Serbian for beginers: E4
Zdravo! Welcome to the new episode. I hope you are enjoying the winter weather and festive season. Before we start this episode, make sure to find this podcast (Serbian Language Podcast by Serbian Language Network) at Buzz Sprout website, so you can open and read the transcript which has crucial texts and vocabulary for this episode. Also, you can follow our Instagram page at @learn__serbian (Serbian Language Network). So, grab your material and let’s start the exercise!
Today we are going to practice reading and comprehension by comparing three texts with different difficulty. It is also a practice of making sentences at three different levels. The first one will be very basic, and the last one may be little harder. As we advance higher, the grammar and sentences structure will become more and more complex. This is a good exercise for practicing all the stuff you have been learning in my lessons.
There is a list of words used in all three texts, so make sure to scroll down in the transcript and look through it if you get stuck or if you don’t know some words.
Ok, so let’s give it a go. Here is the first level, let’s see if you can understand. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right away, use the given list and try to make sense out of the text by piecing all the word types together!
Level 1
A: Ćao! Srećan Božić i srećna Nova godina!
B: Zdravo! Hvala!
A: Kako si? Da li ideš u šoping?
B: Dobro sam. Da, ja idem u šoping. Idem da kupim poklon. Kako si ti?
A: Ja sam dobro, ali danas je hladno! Da li ideš u šoping centar?
Šta hoćeš da kupiš?
B: Da, idem u šoping centar. Ja hoću da kupim laptop. Šta ti radiš?
A: Ja idem kući. Gladan sam, hoću da jedem picu.
That’s it! Short, simple, basic sentence structure, basic phrases. Make sure to check the list if you have any unfamiliar words. Now, let’s add some more advanced sentence structure. This is level 2.
Level 2
A: Ćao Marija! Srećan Božić i srećna Nova godina!
B: Milane, to si ti? Hvala! Srećan Božić. Dugo se nismo videli.
A: Kako si? Šta ima novo? Ideš negde?
B: Dobro sam. Da, idem u šoping danas. Hoću da kupim poklon za brata i sestru. Kako si ti?
A: Ja sam dobro, ali malo sam umoran. Danas je baš hladno! Sneg je padao ceo dan! Da li ideš prema šoping centru? Je l’ znaš šta hoćeš da kupiš?
B: Da, idem tamo. Hoću da kupim dobar novi laptop, a imam i šoping listu. Šta ti radiš danas?
A: Ja sam pošao kući. Gladan sam. Pravio sam picu juče, hoću da jedem i pijem topli čaj.
So, after reading this text, at level 2. What do you think? It should be slightly harder, slightly more advanced, but still at the beginner level. We expanded the text with more adjectives, past tense constructions, more uses of grammatical cases and some colloquial expressions. Now, for the level 3, We will try to add even more advanced structure, but still keep it as a somewhat beginner-friendly text. Let’s see.
Level 3
A: Hej, ćao Marija! Srećan Božić i srećna Nova godina!
B: Milane, to si ti? Hvala! Srećan Božić. Dugo se nismo videli.
A: Kako si? Šta ima novo? Kuda ideš?
B: Dobro sam, danas će biti dobar dan. Danas ću ići u kupovinu. Već petnaest minuta čekam autobus na ovoj stanici! Hoću da kupim poklon za brata i sestru, a posle moram da idem kod majke. Kako si ti?
A: Dobro sam, hvala. Mislim da sam malo umoran. Baš je hladno! Danas je hladnije nego juče. Sneg je padao ceo dan, a možda će padati i celu noć! Da li ideš prema šoping centru? Je l’ znaš šta hoćeš da kupiš?
B: Da, idem ka tamo. Hoću da kupim dobar novi laptop, ali ne znam šta da kupim mami i tati. Imam veliku šoping listu, moram da kupim stvari za tortu. Šta ti radiš danas? Hoćeš da idemo na kafu?
A: Ja sam pošao kući. Mnogo sam gladan. Pravio sam picu juče celu noć, hoću da pojedem dva tri parčeta i posle toga da ležim na kauču i popijem topli čaj. Možemo da idemo na kafu sutra, ako hoćeš.
If you stayed with me through this level, you are a true dedicated student! For some more advanced students, this text should not be that big of a challenge, but for all of you beginner warriors out there, this can be a head scratcher! Here we have both simple past and future tenses, even more examples of different grammatical cases, comparatives of adjectives, numbers, adverbs etc. Here is the list of words you can look through the word list if you get stuck at any point in the text:
Vocabulary
· nouns: Božić (Christmas), Nova godina (New year), šoping (shopping), poklon (present), shoping centar (shpping center, mall), laptop (laptop), kuća (home, house), pica (pizza), brat (brother), sestra (sister), sneg (snow), dan (day), noć (night), lista (list), čaj (tea)
· verbs: jesam/biti (to be), ići/idem (to go), kupiti/kupim (to buy), padati/padam (to fall), jesti/jedem (to eat), videti/vidim (to see), hteti/hoću (to want), znati/znam (to know), imati/imam (to have), raditi/radim (to do, to work), poći/pođem (to start going), praviti/pravim (to make), piti/pijem (to drink), čekati/čekam (to wait), morati/moram (to must, to have to), leći/legnem (to lay), popiti/popijem (to drink)
· adjectives: srećan (happy), hladan (cold), gladan (hungry), novo (new), dobar (good), veliki (big), topao/topli (warm), ceo (whole)
· adverbs: dugo (long), malo (little), danas (today), juče (yesterday)
· prepositions, connectors and simillar: i (and), već (already), na (on), za (for), kod (at), baš (really), možda (maybe), prema/ka (towards), posle toga (after that), ako (if)
That’s it for this episode. I hope it helped you understand a bit more how we form sentences in Serbian and how we use the stuff we learned in the course. Please follow us on our Instagram page as well @learn__serbian (Serbian Language Network). If you have any questions or suggestions, you can send us a DM. See you next time, vidimo se, ćao!