Learn Serbian

Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

Google Tag Head

Showing posts with label aspect in Serbian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aspect in Serbian. Show all posts

Friday, January 13, 2023

Practicing Serbian Aspect

aspect in Serbian ,
Practicing Serbian Aspect

Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in Serbian through Tenses

I guess you will like the following exercises focusing only on the verbs TO BUY and TO VISIT, both in the perfective and imperfective aspect & through different tenses. Let me know in the comment if you would like more exercises like these two?

POSETITI - POSEĆIVATI (to visit)


KUPITI - KUPOVATI (to buy)



UZDAHNUTI - UZDISATI (to sigh)

Zadatak: uzdahnula OR uzdisala?



Odgovor

Njuz: šala na temu crnog pantera



Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, November 08, 2021

Serbian 401 - Aspect in Serbian

aspect in Serbian , Serbian 401
Serbian 401 - Aspect in Serbian

Since there aren't many exercises on perfective and imperfective aspect in Serbian, I'll share all my video lessons and exercises for you to practice. 

Aspect in Serbian - Short Explanation

The easiest way to see the difference and the most frequent forms are to contrast present and past tense in Serbian. 

Aspect in Serbian - Trošiti vs Potrošiti  

  1. The Perfective Aspect of the verbs in Serbian shows most naturally in the past tense, denoting the finished action: Potrošila sam puno novca na kompjuter (I have spent /I spent a lot of money on the computer)
  2. The Imperfective Aspect shows clearly in the present tense, showing duration: Dok ti štediš novac, ja ga trošim (While you are saving money, I am spending it) - HOWEVER, it can be used for regular actions and habits as well: koliko novca trošiš svakog mesec? (how much money do you spend each month) 


Aspect in Serbian - Video Exercise

Therefore, this word order exercise is dedicated only to this clear PRESENT/PAST distinction 



For more, make sure you follow Serbian 301 and 401 posts!

Aspect in Serbian - Word order Exercise




Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, December 01, 2018

Serbian Aspect with Games - What were you doing?

aspect in Serbian ,
Serbian Aspect with Games - What were you doing?
In this video lessons you can simply practice translating sample sentences with the verbs in the imperfective aspect from English into Serbian.



Once you feel more confident, you can do the tasks yourself!

Imperfective - Perfective pairs of Verbs mentioned in this video


  • ČITATI - proČITATI >>> to be reading - to read
  • SLUŠATI - odSLUŠATI / poSLUŠATI >>> to be listening - to listen to
  • SPAVATI - odSPAVATI >>> to be sleeping - to sleep
  • PLESATI - odPLESATI / zaPLESATI >>> to be dancing - to dance
  • RADITI - uRADITI >>> to be working - to work
  • GLEDATI - odGLEDATI >>> to be watching - to watch

For more similar videos with explanations and exercises, check out my Patreon page!
Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels:

Friday, September 21, 2018

Serbian Aspect Easy Way - Nisam te se nagledao

aspect in Serbian , serbian songs
Serbian Aspect Easy Way - Nisam te se nagledao
While I was searching for some songs for learning Serbian, I came across this aspect-friendly one called Nisam te se nagledao,  which inspired me to create two sets of quizzes for you to practice Serbian aspect while listening to it :) I bet you'd be delighted to find out that there's an easy and more efficient way to learn verbal aspects :)





Let's match the verses:



Verbs only:


Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: ,

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

Aspect in Serbian - Odmoriti or Odmarati?

aspect in Serbian ,
Aspect in Serbian - Odmoriti or Odmarati?
Do you know the difference between odmoriti and odmArAti (to have a rest)? Which one shows a finished action (perfective aspect), which one shows an action in progress (imperfective aspect)?

If you know the word trAjAti, which means to lAst, it will help you connect the form with double A with the action in progress, which shows that odmArAti is obviously used to show that you are or were "having a  rest / resting".

On the other hand, the form with odmORIti, shows that you have had a rest and that's it, the result is more important than duration, so this form shows the perfective aspect.

Their various forms and differences in present and past tenses are so subtle, so I created a set of exercises for you to learn more about this weird odmoriti-odmarati duo by actually using them:) Before you see all the forms below, try to do this Micromatch exercise:




How much time did you need? Guess it wasn't that hard, once you were able to see the possible answers. For some more difficult tests, you might need all the verb forms in one place! Now, let me reveal them to you:

Present tense

- odmoriti se: odmorim - odmoriš - odmori // odmorimo - odmorite - odmore
- odmArAti se : odmaram - odmaraš - odmara // odmaramo - odmarate -odmaraju

Past tense

- odmorio - odmorila - odmorilo // odmorili - odmorile - odmorila
- odmarao - odmarala - odmaralo // odmarali - odmarale - odmarala

Have fun!

Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in Serbian

aspect in Serbian , verb conjugations in Serbian
Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in Serbian
In today's lesson we will learn the following verbs

Perfective Aspect = Svršeni glagolski vid 


1. šutnuti = to kick
2. skočiti = to jump
3. potrčati / trčati = to run
4. povući = to pull
5. otvoriti = to open
6. gurnuti = to push
7. zatvoriti = to close
8. uhvatiti = to catch

Imperfective Aspect = Nesvršeni glagolski vid 


1. šutirati = to be kicking
2. skakati = to be jumping
3. trčati = to be running
4. povlačiti / vući = to be pulling
5. otvArati= to be opening
6. zatvAriti = to be closing
7. zatvArati= to be closing
8. hvatA = to be catching

We'll use them in the past tense.

Prošlo vreme, perfektni oblik = Past Simple Tense 


He kickED the ball - on je šutnuo loptu
he jumpED - on je skočio
he ran - on je potrčao
he pullED the box - on je povukao kutiju
he openED the door - on je otvorio vrata
he pushED the box - on je gurnuo kutiju
he closeD the door - on je zatvorio vrata
he caught the ball - on je uhvatio loptu

Click here for the full version.

As you can see each aspect has a different or slightly different form. That's why I am making the short videos with conjugations so you can hear and see the conjugations clearly. Let's focus on the fun task in front of us today, and in the following days you can expect me to focus more on the conjugations of the each verbs with fun exercises. Looking forward to getting your vocaroo.com stories in both aspects :)
Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, May 07, 2016

Aspect in Serbian with Verbs Describing House Chores

aspect in Serbian ,
Aspect in Serbian with Verbs Describing House Chores

How to Practice Aspect in Serbian?

When talking about aspect in Serbian, I must admit it is best learnt by using the phrases in everyday situations. A good example is a set of the most frequently used verbs when talking about house chores:


Imperfective vs. Perfective Aspect in Serbian  

  • Prati / oprati sudove = to be washing / to wash the dishes
  • Raspremati / raspremiti = to be tidying up / to tidy up
  • Usisati / usisavati = to be hoovering / to hoover
  • Čistiti / (p)očistiti = to be cleaning / to clean
  • Brisati / obrisati = to be wiping / to wipe
  • Kuvati / skuvati = to be cooking / to cook
  • Pržiti / ispržiti = to be frying / to fry
  • Peći / ispeći = to be baking / to bake
  • Peglati / opeglati = to be ironing / to iron


Read more »
By at
Labels:

Thursday, March 07, 2013

Intermediate Serbian Lessons - 365 Days of Serbian

aspect in Serbian , intermediate Serbian
Intermediate Serbian Lessons - 365 Days of Serbian
By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Intermediate Serbian - Verb Aspect, lesson 3

aspect in Serbian , intermediate Serbian
Intermediate Serbian - Verb Aspect, lesson 3
Before we continue with the video lessons focusing on aspect differences, let's be impratctical and  talk only about the grammar today:

As you probably noticed in the previous post for the intermediate level, one can turn an imperfective verb into a perfective one by adding a prefix (buditi - probuditi ,  razbuditi ). But this is not the only way to change an aspect of a verb. You can also:

  • add a prefix to the verb and it becomes perfective 
  • add a suffix to the verb and it becomes perfective (dremati - dremNUti)
  • alter the stem (odmoriti - odmarati, which I explained in the previous post)
But, we have to be cautious with the process of prefixation ! Quite often the meaning of the verb does not bear only the difference in aspect ( whether the action is complete or incomplete: "I wrote" - "I was writing" : Napisao sam = Pisao sam). It more frequently bears a new layer of meaning,  like the ones mentioned in "buditi" becoming perfective in "probuditi" or "razbuditi", so we need to  use phrasal verbs in English to accurately convey the additional meaning.

Let me give you a few examples of:
  • clear-cut distinction pefective-imperfective (without any additonal meanings):
  1. pisati - napisati (to be writing - to have written/wrote)
  2. čitati - pročitati (to be reading - to have read/ read )
  • the prefix adding new meanings :
  1. igrati - odigrati / izigrati / zaigrati  (to be playing - to have played / to play up / to play upon* these translations are incomplete and need to be read in  the sentences, which will be the aim of our future lessons at this level )
  2. pisati -  prepisati (to copy) / zapisati (to jot down) / upisati (to enroll)
Until the next lesson, do practise the aspect in Serbian by doing some fun exercises published in the previous posts:
Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Serbian Language Day 10 - Aspect in Serbian

aspect in Serbian , Free lessons of Serbian
Serbian Language Day 10 - Aspect in Serbian
I hope you enjoyed revising the Simple Past in Serbian and wondering why the last lesson was so easy for someone at an intermediate level. The obvious reason is the introduction into this tense, because it'll lead us to the trickiest aspect of the Serbian language:

While in the English language there's an elaborate system of tenses (level of syntax) in order to express whether an action took place, was talking place or has been talking place, in the Serbian language, these distinctions are inferred mainly from the verb, at the lexical level. For example:
  • odmorio (had a rest) or odmarao (was having a rest)
That's why I prepared quite a lot video lessons about Jeremija and Spomenka, and the follow-up exercises, hoping that it'll help you clarify the aspect in Serbian. Let me start with this  difficult one, but if it's too easy, check this one out :)














  • PROBUDITI = to wake up (perfective)
  • BUDITI = to wake up (imperfective)
  • RAZBUDITI = to wake up (perfective)
Kada se obično budiš ? = When do you usually wake up ?
Koliko ti treba vremena da se probudiš ? = How much time does it take for you to wake up ?
Kada si se jutros probudio ? When did you wake up yesterday ?
Jutros sam se probudio u pola šest (5.30) = This morning I woke up at 5.30

In the "she-version", Jeremija made a few mistakes. Here're the correct text:
Read more »
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

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