After two months of adjusting an old course of mine to the new set of quality criteria at Udemy, Serbian 102 has been approved and is visible for anyone interested in learning Serbian at pre-intermediate level. I'm adding now additional new video lessons such as this one:

 Accusative in Serbian

 

and quizzes:

Quizzes with  Accusative in Serbian

TEST - 15 rečenica

Example with Sg. JA + IĆI + CRKVA >>> Idem u crkvu
Example with Pl. TI + VIDETI + MOSTOVI >>> Vidiš mostove

LEARN

SPACERACE

Pronunciation of Exercise 

You can record a similar story with www.Vocaroo.com

 

After uploading a hundred of videos both from Serbian 101 and Serbian 102 course, and revising each of them, Ivan decided to help me with his 3D effects vidos. So far he's made 30 short videos with the verbs used in the course, in the present and past tense so far, but he plans to make 5 more each day.

I'll post some of them here on the blog, but for the complete version, refer to the Serbian101-102 course. Here comes its short description:

• Tenses: Present Simple and Past Simple Tense
• Cases: Nominative, Accusative, Instrumental and Locative
• Modals: Can, Must
• Pronouns: Personal and Possessive Pronouns
• Adjectives: Possessive Adjectives and Noun-adjective Agreement
• Numbers: Cardinal and Ordinal

• functions such as:
• • Greetings
  • Introductions
  • Asking for Clarification/Explanation
  • Asking about Directions
  • Giving Directions
  • Requesting 
  • Offering
  • Expressing Likes and Dislikes
  • Asking about Likes and Dislikes
• situations such as:
• • • Meeting People
    • Small Talk
    • In a Restaurant
    • Shopping
    • Arranging a Meeting
    • Talking about Family
    • Talking about Routines
    • Talking about your Life
• vocabulary topics such as:
• • Family members
  • Numbers
  • Food
  • Souvenirs
  • Places in a city
  • Countries and Cities
  • Means of transport
  • Colours
  • Jobs and occupations

If you are familiar with the personal pronouns in Serbian in the Nominative case, it's time for you to their different forms through various cases.

The clever way is to approach these more complicated forms through the texts you've done before, using the pronouns instead of nouns. For example:



If we turn all the nouns into the corresponding pronouns, we would get a fun story:

• Želim da kupim njih. = Želim da ih kupim.
• Da li  imate njih, ali u plavoj boji? = Da li ih imate, ali plave?
• Da li možete da mi pokažete nju i njih = Da li možete da mi je pokažete i da mi ih pokažete?
• Želim da kupim nju, nju i nju i njih. = Želim da je kupim i želim da ih kupim.

However, the easiest way is to learn pronouns is through songs and exercises:

• Personal pronouns in the Dative with "Kafu mi draga ispeci"
• Personal pronoun "we" in different forms with "Moja draga" 
• Personal pronouns in the Accusative and possessive adjectives with "Dudo"
• Mixed personal pronouns with "Tako mi svega"

• Accusative (MENE / SEBE - TEBE/ VAS - NJEGA - NJU(JE) - NJEGA // NAS - VAS - NJIH)

• Locative ( o MENI/ SEBI - TEBI - VAMA - NJEMU - NJOJ - NJEMU // NAMA - VAMA - NJIMA)
• Instrumental (SA MNOM/SOBOM - TOBOM - VAMA - NJIM - NJOM - NJIM // NAMA - VAMA - NJIMA)

One of the most difficult features of the Serbian language are declensions, i.e. different suffixes which words such as nouns, pronouns, adjectives take in different cases. Let me add all of them in one place, while in the following posts you will be able to focus on practicing these cases, one by one and in a more fun way!

