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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Beautiful Songs about Serbia - Serbia mía

Have you ever heard of this beautiful song about Serbia, by Mirko Radović? If not, I am sure you will enjoy listening to it now and come back to it because if its gentleness and a catchy tune!


In case you don't understand Spanish, I'll share with you the author's words about the song, 

"Rodio sam se daleko, i tek nakon više od 50 godina sam uspeo da se povežem sa mojom porodicom. Nikada neću zaboraviti taj trenutak. Siguran sam da su me moj otac i baba i deda gledali sa neba i da su danas jako srećni zbog toga. Ova pesma je istinita priča o mom ponovnom susretu sa domovinom, pretočena u stihove."
along with the lyrics in Spanish

*** Lyrics ***
          Serbia mía
Siento el silbido que despierta, Siento el dulce aroma de un café

Siento cada abrazo, cada beso y las caricias
Que la noche nos dejó tan solo ayer
Siento que mis manos aún te buscan
Siento que tuvimos que partir
Siento cada calle, cada plaza, cada parque
Los rincones que nos vieron sonreir…
Lo siento, Serbía mía, y volver será un nuevo empezar
Siento cada pena, cada angustia, cada llanto
Que tu rostro inocente ayer marcó
Y si la noche se acaba, celebra conmigo que el día volvió


Lo siento, Serbía mía, y lo siento cada día más y más
Siento recordar lo que fuímos, siento el fuego vil que nos quebró
No importa que estés muy lejos, la paz es tu abrigo, el sol es tu voz
Y si la noche se acaba, celebra conmigo que el día volvió
and its translation:

*** Translation *** 
Srbijo moja
Osećam zvuk koji me budi,
osećam slatki miris jutra.
Osećam svaki zagrljaj, svaki poljubac i dodire
koje nam je prošla noć ostavila.
Osećam da mi ruke još tebe traže.
Osećam da smo morali otići.
Osećam svaku ulicu, svaki trg, svaki park,
sva mesta koja su nas videla.

Osećam te, Srbijo moja
i osećam te svakim danom više i više
Osećam te Srbijo moja
i vratiću se tebi ponovo.
Sećam se što smo nekada bili.
Osećam vatru koja rastavlja
Osećam svaki bol, svaku muku, svaki krik
koje je proslost na licu ostavila.
Nije važno što si daleko,
mir je tvoj spas,
Sunce je tvoj glas.
Iako je noći kraj,
slavi sa mnom,

jer dan se vratio.

Although the song was released a few years ago, a wonderful piece of news was to learn that this song dedicated to Serbia was picked by a Peruvian corporate chain to be played in their offices :) No wonder why! Congratulations, Mirko!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Vocabulary in Serbian - Rooms and Furniture

While working on my Serbian language courses, I keep creating tests, exercises, video lessons and fun games. The beauty of technology nowadays is that everything is so "shareable" and "embedable" :)

Furniture in Serbian - Flash Cards with Pronunciation

Simply type the word you hear (on the right hand side you'll see the explanation in English)


Practicing Serbian Cyrillic with New Vocabulary

Match the same words in Latin and Cyrillic script


Doing Fun Rooms 'n' Furniture Vocabulary Exercises in Serbian

Exercise 1: Unfortunately, this one is not embeddable, simply click here.

Exercise 2 is very similar to the previous one - simply click on the point which shows the word written at the top of the picture.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Practicing Superlatives - Advanced Serbian

It really makes my day when I come across an excellent video in Serbian with perfect pronunciation,  along with subtitles. This is exactly what I want to share with you today! After watching this video you could choose only five photos out of ten to tell me which photo is the funniest, the most incredible, the stupidest, the best and the most interesting one!

Speaking Exercise with Superlatives in Serbian 


Dok gledate video odlučite koja fotografija je
  • najsmešnija (smešan = funny)
  • najneverovatnija (neverovatan = impossible)
  • najgluplja (glup =stupid)
  • najbolja (dobar = good)
  • najinteresantnija (interesantan = interesting)


i ostavite (audio) odgovor u komentaru ispod:

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Serbian for Children with Songs

A few weeks ago I started creating simple lessons for children who are learning Serbian across the world. At first I thought there would be lack of simple and fun songs for the first few lessons, but as it transpired I was wrong. On  Nykk Deetronic's Youtube channel I came across a few great songs, such as:

as well as easy to understand short cartoons, such as 
Today I would like to share a version of Nykk's "Pilići smo mi" by IDJKids, with additional fun exercises I created:


 

Serbian for Children with Songs


Which words are missing? (More about the verb TO BE in Serbian)

Piju, piju, piju - piju, piju, piju x 3
Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju x3
Mama govori "Koko roko koko da"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "Kukuriku kukuku"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "av, av, av, av, av"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "mjau x5"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "mu, mu, mu, mu,mu"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "grok, grok, grok, grok, grok"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "me, me, me, me,me"

Mi ____ pilići
Piju, piju, piju
Mali radosni
Jupi, jupi piju
________   govori "kva, kva, kva, kva, kva"

Exercise for Serbian for Children Lesson





Lekcija 7 - Glagol biti

If you like the exercises and Serbian video lessons and courses I am creating, I'd like to invite you to support me through Patreon. Your help is much appreciated :)

Sunday, August 07, 2016

Serbian Vowels Pronounced

Let me announce that the time of low quality video lessons is over. I am sure you will enjoy watching one of the introductory videos on how to pronounce Serbian vowels with a brand new tool :)

Serbian Vowels

Although there are only five + one vowels in Serbian: A, E, I, O & U + R, one must take into account that there is also a distinction between long and short vowels. This difference is not seen in orthography, but the stressed ones are more often the longer ones. 

Today I simply want to introduce you to the simplicity of the pronunciation of the basic five vowels, and then in the following videos we'll work on the pronunciation of the "sixth vowel" in Serbian, the syllable forming R, as well as the long and short vowel pronunciation and stress within a word. 


Thursday, June 30, 2016

Practicing Pronouns in Serbian

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Future Tense in Serbian



It's simply not enough to understand how to form the future tense in Serbian and its somewhat complicated word order! You need to practise as much as possible.

Future Tense in Serbian




Future Tense in Serbian with "Ej žalim žalim"


And what an enjoyable practice can it be when you simply  sing it! That's why I am focusing today on this beautiful song featuring the future tense in Serbian  :)


Saturday, May 14, 2016

Learning Serbian by Singing with Sanja Vučić

This is the perfect moment for you to meet our gorgeous Sanja Vučić and practice Serbian while listening to this interview,






and doing a listening comprehension exercise based on her story:
  1. Odakle je Sanja?
  2. Koliko ima godina?
  3. Kada je snimljen ovaj intervju?
  4. Gde Sanja sada živi?
  5. Šta je želela da studira?
  6. Gde je njena mama sada?
  7. Od kada Sanja prati Evroviziju?
  8. Kako se zvala njena osnovna škola?
  9. Da li je Sanja bila bolji đak u osnovnoj ili srednjoj školi?
  10. Ko Sanju podržava?
  11. Koju vrstu muzike Sanjini roditelji vole?
  12. Kako je Sanja opisala svoju majku?
  13. Da li Sanja ima dečka trenutno?
  14. Gde je sve Sanja pevala?
  15. Da li Sanja sada želi da bude operska pevačica?
  16. Kada je Sanja bila jako srećna?
  17. Koje trenutke Sanja uvek zaboravlja?
Learning Serbian by Singing with Sanja Vučić

... or practice singing with her



p.s. don't forget to vote for her tonight!

Friday, May 13, 2016

Stress Patterns in Serbian

The following two videos are great for the students at upper-intermediate and advanced levels who are interested in stress patterns in Serbian and who can easily read Serbian Cyrillic script.




Monday, May 09, 2016

15 Most Frequent Adjectives in Serbian

When I started teaching Serbian I relied on the textbooks which taught commonly used adjectives one might need, such as "gladan" (hungry), "žedan" (thirsty), "lep" (beautiful), srećan (happy), tužan (sad) etc. This makes sense, doesn't it?

However, when I flicked through the list of the most frequently used adjectives I was surprised to find out that none of the "useful" ones was listed!!! That's why I made three sets of Quizlet exercises and recorded the pronunciation for the each of the 15 most frequent adjectives in Serbian, so you can learn them by choosing the activity you like best:
  1. Flash cards
  2. Learning activity
  3. Spelling activity
  4. Tests
  5. Scatter game
  6. Gravity game
  7. Spacerace game 

15 Most Frequent Adjectives in Serbian - Masc. Sg. Form




15 Most Frequent Adjectives in Serbian - Fem. Sg. Form


15 Most Frequent Adjectives in Serbian - Neut. Sg. Form




If you just started learning Serbian it can prove useful simply to do different quizlet activities to help you understand as much as possible at first. The most beautiful thing with Quizlet activities is that you can learn by playing games of Gravity and Spacerace! You can also access Quizlet on your mobile and practice while you are commuting! Finally, they are free (no need to buy anything, just register through Fb og Google to track your results, nothing more)!

Next time we'll practice these words in context!



Saturday, May 07, 2016

Aspect in Serbian with Verbs Describing House Chores

How to Practice Aspect in Serbian?

When talking about aspect in Serbian, I must admit it is best learnt by using the phrases in everyday situations. A good example is a set of the most frequently used verbs when talking about house chores:


Imperfective vs. Perfective Aspect in Serbian  

  • Prati / oprati sudove = to be washing / to wash the dishes
  • Raspremati / raspremiti = to be tidying up / to tidy up
  • Usisati / usisavati = to be hoovering / to hoover
  • Čistiti / (p)očistiti = to be cleaning / to clean
  • Brisati / obrisati = to be wiping / to wipe
  • Kuvati / skuvati = to be cooking / to cook
  • Pržiti / ispržiti = to be frying / to fry
  • Peći / ispeći = to be baking / to bake
  • Peglati / opeglati = to be ironing / to iron


Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Extensive Reading and Listening 1

It is such a delight to simply watch fun films, series or cartoons or read interesting books in Serbian and pick up the language, isn't it? This is known as extensive reading (or listening). It helps one to speed up the learning process and expand vocabulary very quickly and effortlessly. With authentic films and novels it helps you improve from an intermediate to more advanced levels.

That is why I am sharing with you the well known Pop Ćira and Pop Spira series based on the novel by Stevan Sremac.

Episode 1



Episode 2



Episode 3



For more similar series and films, check out this Youtube playlist - click here.






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