Serbian for Beginners: Introducing yourself
Zdravo! Welcome to the new episode of Serbian for Beginners. I am your online Serbian tutor, Nikola. Before we start, make sure to follow my Instagram page: learn__serbian (Serbian Language Network) where you can book your free trial lesson and find even more learning materials! If you have any question, you can also write me at email in the description of each episode (nikola.pujic@gmail.com)
Today, you are going to learn how to introduce yourself in Serbian. We will read text in three levels of difficulty, each more advanced than the one before. The topic will mostly stay the same, we will only change and add certain types of words. There will be the list of words you can read at the end of the transcript. Okay, let’s start with the easiest text.
Level 1
Zdravo! Ja sam Nikola Imam dvadeset četiri godine. Ja živim u Beogradu, u Srbiji. Studiram sprski jezik na univerzitetu. Volim da čitam, pišem i slušam muziku. Ja sviram gitaru, a dugo ne igram tenis. Hoću da idem u London.
Could you understand anything? I tried to use short sentences, limited vocabulary, and present tense only. Even though nothing is wrong with this text, it’s always better to expand it and include more diverse vocabulary. Let’s try to do just that.
Level 2
Zdravo! Kako si? Ja sam Nikola i ja imam dvadeset četiri godine. Sada živim u Beogradu, u Srbiji. Ja sam student, studiram srpski jezik na univerzitetu u Beogradu. Mnogo volim da čitam, ali volim i da pišem. Mnogo volim da slušam muziku svaki dan. Ja znam da sviram gitaru, a volim da igram i tenis, ali nisam igrao tenis baš dugo. Želim da putujem i da idem u London. Kako se ti zoveš? Gde živiš?
For some students, this can be more challenging. I included new vocabulary, adverbs, verbs and some common expressions like „Kako si?“. Let’s take a look at level three.
Level 3
Zdravo! Kako si? Ja se zovem Nikola i imam dvadeset četiri godine. Trenutno sam u Beogradu, u Srbiji. Ovde studiram srpski jezik na beogradskom univerzitetu. Ja sam na poslednjoj godini studija. Baš volim da čitam, ali još uvek nemam omiljenu knjigu. Volim i da pišem, takođe. Svaki dan kada odmaram, slušam muziku. Znam da sviram gitaru, ali ne sviram trenutno. Kada sam bio mali, trenirao sam tenis, ali sada više ne treniram. Želim da putujem. Ići ću u London sledeće godine. Kako se ti zoveš? Gde živiš? Da li voliš Srbiju?
At this, last level, we used longer sentences, adjectives, more verbs and adverbs and three tenses: past, present and future. You can also notice more frequent use of connectors. So what do you think at the end? Is this comparisson helpful? Of course, you shoud definetly try to write you own introduction. If you are comfortable, try upgrading sentences and phrases untill you reach your highest level of proficency. Use the list at the end of the transcript.
Vocabulary
· nouns: godina (year), jezik (language), univerzitet (university), studije (studies), knjiga (book), dan (day), muzika (music), gitara (guitar), tenis (tenis)
· verbs: jesam/biti (to be), zvati se/zovem se (to be called), imati/imam (to have), studirati/tudiram (to study at the university), voleti/volim (to love, to like), čitati/čitam (to read), pisati/pišem (to write), odmarati/odmaram (to rest), slušati/sušam (to listen to), znati/znam (to know), svirati/sviram (to play an instrument), trenirati/trenitam (to train), želeti/želim (to wish), ići/idem (to go), živeti/živim (to live)
· adjectives: srpski (serbian), beogradski (belgrade adj.), poslednji (last), omiljeni (favorite), sledeći (next),
· adverbs: trenutno (currently), ovde (here), svaki dan (every day)
· prepositions, connectors and simillar: i (and), na (on, at), baš (really), takođe (as well), kada (when), ali (but), više (any more), da li (marker for beginning of a question)
That would be all for this short beginner episode. I plan on expanding and uploading more frequently each month, so stay updated. Please follow the Instagram page: learn__serbian (Serbian Language Network) where you can book your free trial lesson. If you have any question, you can also write me at email in the description of each episode (nikola.pujic@gmail.com) Vidimo se uskoro! Ćao!