Singular Cases Suffixes in Serbian 

Case name:	Answers question:	Used to describe:	Suffixes (I tried describing just the majority of case endings, general rule, not the exceptions and specific ones)
Nominative	KO? ŠTA? Who? What?	Usually the subject of a sentence and predicative	- Masc. most often ends in a consonant - Fem. most often ends in A - Neut. most often ends in -E or -O
Genitive	KOGA?ČEGA? Of who? Of what?	Possession, belonging, a part of something	- Masc. nouns take an - A ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -E ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - A ending (while some nouns in animate category add an infix T, so you get deteTA, pileTA)
Dative	KOME?ČEMU? To whom? To what?	The noun to which/ whom something is given, shown, etc.	- Masc. nouns take an - U ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -i ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - U ending
Accusative	KOGA? ŠTA? Whom? What?	Usually the object of a sentence	- Masc. nouns describing inanimate concepts don't change while nouns in animate category (person / animal / plant) take an - A ending, the same as the genitive case - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -U ending - Neut.  nouns describing inanimate concepts don't change, regardless of the category (animate/inanimate)
Vocative	HEJ! Calling someone or in poems referring to something or some place	Used to address somebody or something	- Masc. nouns ending in a consonant take an - E ending, the ones ending in an -a drop the final -a and take an -O suffix, otherwise they don't change (examples: Dejvid - Dejvide! Pera - Pero! Mirko - Mirko! ) - Fem. nouns  of the foreign origin don't change in the locative, while the two and more syllable ones drop the final -a and take an -O ending, while names ending in -CA drop the final A and take an -E  (Marina! Kim! Nada - Nado! Ljubica - Ljubice!) - Neut. nouns don't change
Instrumental	S KIM? ČIM? Using, with, whom? Using, with, what?	Company (with preposition s) or utilization of something or someone to accomplish an action	- Masc. nouns take an - OM ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -OM ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - OM ending >>> for all genders, after some "soft" sounds you will have an ending -EM (mužEM, tušEM...)
Locative	GDE? O KOME? O ČEMU? Where? About whom?	Location, Relation	(It's good to know that the locative = dative in form) - Masc. nouns take an - U ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -i ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - U ending

Plural Cases Suffixes in Serbian ... coming soon

Exercise with Case Suffixes in Serbian

Draga Anna,

Hvala ti za predivnu idej__ kako da vodim ovaj blog. Trudiću se da redovno objavljujem kratke prič__ ili postov__ , bez nastavak__ za padež___, a rešenj___ ćeš moći da pročitaš u audio fajl__ na vrhu___ svak___ post___. U početk___ ću pisati lakše tekst___ , pa sve teže i teže. Možeš mi i dojaviti šta ti se sviđa, a šta ne u komentar___.
Pošto svakodnevno izmišljam test____ za učenik___ englesk___, neće mi biti teško da to radim i za srpsk___ . Nadam se da ćeš uživati, kao i ostali vredni učenic__ koji nalete na ovaj blog.
Do sledećeg javljanj___ sve najbolje i puno pozdrav___
od Marin___

 ps. the answer key is in comments

Endings for the 1st, -am, conjugation group of verbs in Serbian in the Present Tense are
-am - aš - a -amo -ate -aju

One of the funny grammatical categories you might come across in Serbian are "animate" vs. "inanimate"  nouns, which is for instance reflected in the Accusative declensions, only for Sg. Masculine. This means that just because you've seen (to see = videti)  or taken a photo ((u)slikati) of a person, not a thing, a noun like "dečak" will take the Genitive declension markers (suffix -a)  instead of Accusative (zero suffix), although it's still an Accusative case. (I'm talking only about the form here).

For example: Ovo je dečak. Videla sam dečaka. Slikala sam dečaka. (there's also a stress change from the first to the second syllable).

While the linguists dwell on these topics and enjoy discussing whys and ifs of such irregularities, I always enjoy helping you in the most practical way. That's why Ivan and I created these two videos, carefully choosing nouns both in singular and then in plural and grouping them. With both videos you can practice saying simple sentences, with the verbs:

• videti (to see )
• fotografisati  = slikati = uslikati (to take a photo of )
• snimati (to record)

The first video covers the grammatical category of "inanimate" objects:

The second one is obviously all about "animate" category - this time the topic is "people " (so switch to the Genitive endings for masc. please).

Serbian A2 to B2 Video Lesson 

Here comes a video lesson which will help you practice Serbian at different levels. 

As you can see, there are three phrases. 

Serbian A2 Video Lesson - Accusative

Serbian B1 Video Lesson - Genitive 

Potencijal = Second conditional or If Clauses in English
(or If I could..., I would... or If I had, I would...)


    DA+ PRESENT, JA BIH + GLAGOL+o/la

Da mogu da jedem lubenicu, ja bih je (po)jela.


     KAD BIH + GLAGOL+o/la, JA BIH + GLAGOL+o/la

Kad bih mogla da jedem lubenicu, ja bih je pojela. Prevod: If I could eat a watermelon now, I would eat it.

Exercises with Serbian A2 to B2 Video Lessons

There are so many different online tools for making tests, quizzes and fun video exercises and I think you noticed I like experimenting with them while creating various tasks for learning Serbian. Funnily enough, it takes time for some tools to develop and in the meantime, I completely forget about them. One of these is certainly Quizlet, which I joined three years ago, but haven't realized its potential until recently, thanks to my student, Paul! Hvala, Pavle :)

According to the case suffixes, nouns in Serbian can be grouped into three or four declensions (the order and number hasn't been established yet). I'll list the three most commonly presented ones, starting from the most complex one, which is often subdivided, depending on the noun gender and its stem ending:

1. Declension:

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant
Neuter nouns ending in -o or -e

