Serbian for beginers: E2
Zdravo! Welcome to the new episode of Serbian for beginners! My name is Nikola, I am a online Serbian language tutor with almost two years of experience! We are coming in a bit late, but we are still continuing with the podcast! I’ll try to post the episodes more frequently, but until then, you can always check out the previous ones! If you have any questions, or you want to book a first lesson, feel free to write me on my Instagram page: learn__serbian, or write me at: nikola.pujic@gmail.com
Last time we learned about personal pronouns and how to match them with the verb to be in present tense. We learned about greetings and how to say I am. Today, we will dig a bit deeper into the grammar and we will have a short text as a comprehension exercise.
We showed that verb to be is probably the most important verb in Serbian language. Today, we will learn how to change it through the system and how to use it when speaking.
Let’s take a look at the table:
| Ja sam | I am | Mi smo | We are
| Ti si | You are | Vi ste | You are
| On, ona, ono je | He, she, it is | Oni, one, ona su | They are
One thing to notice here: When speaking, you should not emfasize the verb. The stress should always fall on the personal pronoun! First thing that we can notice is that Serbian has different word for each person, while English has some that are the same, for example in plural, there is one word that is same in all three person: are, while in Serbian, we have three different ones, for three different persons: smo, ste, su. It is quite useful to have all different verb forms for different person, but it can also be annoying to learn and memorize all of them. Because of this, we can say only one word, for example sam, and Serbian speaker would know that it is used in 1st person, it corresponds to Ja sam, or I am. There are some rules to follow and learn here, but that is the essence of why we have all different verb forms.
Now, although this is a base or bone structure of our sentence in Serbian, it’s still not enough for making a logical sentence. We would need some nouns, adjectives or adverbs to throw in there. Here is a few of them that you might already know:
· nouns: učenik, mama, tata, brat, sestra,
· adjectives: srećan, veliki, mali, umoran
· adverbs: ovde, tu, tamo, napolju, unutra
Let’s try to use these words and combine them with the stuff that we learned so far:
1: Zdravo, ja sam Marko, a ti si?
2: Ćao! Ja sam Milica, drago mi je.
1: Da li si ti učenik ovde?
2: Ne, ja nisam učenik ovde. Ja sam mama!
1: Aha! Ti si srećna mama!
2: Ja sam srećna i umorna!
Could you understand anything from this short conversation? Of course, we can only get so far using only the verb to be and a couple of nouns, but in specific context, that is more than enough for people to understand you and your intentions when communicating. For better communication, you will need more of the basic grammar covered: adjectives, other verbs and tenses, adverbs, etc. All of that is included in my lessons. If you want you can message me through Instagram, or on Preply website as Nikola Pujic.
Now let’s practice comprehension by listening to these conversations and texts that will get progressively more complex, but still at the beginner level. These exercises will be a bit longer than a previous dialogue.
Pasoška kontrola
-Dobro jutro!
-Dobro jutro! Vaš pasoš, molim.
-Izvolite.
-Vi ste gospodin Marković?
-Da, ja sam Nenad Marković.
-Vi ste turista?
-Ne, ja sam biznismen.
-Vaša adresa u Beogradu?
-Hotel „Metropol“.
-Izvolite pasoš.
-Hvala.
Passport control
-Good morning!
-Good morning! Your passport, please.
-Here you go.
-You are mister Marković?
-Yes, I am Nenad Marković.
-You are a turist?
-No, I am a businessman .
- Your adress in Belgrade?
-Hotel „Metropol“.
-Here is your passport.
-Thank you.
Večera
-Dobro veče, Nenade. Kako ste?
-Dobro veče. Ja sam dobro, hvala. A kako ste vi?
-Odlično danas! Da vas upoznam. Ovo je moj muž Stiven.
-Drago mi je. Da li govorite srpski?
-Razumem mnogo, ali govorim malo.
The Dinner
-Good evening, Nenad. How are you?
-Good evening. I am good, thank you. And how are you?
-Excellent today! Let me introduce you. This is my husband, Steven.
-Nice to meet you. Do you speak Serbian?
-I understand a lot, but I speak little.
Ja se zovem...
Zdravo! Ja se zovem Novak, imam dvadeset pet godina i živim u Beogradu, u Srbiji. Ja igram tenis, mnogo volim taj sport. Volim da treniram svakog dana. Takođe, ja volim fudbal, ali ja ne igram fudbal, samo volim da gledam. Mnogo volim da jedem voće, a najviše banane. Ne volim da pijem kafu. Moja sestra se zove Vera, ona ima dvadeset šest godina i ona je advokat. Mi ćemo da idemo zajedno u Ameriku, u Njujork. Ja hoću da vidim Menhetn i da jedem hot-dog.
My name is...
Hello! My name is Novak, I am twenty-five years old, and I live in Belgrade, in Serbia. I play tennis, I love that sport very much. I like to train every day. Also, I love football,but I don’t play football, I only like to watch. I like to eat fruit a lot, bananas the most. I don’t like to drink coffee. My sister is called Vera, she is twenty-six years old, and she is a lawyer. We will go to America, together, to New York. I want to see Manhattan and to eat hot dog.
Vocabulary (verbs)
živeti, živim – to live
imati, imam – to have
igrati, igram – to play
trenirati, treniram – to train
voleti, volim – to love
gledati, gledam – to watch
jesti, jedem – to eat
piti, pijem – to drink
zvati se, zovem se – to call oneself (My name is...)
ići, idem – to go
hteti, hoću – to want
If you understood the most of this text, try to make your own introduction to yourself! Say something about yourself, your name, age, what you like to do, what you don’t like to do. Grab a piece of paper and write it down! It’s always important to write as much as you can because it stimulates the vocabulary, connects everything learned and exercises writing, of course.
This concludes this short episode. The goal is for you to have more experience in listening and reading Serbian, more comprehension overall. In the future, these episodes will usually have one part basic grammar, one part reading and listening exercises. If you have any questions, feel free to write me on my Instagram page learn__serbian, or write me at: nikola.pujic@gmail.com See ya!