is easy to follow, especially with the lyrics in the proper Latin script (not the "ošišana verzija", which is commonly found on Youtube - guess not many people heard of this lovely SlovoMajstor remedy).

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

How to Help Serbia?

Thursday, May 01, 2014

Large Numbers in Serbian

If you are familiar with numbers in Serbian, here comes a new lesson from Serbian 102 course which is a bit more complicated. It is about how to pronounce large numbers.

If this simple exercise is too easy, watch this video survey about the year of the Battle of Kosovo and jot down all the numbers you hear:

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Serbian Fun Expressions and Idioms

In one of my more advanced Serbian lessons there came up a few expressions which I wanted to share with you today. I will copy-paste a part of the text about Jeremija, with whom you can learn Serbian from the very start.  I'll list the tasks below this short excerpt:

Jeremija je bio veoma srećan tog jutra, jer je bio potpuno siguran da će dobiti povišicu na poslu. Njegov šef je u nekoliko navrata natuknuo Jeremiji da će od sledećeg meseca omastiti brk, kao i da je to potpuno zaslužio. Jeremija se pravio lud i uspešno se uzdržavao da ne vuče šefa za rukav i postavlja dodatna pitanja. Bio je svestan da sve što bude dobio jeste rezultat njegovog sopstvenog rada i da nije jednostavno palo s neba. Posebno mu je bilo milo što ovaj put nije morao da se kiti tuđim perjem. Njegova zasluga je bila očigledna. Kada je tog jutra stigao na posao i otvorio svoju kancelariju, imao je šta da vidi. Na stolu je stajao potpuno nov kompjuter i pored njega još noviji mobilni, a šef je sav sijao od sreće! "Šta sam ti rekao? Borio sam za tebe kao vučica... i izborio sam se! Najnoviji model? Hm? Šta kažeš?" Jeremija nije morao da se pretvara - na njegovom licu se videlo da su mu sve lađe potonule... Bio je 100% siguran da će dobiti veću platu, a sada mu je postalo jasno da je ostao kratkih rukava! Šta će mu sada Spomenka reći?
Right, now there are three tasks for you:
  1. The easiest task: Can you find the synonyms for these words in the text:
  • drago
  • aludirao
  • apsolutno
  • pravi
  • narednog
  • jako
  • blesav
  • totalno
  • puta
  • shvatio
  • sasvim
  • samo
     2. The more difficult task: which phrases and idioms mean:
  • down in the dumps/ in the doldrums
  • fight like a wolf
  • to be absolutely certain about something
  • keep asking for something
  • get a raise
  • take an advantage of something
  • to deck oneself in  borrowed finery
  • to get the worst of a bargain/ to come away empty-handed
     3. The most difficult task: what will Spomenka say to him when he arrives back home? Try to come      up with a suitable idiom or expression. Let me help you with a few ideas, and you try to guess                which ones are the most appropriate:
  • ko drugome jamu kopa sam u nju upada
  • svako nosi svoj krst
  • nema ti ravna
  • prvo skoči pa reci hop
  • nije zlato sve što sija
  • ko rano rani dve sreće grabi
  • doterao je cara do duvara
  • poklonu se u zube ne gleda



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Easter in Serbian

Monday, April 14, 2014

Advanced Serbian Lessons with Državni Posao



Very popular "Državni posao" series are perfect for highly advanced Serbian lessons. One can learn a lot of common Serbian phrases and expressions.  The fun part is to detect mistakes made by famous Đorđe Čvarkov, Dragan Torbica and Boškić (e.g. "lapsitops" instead of "laptop" or "Jututu" instead of "Jutjub").

