Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

Google Tag Head

Friday, June 02, 2017

Photo Serbian - From To Genitive 4

Odakle je ova lasta?
Where is this sparrow from?

Odakle leti ova lasta?
Where does this sparrow fly from?

Ona leti od Beograda do Londona.
It (she) flies / is flying from Belgrade to London. 

Ma neee, ona leti od Afrike do Evrope.
Nooo, it flies/ is flying  from AFrica to Europe.

Ova deca nemaju pojma!!!
These kids have no clue!!!

Ona leti od kuće do reke.
It flies/ is flying  from the house to the river.

It's really complicated. Does anyone know the answer? 


I think there is no correct answer, but we can enjoy learning Serbian by playing with this sentence using the Genitive case.

Genitive in Serbian


With the prepositions "from - to", you'll use the Genitive case. In the singular it changes as we have described before:

Singular
  • London - od LondonA Masc. Sg. adds an -A
  • Moskva - od MoskvE  Fem. Sg. changes an -a into -E
  • Selo - od selA Neut. Sg. changes an -o into -A

Practicing Genitive in Serbian

Your task is to think about these places and give your own answer about the sparrow using the same form: 

Lasta leti od  ... do ...

  1. Lisabon - Budimpešta
  2. Madrid - Atina
  3. Kopenhagen - Ankara
  4. Zagreb - Ljubljana
  5. Boston - Peking
  6. Moskva - Oslo
  7. Lima - Kairo
  8. Čikago - Berlin
  9. Subotica - Niš
  10. Temišvar - Bratislava
Photo Serbian with Gavrilo

If you are wondering who took this wonderful photo of a sparrow, OR "Od koga je ova slika?", let me tell you that the author is Gavrilo! 

He has been my dear friend since forever and he has allowed me to use his beautiful photos in my photo lessons of Serbian. He is doing a great job promoting Serbia and its beauties and I invite all of you to thank him on his Pixoto page by liking and leaving comments under his photos :) Хвала Гојко! 




Thursday, June 01, 2017

Serbian Adjectives - Part 4

I am sure you are confident using the simple word "lep" thanks to the previous posts about adjectives in Serbian! You learnt that "lep" (beautiful) will change as follows:

Singular
  • Masc. LEP grad = grad je lep (beautiful city - the city is beautiful)
  • Fem. LEPA zgrada = zgrada je lepa (beautiful building)
  • Neut. LEPO dete = dete je lepo (beautiful child)
Plural
  • Masc. LEPI mostovi = mostovi su lepi (beautiful bridges)
  • Fem. LEPE zgrade = zgrade su lepe (beautiful buildings)
  • Neut. LEPA deca = deca su lepa (beautiful kids)
That's why I'm sure you will be able to decide which forms of "lep" are missing in the gaps: 
  1.  _______ nebo (sky)
  2. _______noć (night)
  3. _______ dan (day)

Made with ToonyTool.com

Yes, the answers are as follows:
  1. lepo
  2. lepa
  3. lep
If you are still wondering why "noć" is "lepa", check out my video explanation and translation :D

Monday, May 29, 2017

Serbian Adjectives in Nominative - Part 3

The aim of the first two blog posts about the Serbian adjectives was to introduce you to the feminine/masculine change in adjectives in Singular:
  1. GLADAN / GLADNA
  2. SREĆAN / SREĆNA
Today, I'd like to introduce a new adjective "LEP" which means "beautiful". It is universally used for people (men, women, children), animals, plants, objects as well as abstract concepts.

This time you can see that the word in neuter singular is introduced and you can see how the adjective changes along with it. 
  • LEP MOST (a beautiful bridge)
  • LEPA ZGRADA ( a beautiful building)
  • LEPO DRVO (a beautiful tree)
Made with ToonyTool.com

You can practice answering the following questions as well:

  1. Kakav je Kip slobode? (What is the Statue of Liberty like?)
  2. Kakva je reka? (What is the river like?)
  3. Kakvo je nebo? (What is the sky like?)

In the background you can see some objects in plural and I invite you to think how the same adjective "lep" ends when describing:


  • zgradE (buildings)
  • balonI (baloons)
The answer with the pronunciation waits for you at my Patreon blog.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Fun Serbian - Pronouns

Before watching the video try to figure out which words are missing in this short exercise:
Tramp brutalno odgurnuo Markovića

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Serbian Genitive - Part 3

While in the previous simple Serbian cartoons we ppractised the prepositions followed by the Genitive:

  1. Iz = From
  2. Ispod / Iznad / Pored etc.
today we are revising the same case, with words, both in Masc. and Feminine Singular, such as: 
  • Rim, London, Pariz >>> iz RimA, iz LondonA, od ParizA - Sg. Masc.
  • Srbija, Engleska >>> iz SrbijE, iz EngleskE - Sg. Fem.
However, this time I am also introducing demonstrative adjectives this and these in Serbian:

This and These in Serbian

  • for "she" (like in "this girl" - devojčica) >>> Ova devojčica
  • for "he" (like in "this boy" - dečko) >>>Ovaj dečko
  • for "it" (like in "this sun" - sunce) >>> Ovo sunce
  • for they Masc. Pl or Masc. and Fem. Pl. together (like in "these people" - ljudi) >>>Ovi ljudi
  • for "they" Fem. Pl.(like in "these women" - žene) >>> Ove žene
  • for "they" Neut. Pl. (like in "these kids" - deca) >>> Ova deca

Made with ToonyTool.com

Serbian Genitive Task

I'm going to write the translations of these captions. Your task is to match them with colours :)

Boje (colours)  su: narandžasta (1), crvena (2), tamno plava (3), ljubičasta (4), tamno ljubičasta (5), zelena (6)

  • a) My village is more beautiful than Paris (the preposition "than" in comparison always requires the Genitive case)
  • b) This one with an umbrella is from London for sure (the preposition "from" requires the Genitive)
  • c) If they are from Rome, we are from Paris!
  • d) If this sun sees me, it must think I am from Paris!
  • e) This little one (=a girl) is surely from Serbia!
  • f) These postcards from Italy are funnier than the ones from France!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Giving directions in Serbian - Part 1

Made with ToonyTool.com

Giving Directions in Serbian


  • Izvinite = excuse me (although izvinite can mean sorry as well)
  • da li = the way to start "yes -no" question
  • ovo = this
  • put = way
  • za = to
  • aerodrom = airport (masc. sg.)
  • ali = but
  • na raskrsnici = at the crossroads
  • skrenite = turn (formal, informal is "skreni") 
  • desno = right 



Saturday, May 20, 2017

What are you having for breakfast?

Let me introduce you to one of my pets, a guinea pig called Beba. If it is a boy or a girl, you'll find out in our future lessons with it :)

The idea is for you to practice this short dialogue asking each other what you are having for breakfast:



a: Šta radiš = What are you doing?
b: Doručkujem = I'm having breakfast.
a: Šta doručkuješ? = What are you having for breakfast?
b: Doručkujem (travu) = I'm having grass for breakfast. (trava = grass)

For this, you'll need some knowledge about food & the accusative case. I'm sure this video will help:



Have fun!


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