*Note that Masc. nouns in Sg. Acc. is the same as the Genetive if the noun denotes an 'animate concept', like human being or an animal, while the 'inanimate' ones are objects, but also plants and groups of people or animals (like 'a people'= 'narod' or pack (of wolves)= 'čopor')

** All Neuter nouns have the same form for Nominative, Accusative and Vocative, which is really great :o)

*** With Masc. nouns ending in palatal 'j, lj, nj, č, dž, đ, ć, š, ž'
a/ in Sg. Instrumental case it will end in 'em', instead of 'om'
b/ in Sg. Vocative case it will end in 'u' instead of 'e'

	ANIMATE	ANIMATE	non-ANIMATE	non-ANIMATE
Sing.
	non-palatal ending	palatal	non-palatal	palatal ending
Nom	DOKTOR	PRIJATELJ	BROD	ČEKIĆ
Gen	DOKTOR-A	PRIJATELJ-A	BROD-A	ČEKIĆ-A
Dative	DOKTOR-U	PRIJATELJ-U	BROD-U	ČEKIĆ-U
Acc	DOKTOR-E	PRIJATELJ-A	BROD	ČEKIĆ
Voc	DOKTOR-E	PRIJATELJ-U	BROD-E	ČEKIĆ-U
Inst	DOKTOR-OM	PRIJATELJ-EM	BROD-OM	ČEKIĆ-EM
Loc	DOKTOR-U	PRIJATELJ-U	BROD-U	ČEKIĆ-U

****The pattern for Plural being the same for all the forms:

Nom	DOKTOR-I
Gen	DOKTOR-A
Dative	DOKTOR-IMA
Acc	DOKTOR-E
Voc	DOKTOR-I
Inst	DOKTOR-IMA
Loc	DOKTOR-IMA

*****Elongated Plural can be seen in the majority of one syllable and a good part of two syllable nouns. In the plural they get 'OV' or with palatal ones 'EV':

	Elongated' = longer form
Nom	STAN-ov-I
Gen	STAN-ov-A
Dative	STAN-ov-IMA
Acc	STAN-ov-E
Voc	STAN-ov-I
Inst	STAN-ov-IMA
Loc	STAN-ov-IMA

******* Sometimes, if the noun ends in -c, -s, -z or -t, there is an ending in -ev (e.g. vicevi (jokes), nosevi (noses) , putevi (roads) )

Well, as you can see, this is just the beginning of the story about Noun Declensions. If you are learning Serbian, I'd like to ask you if you find it easier to learn the language in this 'grammar oriented' fashion, or simply 'by ear'?

Now that you've practised a set of  verbs which require the Accusative case, in different tenses and with different nouns ( which you have seen / broken / bought /sold / fixed / turned off / turned on etc.), it's time you did the same exercise, but this time with adjectives.

The topic of adjectives in Serbian is always tricky as they not only agree with the number and gender of the noun, but also with its case. While in some cases, like in the Accusative for example, the case endings are the same for the nouns and adjectives, it's not always that easy ( e.g. in the Genitive case).

That's why we'll stick to the Accusative case today, because we've already practised it and it's easy!
Let's watch the same video and add the following adjectives in front of each noun :

• MODERAN = modern
• JEFTIN = cheap
• SKUP = expensive
• VELIKI = big
• MALI = small
• NOVI = new
• STARI = old
• DOBAR = good

A few days ago Nat, AhoyEnglish sent me this lovely pic with body parts in four languages. Let's listen to Ivan's pronunciation of the words and how they can be used in the context.

Let's start with Fem. Sg. nouns:

Ruka
Noga
Šaka
Glava

*Šta se desilo ? (What's happened?)
**Boli me ruka. (My hand hurts)
*Ruka? Kako si povredio rukU? (Hand? How did you hurt your hand?)
**Sankao sam se i onda sam pao i povredio je.(I was sledding and then I fell over and hurt it: 'her' nju = je = it for Feminine Sg. nouns in accusative)
Now you do the same for noga, šaka, glava: (the answer key is in the comment)

Neuter Sg. nouns:

Rame
Koleno
Stopalo
Uvo (ear)

*Šta se desilo ? (What's happened?)
**Boli me rame. (My shoulder hurts)
*Rame? Kako si povredio rame? (Shoulder? How did you hurt your rame?)
**Sankao sam se i onda sam pao i povredio ga.(I was sledding and then I fell over and hurt it : njega = ga = it for Neuter and Masculine Sg. nouns in accusative)

Masculine Sg. nouns:

Lakat
Nokat
Prst
Zub

*Šta se desilo ? (What's happened?)
**Boli me lakat. (My elbow hurts)
*Lakat? Kako si povredio lakat? (Elbow? How did you hurt your elbow?)
**Sankao sam se i onda sam pao i povredio ga.(I was sledding and then I fell over and hurt it : 'him' njega = ga = it for Neuter and Masculine Sg. nouns in accusative).