Let's watch just the first three minutes and try to do the following tasks:

Task 1: Tick the phrases you hear
  • Do juče se nisam brinuo
  • To je samo fol
  • Digneš narod na noge 
  • Prazne duše
  • Bez i zrna energije, bez i zrna poleta
  • I ne bi se digli
  • Pogledajte šta nam rade
  • Za mnogo manje sitnice
  • Nikom ništa
  • Mož' misliti
  • Čime se ti baviš
  • Ukinuli seriju
  • To je neka mutna radnja
  • Ako nisu umešali prste 
  • Imao (seriju) pa nemao
  • Nije to bilo koja serija
  • Neko će odgovarati
  • Nema milosti
Task 2: Even if you don't understand each and every word, can you understand what the problem is?

Task 3: After watching the first part (0:20 - 1:30 - I added the subtitles to make things easier), try to answer the following questions:


a. Da li je Dragan Torbica mislio da je ukidanje serije istina ili ne?
b. Da li Đorđe Čvarkov misli da je narod u depresiji, ili pun energije?
c. Koje reči je Boškić čuo kada je ušao u kancelariju?
d. Na koje tekuće probleme je Boškić mislio kada je pričao o "dizanju naroda"?
e. Ko se čudi Boškiću?
f. Ko objašnjava u čemu je problem i kojim rečima?

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Serbian for Kids - Šuma blista, šuma peva

Saturday, April 05, 2014

New Serbian Lesson - HAPPY in Novi Sad

If you have been in Novi Sad, I am sure you  will enjoy doing this fun speaking/writing exercise which can be done along with  Pharrell Williams'  Happy [WE ARE FROM NOVI SAD] version:



You can make simple sentences when you recognize the places where the people are:

  • Ovo je autobus. On igra u autobusu.
  • Ovo je trg. On igra na trgu. 
  • Ovo je kej. Oni igraju na keju....
The verbs you can use are as follows:
  • igrati/ plesati u/na + Loc = to dance (deca igraju na ulici)
  • nalaziti se  + Loc= there is/are (oni se nalaze u parku)
  • prepoznati + Acc = to recognize (prepoznajem Frušku goru)
  • biti u/na + Loc = to be (bio/bila sam na ovom mestu)
  • videti + Acc = to see (vidim or video/videla sam tvrđavu)
The idea is not to stop the video while making these short sentences :)

Monday, March 03, 2014

Exercise with Instrumental Case in Serbian

If you enjoy learning Serbian with easy texts, here comes a very simple one, which is actually a part of Serbian 102 course:



Vocabulary you might need:

PUTOVATI - to travel
NA MORE - to the seaside
U ZAVISNOSTI OD - depending on
ODREDIŠTE - destination
IĆI - to go
A - and/but
NAJVIŠE VOLETI - to love most of all
ZATO ŠTO - because
ZAUSTAVITI SE - to stop
ZAŽELETI - to wish
SVE VREME - all the time
SVAĐATI SE - to argue
MENI - to me
MOM SUPRUGU - to my husband
POŠTO - because
MIRAN - peaceful
TRAJATI - to last
DUGO - long
Here comes the same text, but in the Cyrillic script:

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Learning Montenegrin?

Regardless of the fact that if you learn Serbian, you will be able easily understand Croatian, Bosnian and recently Montenegrin, (so called BCS language) spoken in the region of ex Yugoslavia, I'm sure you'll appreciate to hear the different accents. Today, I chose this interesting story from a Montenegrin news Youtube channel about a musician physicist :) and transcribed it into Montenegrin/Serbian:



The follow-up exercise for this video can be received via Advanced Activator

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Serbian Phrases through Songs

If you're learning Serbian, you'll surely need these commonly used phrases (on a daily basis LOL):
  • Ostaviti (nekoga) na miru = Leave (someone) alone (e.g. ostavi me na miru! = leave me alone)
  • Poludeću = I'll go crazy
  • Učiniću sve da + present tense = I'll do everything to...
  • Možda i grešim = maybe I'm mistaken
  • Samo nebo zna koliko + phrase = (only) heaven knows how much ...
Let's learn them while singing this oldie song by Oliver Mandić:

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