Learn Serbian

Monday, March 02, 2015

Exercises for Serbian as a Foreign Language

Because of the lack of digital teaching materials for practicing Serbian as a foreign language, I decided to turn my simple dialogues and stories into video exercises. Unfortunately, when speaking of the Serbian language, there's scarcity of paper based materials as well, but that's another story!

Exercises for Serbian as a Foreign Language

Anyways*, if you have studied the previous lesson thoroughly, I am sure you will be able to do the following task without difficulty, whether* practicing speaking or grammar!

*again, you can find the translation in the Serbian version of this post

Serbian Verbs - Short Story 1

Marina Serbian verbs ,

Serbian Verbs in Short Stories

Recently I have considered* a list of the most frequently used Serbian verbs and I decided to write short stories and dialogues based on them. In* the first ten often used verbs, the following four are in this story:

biti
imati
jesti
videti

I also added the verb "voleti" in this group, which is actually at 31st position according to its frequency, but I hope you won't mind!
Can you translate this dialogue into your mother tongue? I will translate it into English and this will help you to check your own translation. If you happen to have time, do send it (via comment maybe?), because it will help other students all over the world in the future!

*Sorry for the clumsy translation, I was trying to stick to the Serbian original text which can be found here.

Dialogues in English and Serbian

Sretenjski Ustav Exercise and Video

Marina Sretenjski ustav exercise ,

Sretenjski Ustav Exercise with Video

Here comes the perfect opportunity to share with you a special episode of "Mala istorija Srbije" dedicated to Sretenjski ustav.

I also want to share with you a few suggestions as to how to have an interesting lesson based on this video:

1. Opišite šta se dešava u ovoj epizodi, ali bez slušanja

2. Sada ponovo odslušajte celu epizodu i odgovorite na sledeća pitanja:

a. po čemu je poznat Sretenjski ustav?

b. kada je donet?

c. kako ga je ruski ambasador nazvao?

St Valentine's Day with Exercises 2

Marina Serbian holidays , serbian songs

Songs for St Valentine's Day in Serbian

For all of you eagerly waiting for another love song, this time sung to a woman, here comes one suggestion: I Still Love You by Sergej Ćetković. The answer key, or the lyrics, can be found here, but I am sure you'll have fun trying to do my exercise as well:

St Valentine's Day with Exercises 1

Marina Serbian holidays , serbian songs

If you are in love and getting ready to surprise your loved one on 14th February, or Sveti Trifun in Serbian, and if you are in search of a good love song, in the following few days I'll share with you a few suggestions.

Ako ste zaljubljeni i pripremate se da iznenadite voljenu osobu povodom 14. februara, svetog Trifuna u Srbiji, i u potrazi ste za dobrom ljubavnom pesmom, evo ovih nekoliko dana ću vam dati nekoliko predloga:

Pesma za njega = A song for him
*Ne brinite, sutra stiže pesma za nju = No worries, tomorrow I'll post a song for her!

Vežba za tebe :)

Ideas for Advanced Serbian Lessons - City

Marina Advanced Serbian ,

Advanced Serbian Lessons - Describing a City

For all of you who are eager to learn more advanced Serbian, I found another great video which can be turned into a few different speaking and listening comprehension exercises:

Advanced Serbian Speaking

Exercise one: watching the video without listening to it. You can take a guess what each building or buildings might be, using the following structures:

Ova zgrada bi mogla da bude (this building could be...) ... pijaca / vrtić / škola / stambena zgrada / crkva / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište ... or plural form:
OvE zgradE bi moglE da budU...
Ovo je idealno mesto za (this is a perfect spot for...) ... pijacu / vrtić / školu / stambenu zgradu / crkvu / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište
Da sam arhitekta / dizajner / političar, ja bih na ovom mestu izgradio ...(if I were an architect, I'd build...) ... pijacu / vrtić / školu / stambenu zgradu / crkvu / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište

Exercise two: watching the video and listening to the detailed explanation. Check if you were right about each building(s), using the following phrases:

Oni su rekli da će ovde biti izgrađen tržni centar, a ja sam rekao da će biti škola (They said that there will be a shopping centre built, but I said that would be a school.)

Advanced Serbian Vocabulary and Grammar

Exercise three: doing an exercise based on the text below, which I am currently working on (making gaps mainly where the nouns in genitive are):

Šabac, grad na Savi

Šabac, grad koji je delio države i carstva, na obali velike reke sa srednjovekovnom tvrđavom, kao obeležjem i simbolom. Živeo je kroz istoriju san o izlasku na Savu. Vizija o gradu na reci konačno je estetski, funkcionalno i ekonomski utemeljena planom detaljne regulacije: "Šabac, grad na Savi".

Plan obuhvata površinu omeđenu ulicama: produžetak Kralja Aleksandra i Kralja Milana, od pruge do obale reke Save. Područje obuhvata plana podeljeno je na blokove različitih namena.Blokovi 11, 13 i 14 rezervisani su za izgradnju poslovnih objekata, dozvoljene spratnosti P+2. Tržni centar, izložbeno-prodajni salon ekskluzivnih oblika i materijala, samo su neki od planiranih sadržaja. Svoje mesto imaju i objekti kulture iste srpatnosti.

Infrastrukturni objekti biće smešteni u bloku 12. Najatraktivniji segment obuhvata plana je stambeni deo za oko 4000 ljudi. Naselje će činiti objekti kolektivnog stanovanja dozvoljene spratnosti P+3 i gradske vile spratnosti P+2, koje mogu imati maksimalno po 10 stanova, minimalne površine do 45 metara kvadratnih.

Pored stambenog bloka planirana je izgradnja memorijalnog centra, osnovne škole i dečijeg obdaništa. Na mestu nekadašnje kasarne, uzvodno od tvrđave, predviđena je parkovska površina koja se završava pristaništem i marinom za čamce i turističke brodove, uz prateće sadržaje: hotel, carinarnicu, portirnicu, hangare za čamce, ugostiteljske i administrativno-upravne objekte. Marina će biti sagrađena na mestu predratnog pristaništa, piše agencija, nekada omiljenog mesta Šapčana tokom leta.

Learning to Conjugate in Serbian - To Have Breakfast

Marina learning to conjugate ,

Learning to Conjugate in Serbian

Today I've found a video with an easy text in Serbian, which I forgot to upload and share with you last year. I corrected this mistake and you can see it now on my Youtube channel. I think you will find this exercise quite easy, as it focuses only on the verb " to have breakfast " - doručkovati.

Learning to Conjugate in Latin Script

Since the video is for you to practice the Cyrillic script, let me write some basic forms of the verbs you will need in the Latin alphabet.

Present Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)

Doručkujem-doručkuješ-doručkuje // doručkujemo - doručkujete - doručkuju
Pijem - piješ - pije // pijemo - pijete - piju

Past Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)

Doručkovao - doručkovala - doručkovalo // doručkovali - doručkovale - doručkovala
Pio - pila - pilo // pili - pile - pila

Future Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)

Doručkovaću - doručkovaćeš - doručkovaće // doručkovaćemo - doručkovaćete - doručkovaće
Piću - pićeš - piće // pićemo - pićete - piće

I've written both the past and the present forms for the more advanced learners to practice turning the same text into the past and future tenses and thus learning to conjugate "doručkovati".

Learning to Conjugate in Cyrillic

Now, I am sure you are ready for this exercise:

In order to turn the Cyrillic into Latin alphabet, do use the perfect tool for that, called SlovoMajstor:

Verb Biti in Serbian

Marina Biti in Serbian , Serbian language 365

Biti in Serbian

The verb "TO BE" in Serbian is something you should learn at the very beginning, because you'll need it not to express the most essential facts about yourself, but also because it is used as an auxiliary verb in the Simple Past tense.

That's why this post dedicated to the different conjugations, i.e. forms, of the verb to be can be useful both for the beginners and more advanced students.

A few short videos and exercises with the verb Biti in Serbian

Exercise 1

While watching this video say "This is a... These are ...s" using these structures:

Ovo je ... (+ nominative Sg)

Exercise 2:

Ovo su ...(+ nominative Pl)
Ovo je...(+ nominative Sg)

Exercise 3

While watching this video say what the photos are about (the locative case ) using the phrase: Ova slika je o... = This photo is about

Exercise 4

Using these full forms of the verb TO BE, give the positive and negative answers with

the full form of the verb to be:

Links to the previous posts about the verb Biti in Serbian

Verb Biti in Serbian - form and pronunciation
Verb Biti in Serbian - exercise
Serbian language exercise 1
Serbian language exercise 2

Saint Sava Holiday in Serbian

Marina Serbian holidays , St. Sava

Saint Sava Holiday in Serbia

Srećna slava Sveti Sava!

I wish you a happy St. Sava day with yet another version of the beautiful hymn dedicated to Saint Sava, sung by the Serbian men's choir "Kosovo" from Ohio.

While listening to this number, check out these useful links about this topic, shared on our blog in the course of the previous years:

Listening comprehension exercise
The lyrics of the song
An exercise based on the St. Sava hymn
a BBC video about St. Sava Slava (hvala D.)
About St. Sava by Istorijska Biblioteka site in Serbian
About Serbian Slava in English (hvala Baba Mimi)
About Serbian Orthodox faith in English

Christmas in Serbian

Marina Christmas in Serbian ,

Merry Christmas in Serbian

I am sure you are enjoying these festive days and moments with your family and friends, wherever you are! Let me wish you a peaceful and merry Christmas with this newest version of my favourite Christmas song "Oj Badnjače, Badnjače":

Learning more about Christmas in Serbian

I also want to share with you a list of great links which will help you learn more about Serbian tradition and Christmas in Serbian:

About Ortodox Chrismas
How to pronounce the greetings for Christmas in Serbian
Beautiful Christmas songs - Anđeli pevaju & Zvezda se zasja

Greetings in Serbian Pronounced

Marina Greetings in Serbian ,

Greetings in Serbian with Pronunciation

After trying to record the pronunciation for the basic Serbian lesson greetings with my computer running on Ubunty, it hasn't occurred to me to try switching to Windows. Once I did it, I saw how simple it was to make these little Quizlets even more useful!

Let's learn the greetings by simply listening to the pronunciation of the following words for saying hello and goodbye:

dobar dan - good afternoon

dobro veče - good evening

dobro jutro - good morning

kako ste? - how are You?

kako si? - how are you?

dobro, hvala! - well, thanks!

doviđenja - goodbye

ćao - hi / goodbye

zdravo - bye bye / goodbye

zdravo - hello

laku noć - good night

Exercises with Greetings in Serbian

Now, let's do a dictation!

Games with Greetings in Serbian

The aim of the first game is to connect the Serbian word or words with its English counterpart.

In the second game, which is real fun, you have to type the word in Serbian until its English translation reaches the end of the screen.... so the bigger the screen, the easier, haha!

Genitive in Serbian - Exercise with Adjectives

Marina genitive in Serbian ,

Genitive in Serbian

Let me announce a series of blog posts about the Genitive in Serbian with exercises. Theory can be easy to learn, but what's more difficult is to actually produce correct sentences and phrases.

That's why I want to encourage you to play with the Quizlets I make for you and keep saying the words in Serbian out loud, especially while playing the SpaceRace :)

Practising Genitive in Serbian

Here comes the answer key:

od čistog zlata - of pure gold
prljave šolje - (of a) dirty mug
od tamnog odela - of dark suit
od svetlih gradova - of light cities
prijatnih žena - (of) pleasant women
od neprijatane dece - (of) unpleasant children
širokog osmeha - (of) broad smile
iz uske ulice - out of narrow street
od visokog čoveka - from the tall man
od niske žene - from the short woman
iz lepog sela - from the beautiful village
od ružnih pasa - of ugly dogs
od pametnih - from smart friends
od glupih političara - from stupid politicians
od duge suknje - of the long skirt
kratkih rukava - (of) short sleeves
od vrednih ljudi - from hardworking people
od lenje dece - from lazy kids
od dobrih roditelja - of good parents
lošeg uticaja - (of) bad influence
jasnih uputstava - (of) clear directions
nejasnih misli - (of) unclear thought
omiljenih kolača - (of) favorite cookies
udobnog kreveta - (of) comfortable bed
prazne kese - (of) empty bag
pune šake - (of a) full hand
srećne žene - (of a) happy woman
prostranih soba - (of) spacious rooms
nesrećnih kolega - (of) unhappy colleagues
bogatog muža - (of a) rich husband

Test with Genitive in Serbian

So you can try to do the test now :)

Conjugations in Serbian - to Shave

Marina Conjugations , serbian conjugations

Why Conjugations of Brijati - To Shave

While I was watching RTS1 today I saw a very interesting and insightful story about a very old "brica", a barber who works in "berbernica". I looked it up on Youtube, but couldn't find it on RTS1 Channel. However, there was a similar story which can be turned in another interesting lesson at an upper-intermediate or advanced level.

How to use this video and introduce relevant verb conjugations?

As usual, it's always great to elicit the vocabulary based on watching the video, without the audio:

BRICA - barber
BRIJATI Present (brijem / brijes/ brije // brijemo / brijete/ briju) -to shave (impf)
BRIJATI Past (brijao / brijala / brijalo // brijali/ brijale/ brijala) - shaved (past)
BRIJANJE - shaving
OBRIJAN - shaved
OBRIJATI - to shave (perf)
IZBRIJATI/IZBRIJVATI/IZBRIJAVANJE - to clean shave
BERBERNICA
Collocations: brijati + bradu/glavu, savladati brijanje, brijanje glave/brade, ucenje brijanja, vezbanje brijanja, oblikovanje brade

Now, let's watch the video with audio this time and simply encircle the words, conjugations and collocations as you hear them.
The last step is vocabulary practice, which is soon to be uploaded onto Serbian School website with videos and exercises.

Short Serbian History - Part One

Marina Serbian History ,

This year I have discovered three real gems for learning Serbian at higher levels:

As I have already written about Naša Snajka and Državni Posao, let me introduce you to "Mala istorija Srbije" series which present Serbian tradition and history in a didactic and lively manner. For example, while watching the first episode you can learn:

until what time it is safe to greet someone saying "dobro jutro"
what "stalni gosti" usually drink
what "srpski političar" looks like
the connotation of the word "stoka"
who can save you on February 24th

Now, how can you learn Serbian while watching these videos?

At first turn off the audio and describe what's going on
When watching the video for the second time, do listen to it and ask as many questions as possible (of course, press pause in order to manage this!). So, the aim is to understand what's going on!
Retell the story using the phrases and vocabulary used by Milena, Lane, Vlasta, Vasić and Žika

Have fun!

Passive Participle Verb Form Exercises

Marina Passive in Serbian , Passive Participle

Passive Participle Verb Forms

The Passive Voice in Serbian is not that hard, but the main problem is the verb form called "trpni glagolski pridev", or passive participle in English. Although I have already written about it, it can be useful to mention how to form it:

*VERB STEM + -N/-NA/-NO // -NI/-NE/-NA

Example: NAPISA+TI --- napisaN, napisaNA, napisaNO // napisaNI, napisaNE, napisaNA (to write --- written)

*VERB STEM + -N/-NA/-NO // -NI/-NE/-NA

Example: NAPISA+TI --- napisaN, napisaNA, napisaNO // napisaNI, napisaNE, napisaNA (to write --- written)

*VERB STEM + -T/-TA/-TO // -TI/-TE/-TA

Example: PRODA+TI --- prodaT, prodaTA, prodaTO // prodaTI, prodaTE, prodaTA (to sell --- sold)

*VOICE CHANGES: in some cases with the verb stem ending in -e or -i:

NOSITI - NOŠEN
VIDETI - VIĐEN
RANITI - RANJEN

*ADDING an infix - V or -J between the stem and the passive suffix:

OBUTI - OBUVEN
ČUTI - ČUVEN
UBITI - UBIJEN
ISPITI - ISPIJEN

To exemplify all these changes and forms with real life examples, I am in constant search of good videos. Today I came across a very useful one which I want to share with you!

Video with Passive Participle

Passive Participle Verb Practice

You'll be able to practise the passive participle verb forms with the following exercises which are based on the verbs in the first four minutes of the video:

Past Tense Practice in Serbian

Marina Past tense , past tense in serbian

Past Tense Practice in Serbian

You can find lots of useful info on the Simple Past tense in Serbian in some of the previous posts on this blog. Today I'd like to share a cute song I found on Youtube - all you have to do is to listen to it carefully and add the past tense suffixes to the past tense and present tense verbs and a few suffixes with the nouns in plural.

Dlan_ _ _ ti puni snova
Osmeh boje izazova
Reci, kud si krenu_ _?
U srcu ti ceo svemir
U oč_ _ _ kriješ nemir
Snove si sakri_ _

Zvezd_ su u tvojoj kosi
Kao da te jesen pros_
Nikom neće da te da
Hoda_ lako kao vila
Gde si se do sada kri_ _
To me baš zanima

Samoj sebi već sam čudna
Svake noći ja sam budna
Šta se sa mnom desi_ _
Tvoji prst_ na gitari
I sve te lagane stvar_
Sviraj mi ponovo

Malo čežnje na tvom licu
Leptir slete_ na žicu
Nebo se osmehu_ _
Probaj sa mnom sne da deli_
Šapući mi sve što želiš
Niko nas ne čuje

Hajde da malo proba_ _
Baš to x3
Jagod_ s puno šlaga
Ti si mi tako draga
Pa nek ide sve
Do vraga

Hajde da malo krade_ _
Baš to x3
Osmeh od sladoleda
Noć ima ukus meda
Šta je iza tvog pogleda

Source and download via Youtube channel Vanja Grastić

If you are not sure about the meaning, I prepared a quiz with which you can learn the words, and later on you can try to sing the song :)

Let's learn the vocabulary:
Let's listen:
Let's play:

Google Tag Head

Monday, March 02, 2015

Exercises for Serbian as a Foreign Language

Exercises for Serbian as a Foreign Language

Serbian Verbs in Short Stories

Dialogues in English and Serbian

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Sretenjski Ustav Exercise with Video

Monday, February 09, 2015

Songs for St Valentine's Day in Serbian

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

Advanced Serbian Lessons - Describing a City

Advanced Serbian Speaking

Advanced Serbian Vocabulary and Grammar

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Learning to Conjugate in Serbian

Learning to Conjugate in Latin Script

Learning to Conjugate in Cyrillic

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Biti in Serbian

A few short videos and exercises with the verb Biti in Serbian

Links to the previous posts about the verb Biti in Serbian

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Saint Sava Holiday in Serbia

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Merry Christmas in Serbian

Learning more about Christmas in Serbian

Monday, December 15, 2014

Greetings in Serbian with Pronunciation

Exercises with Greetings in Serbian

Games with Greetings in Serbian

Genitive in Serbian

Practising Genitive in Serbian

Test with Genitive in Serbian

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Why Conjugations of Brijati - To Shave

How to use this video and introduce relevant verb conjugations?

Monday, November 24, 2014

Monday, November 17, 2014

Passive Participle Verb Forms

Video with Passive Participle

Passive Participle Verb Practice

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Past Tense Practice in Serbian

Advanced Serbian - Srpski kao drugi jezik

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