Sooooo, what are the sufixes for Accusative case in Singular, for the following genders
(1) Fem.?
(2) Neu.?
(3) Masc.?
For more information about Accusative you can check this document published by Larisa Zlatić

What do you see in Serbian?  

In one of the very first posts I created on this blog, there was a list of the keywords when talking about yourself . It was published back in 2008 and you can find it by clicking on this link.

Now, if we use these words in context, we can see how the personal pronouns referring to the same words can be often heard. Let's practice such sentences together!

Masc./Neuter  Sg Nouns in Accusative >>> Corresponding Pronouns (on / ono  >>> ga/njega)

1. IME = first name.............................................Koje je vaše ime? Možete li da ga ponovite? 
2. PREZIME = surname.....................................Koje je vaše prezime? Možete li da ga ponovite? 
3. DEVOJAČKO PREZIME = maiden name....Koje je vaše devojačko prezimee? Možete li da _____ ponovite? 
4. MESTO ROĐENJA = place of birth...............Gde ste rođeni? Ponovite Vaše mesto rođenja! Možete li da ____ napišete?
5. DATUM ROĐENJA = date of birth...............Kad ste rođeni? Ponovite Vaše datum rođenja! Možete li da ____ napišete?
6. PASOŠ = passport.........................................Da li je ovo Vaš pasoš? Dajte mi ___ molim Vas! 

1. LIČNA KARTA = identity card....................Imate li ličnu kartu? Dajte mi je, molim Vas!
2. STALNA ADRESA = permanent address....Imate li stalnu adresu? Možete li da __ napišete? 
3. MEJL ADRESA = e-mail address................Imate li mejl adresu? Možete li da mi __ pošaljete
4. ZDRAVSTVENA KNJIŽICA = health insurrance...Imate li knjižicu Dajte mi ___, molim Vas!

1. PASOŠI...................Imate li pasošE? Molim vas dajte mi ih!
2. LIČNE KARTE...... Pokažite mi lične karte. Dajte mi ____, molim vas!
3. IMENA .................. Kako se zovete? Koja su vaša imena? Ajde, ponovite mi ___ polako, molim vas!
4. MEJL ADRESE.... Hajde da razmenimo mejl adrese! Možete li da mi ___ pošaljete još jednom, molim vas!

In the previous post you could see the different forms of pronouns in the Accusative case in Serbian:

If you've practised the Accusative form of the nouns and pronouns with the video in the previous post, it's time to expand your confidence onto the verbs which require a noun/pronoun in this case. With all the listed nouns (TV, pegla, mobilni telefon, mašina za veš ...), the following verbs, properly conjugated, will make sense:

• videti (to see) Present Tense conjugations: Sg: vidIM, vidIŠ, vidI Pl: vidIMO, vidITE, vidE           Past Tense : Sg: videO, videLA, videLO Pl: videLI, videLE, videLA
• gledati (to watch) gledAM, gledAŠ, gledA - gledAMO, gledATE, gledAJU ( for the following verbs you'll see only: PRESENT Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju and for the PAST Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la )
• imati (to have)  Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju (imaJU) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• koristiti (to use) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (koristE) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• raditi (to work) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (rade) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• popravljati (to fix) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -ju (popravljaju) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• uključiti (to turn on) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (uključe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• isključiti (to turn off) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (isključe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• kupiti (to buy) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (kupe) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• prodati (to sell) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (prodate) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• vratiti (to return) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (vrate) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• (po)kvariti se (to break down) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (pokvare) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la
• baciti (to throw away) Sg: -m/-š/- Pl: -mo / -te / -e (bace) Past: Sg. -o/-la/-lo Pl. -li/-le/-la

Today, our topic is practising asking for food both in formal and informal way in Serbian.

• DAJ MI = give me (informally)
• DAJTE MI = give me (formally)
• MOLIM TE = please  (informally)
• MOLIM VAS = please (formally)

If you are not sure why the words for food mentioned in the exercise change, check the previous posts about the Accusative case!

Exercise with the Imperative of Give in Serbian

Brand New Serbian Online Course

In the Serbian language, one can express location using the verbs which require nouns in different cases.

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions with Verbs which Require Accusative

In the previous lessons of Serbian 301, you practiced:

• using the accusative case of the nouns following the verb VIDETI = TO SEE
• using the relative clauses with KOJI /KOJA/ KOJI/ KOJE = who
• listening comprehension task in this post

Serbian 301 - Asking Questions

I'm sure that you find Serbian days of the week easy to pronounce. However, if you still struggle with Thursday (četvrtak), there's a useful introduction in this video to help you pronounce days well.

Since rarely does anyone use days of the week in its Nominative form: