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Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Adjectives and Genders in Serbian - 1

Many of my students have asked me to create a series of video lessons or similar teaching materials dedicated only to adjectives contrasting Masculine and Feminine forms. Here comes the first one in this series - something reeeeaaaaally simple:


Made with ToonyTool.com

Masculine Sg. of hungry>>> gladAn
Feminine Sg. of hungry >>> gladnA
Neuter Sg. of hungry >>> gladNo

Exercise with this photo lesson



  1. Ko je gladan? Who is hungry?
  2. On je gladan! He is hungry!
  3. Ona je gladna! She is hungry!
  4. Ja nisam gladan! I am not hungry!

Here comes a trick question: Da li sam JA dečko ili devojčica? Am I (JA in sentence 4) a boy or a girl?

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Greetings from Genitive - Part 2

If you really had fun learning Genitive yesterday, I'm sure you'll have a blast  today:


Made with ToonyTool.com

As you can see, there's a bunch of characters speaking to you in Serbian (written both in the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet :) Because they are talking about where they are right now, they are using (guess what?) the Genitive case. Now, I have a few tasks for you. Let's find out:

A. Who is saying what? = Ko šta kaže?

  1. Sunce kaže: 
  2. Majmun kaže:
  3. Ptica kaže:
  4. Dečko kaže:

B. Where are = Gde su...

  1. dečko (a boy)
  2. devojčica (a girl)
  3. pingvin (a penguin)
  4. ptica (a bird)
  5. majmun (a monkey)
  6. sunce (the sun)
  7. mačka (a cat)

C. One Cyrillic text is missing - which one? Write it in the comment below:


Serbian Genitive with Sg. Feminine Nouns


I hope you have mastered your Genitive with Sg. Masc. nouns. That's why we are working on  the nouns which are Fem. Sg. today. Look at the examples:

  1. Ja sam iznad zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja ptica?
  2. Danas sam ispred zgrade! Ko sam ja? Da li sam ja mačka?
  3. Oni su iznad mene! Ko su oni? Ko sam ja?
  4. On nije iznad mačke! Ja sam iznad mačke! Ko sam ja?
What happens with the following nouns?
  1. zgrada = building
  2. ptica = bird
  3. mačka = cat
  4. devojčica = girl
  5. voda = water
when they follow the prepositions: 
  • iznad = above or over
  • ispod = below or under
  • iz = from
  • pored = near or beside
By looking the examples, you can see that the final -a disappears, becoming an -e:

  1. Iznad zgradE = above the building
  2. Ispod pticE = under the bird
  3. Pored mačkE = beside the cat
  4. Iza devojčicE = behind the girl
  5. Iznad vodE = above the water

Asking simple questions with the verb TO BE in Serbian

I am sure you have noticed two types of questions in this exercise:
  1. Wh-? questions: Ko sam ja = Who am I and Ko su oni? Who are they?
  2. Yes-no questions: Da li sam ja pingvin? = Am I a penguin? 
With the verb to be=biti, it is obvious that there is
  1. a wh-? question word before an inversion (ja sam becomes KO sam ja)
  2. da li question phrase before an inversion (ja sam becomes DA LI sam ja)
Yes, it's that simple :)

Rešenje = Solution


Now that you understand EVERYTHING, it's time to solve the mystery...

Monday, May 15, 2017

Serbian Genitive - Greetings from London, Part 1

What a lovely morning for such an easy Serbian Genitive photo lesson:
  Made with ToonyTool.com
Dobro jutro iz sunčanog LondonA! Pogodite odakle šaljem pozdrave: ispod ili iznad mostA?

Добро јутро из сунчаног ЛондонА! Погодите одакле шаљем поздраве: испод или изнад мостА?

Good morning from sunny London! Guess where I am sending the greetings from: under or above the bridge?

Serbian Genitive with Masculine Singular

London and most (bridge) are two Masc. Sg. nouns in this case. What endings showed up when we used them after the prepositions:

  1. iz = from
  2. under / below = ispod
  3. above / over = iznad
Yes, the answer is -A. So, if you are from the following cities/countries you will always  say "I am from ..."

  • Ja sam  iz Londona / Beograda / Lisabona / Bostona / Čikaga (Čikago) / Sidneja / Frankfurta /Minhena / Beča / Pariza
  • Moja mama je iz Perua / Irana / Iraka / Luksemburga / Portugala /Izrael


Sunday, May 14, 2017

Where are you today? Part 2

What do you want to do TODAY?
Šta želite da radite DANAS?

Today I am in Paris. I want to see the Mona Lisa.
DANAS sam u Parizu.  Želim da vidim Mona Lizu.

Made with ToonyTool.com While in the previous lesson we noticed that the Locative Singular ending was only -i, it was like that simply because we were in places which are in Feminine Singular (U Moskvi, Aziji, Evropi, Budimpešti...)

However, today we are in having fun  in places which are Masculine Singular and that's why we add the suffix -u at the end of each place:


  1. Ja sam danas u Parizu. = Danas sam u Parizu.
  2. ...Beograd >>> Beogradu
  3. ...Lisabon >>> Lisabonu
  4. ... Sidnej >>> Sidneju
  5. ... Niš >>> Nišu
  6. ...muzej >>> muzeju
  7. ... centar >>> centru 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Let's Play Guessing Game

Let's take a guess:

Is this my room?

Made with ToonyTool.com

To master this topic, check out the following video

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Where are you today?

Where are you today?

Today we are in Moscow. Moscow is in Russia. Russia is in Europe and Asia. Where are you today? Let's say this in Serbian! Made with ToonyTool.com Latin Script Version

Danas smo u Moskvi :) Moskva je u Rusiji. Rusija je u Evropi i Aziji. Gde ste vi danas?

Cyrillic Script Version

Данас смо у Москви :) Москва је у Русији. Русија је у Европи и Азији. Где сте ви данас?


Let's practice the Locative in Serbian

Feminine Singular

  • Moskva >>>Moskvi
  • Rusija >>> Rusiji
  • Azija >>> Aziji
  • Evropa >>> Evropi
  • Lima >>> ???
  • Barselona >>> ???
  • Budimpešta >>> ???
  • zgrada (building) >>> ???

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Photo Serbian - Simple Yes/No Questions

Made with ToonyTool.com Let's play with fun photos and comics! All you have to do is ask simple questions:


  1. Da li si u Serbiji? (Are you in Serbia?)
  2. Da li čekaš da pređeš ulicu? (Are you waiting to cross the street?)
  3. Da li je rasprodaja u prodavnici? (Is there a sale in the shop?)

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