Dobar dan i dobro došli u Serbain Language for begginers!
This is a podcast dedicated to all Serbian language learners that are just starting their journey! These episodes will come out at least once per month, and with them you can develop basic grammar and communication that you can use to construct your very first sentences! If you already have experience in Serbian, if you can read and understand most of this language, then you should check out a different podcast that is, for now, called simply: Serbian Language Podcast.
Both versions of a podcast come with a transcript: texts in Serbian and English, so the learning process goes clearly and smoothly. If you have any questions, if you want have an online lesson with me, or to aquire the transcript you can write me at nikola.pujic@gmail.com. So, the first lesson can begin!
Zdravo! Ja sam Nikola! Kako se ti zoveš?
(Hello! I’m Nikola! What’s your name?)
When you learn any language, one of the first things you should learn is how to introduce yourself. Serbian language is no different from English in that matter. There are a couple of greeting you can use:
Dobar dan!; Zdravo!; Ćao!
(Good day!; Hello!; Hi!)
As you can guess, Dobar dan is the most formal way you can greet someone. We would usually use this when speaking to someone that has higher authority than us, with someone who is unknown, or older than us. Basically, it is a very polite greeting.
When you say Zdravo!, it is less formal than the first greeting. It is derived from the word zdrav, which means healthy. You can use this in any occasion that you find comfortable to use it in, for example, when speaking to friends or when you walk into a shop.
Ćao! Is the least formal greeting. Yes, it is probably borrowed from Italian, and it is mostly used when you talk with your friends or people that you see often and you consider to be close to you.
While we are at it, let’s take a look at how you would use other greetings. So, you can probably guess that the word dan from Dobar dan means „day“. Therefore, if word jutro means morning, and veče means evening, you can say:
Dobro jutro!
(Good morning!)
and
Dobro veče!
(Good evening!)
When you want to leave, you can say:
Doviđenja!
(Goodbye!)
or the ones form before:
Zdravo!
(Bye!)
Ćao!
(Bye!)
It is very important to always learn new words, and expand your vocabulary. But, grammar is something that serves as a backbone to your language learning process. For example, in the sentence I used before, verb to be is in 1st person singular, and that is: sam. I used it with the personal pronoun ja which means I.
Ja + sam = Ja sam
(I + am = I am)
Now, what if I wanted to say you are? Logically, I probably won’t use all the same words. I would say:
Ti + si = Ti si
(You + are = You are)
As you can notice, the word sam that we had in the sentence Ja sam, now changed to si in the sentence Ti si. Why? It’s actually the same as in English, we just put it in a different person, in a 2nd person singular to be exact. As in English, it does not sound the same. You cannot say “Ja si“ or “ Ti sam“ because the personal prounoun and the verb are not in the same person.
This two things, personal pronouns (Ja or I) and the verb to be (sam or am) are the backbone to the most of world languages, including Serbian. And all of this is available in my online Serbian course, lesson by lesson.
So, with these two parts combined, you can easily form your first sentence! For example, now you know how to say your name:
Ja sam Nenad; Ja sam Milica.
Or you can ask for other person’s name:
Ti si Nenad?; Ti si Milica?
When you slowly expand your vocabulary, you can combine all sorts of nouns and adjectives to this type of sentences. If you know how to say student – učenik, or srećan – happy, then try to use that in a sentence:
Ti si učenik.
(You are a student.)
Ti si srećan učenik.
(You are happy student.)
Actually, adjectives are quite specific if you compare Serbian language to English. All adjectives are very fluid words. What does that mean? Every word has its form, the way it looks outside. Adjectives can change their look according to the word they describe. If a word in Serbian is masculine gender in singular, the adjective that describes that word will be in masculine gender singular. If it’s in feminine plural, the adjective will also be in feminine plural. So, if you are speaking to a girl or a woman, you wouldn’t say Ti si srećan. You would rather say:
Ti si srećna.
(You are happy.)
or
Ti si srećna devojka.
(You are a happy girl.)
Now the word that means happy changed its look. In this example, it is srećna, because it refers and describes a word that is feminine gender – devojka. In the first example, it described a word that is masculine gender – učenik, so the word happy was in a different form, it was srećan.
This is just an example of what Serbian language can do. There is a lot more than this that can be discovered, step by step. Once you master the grammar, all of this will come naturally and will get easier and easier.
Now, let’s take a look at some words that you probably already know!
What can these words mean?
adresa, analiza, anatomija, balet, energija, maj, muzej, politika, sport, turista, imitacija, čokolada, škola, apartman
Is there any word that you didn’t understand? If yes, probably just one or two of them. All these words are internationalisms. They are used in most of world languages and there is a lot of them in Serbian, of course. So, that means that you already know a good amount of vocabulary of the Serbian language!
Let’s take a look at text exercise:
U hotelu In the hotel
-Dobar dan. Kako se zovete? -Good day. What is your name?
-Dobar dan, ja sam Petar Petrović. -Good day, I am Petar Petrović.
-Vi ste Srbin? -You are Serb?
-Da, ja sam Srbin. -Yes, I am Serb.
-Aha, niste turista. -Aha! You are not a tourist.
-Nisam. -I’m not.
-Izvolite vaš ključ. -Here’s your key.
-Hvala. Gde je apartman? -Thank you.
Where is the apartment?
-Apartman je levo. -The apartment is on the left.
-Hvala, doviđenja. -Thank you, goodbye.
-Doviđenja. -Goodbye.
Did you understand anything from this conversation? If yes, then you are already at the good path and you know a little bit of Serbian. If not, don’t worry! All of this can be mastered in a couple of basic lessons!
It is good to analyse each text you encounter: what types of words are in there? Are there any verbs, nouns or adjectives that you don’t understand? In which form are they showing up? For example, in this dialogue, we had a verb to be, but in a negative form!
-Aha, niste turista.
-Nisam.
Word nisam is actually the negative from sam or jesam, which means am, as in:
I am
(Ja sam.)
compare that to:
I’m not.
(Ja nisam.)
With all of this said, try to experiment with the language you learn as much as possible. Don’t be afraid of mistakes, because we learn on them. It’s good to have a tutor or some daily source of the language which you can use to correct your mistakes. If you learned to say srećan for example, try to use it in every sentence of the Serbian language, or try to combine it with other nouns and verbs, just to see how would it look like.
This concludes our first “Serbian languge for begginers“ podcast. In the future, I will try to give you more of vocabulary and conversational practice through these podcasts. They will serve as an addition to my online course, as a listening and understanding exercise. If you want me to send you the transcript of this episode, or if you want to have an online lesson with me, write me at nikola.pujic@gmail.com.