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

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

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

While adding new chapters and lessons to 5 Minute Serbian course 1, I started planning the next course which will be entirely dedicated to the verbs and prepositions which require a noun/pronoun in the Accusative case.

Let me show one of these videos with which you can practice:

• Present / past tense of the following verbs: videti, tražiti, naći, uzeti (to see, to look for, to find, to take): deca vide / deca su videla - deca traže / deca su tražila - deca su našla ... - deca su uzela
• The Accusative with Sg. Masc of inanimate and animate category (brodić - vidim brodić, pas - vidim psa)
• The Accusative with Sg. Fem (lopta - tražim loptu)

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

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)

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!

The topic of today's lesson is the verb IĆI U/NA(to go to) followed by different places. Because of the preposition U/NA, which mean in/at/on in English, students tend to make a mistake and use the Locative case of a noun instead of the Accusative. However, since IĆI U is the verb which denotes movement, we can translate it with GO TO and then it is followed by the Accusative.

So, with today's Quizlet set we will be  practicing:

• different conjugations of the verb IĆI in its imperfective form: idem (sada)  = I am going to (now). 
• prepositions U vs. NA
• Accusative Singular nouns (there is a change only with the Feminine nouns, which drop the final A and add U)

Learning Serbian Verb to Go to with Places

Practicing Serbian Verb to Go to with Places

Test with Serbian Verb to Go to with Places

One of the most common mistakes students of Serbian as a foreign  language tend to make is to use the verbs of movement "ići " + u, "stići" + u, "vratiti se" + u, "posetiti" with the noun in Dative, instead of Accusative. That's why it's often heard:

Idem u Beogradu (incorrect)

instead of

Idem u Beograd (correct)

In the case of the listed verbs above (ići = to go to/ stići = to arrive at/ vratiti se = to come back to /posetiti = to visit), the noun which follows them is in the Accusative case (so called the Accusative of goal/aim).

That's why I've created this video with which you can make simple sentences such as:

• Idem u London / Budimpeštu (Present Simple)
• Stižem u London / Budimpeštu (Present Simple word order)
• Posetio sam London /Budimpeštu (Past Simple)
• Vraćam se u London / Budimpeštu (Present Simple word order with "se")

Serbian Pronouns in Accusative

• Feminine singular: Vidim ribu, vidim je!

• Masculine and Neuter Sg: Vidim hleb / meso, vidim ga!

• Plural, all genders: Vidim jaja, vidim ih! 

Useful Vocabulary

• Ananas = pineapple
• Grožđe = grapes
• Dinja = melon
• Višnje = sour cherries
• Trešnje = sweet cherries

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

 

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).

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

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 :)

Today we're going to do an exercise with singular nouns describing objects, their grammatical gender and its pronouns in the Accusative case. In this exercise you'll see the following appliances and gadgets:

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

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

Today we are going to practice relative pronouns in Serbian in a fun way!



Relative pronouns /question words which and who in Serbian also change according to the number and gender, so I want you here to have fun playing a memory game + use a bit more complex sentences, such as:

1. Vidim čoveka koji radi na kompjuteru.
2. Vidim čoveka koji nosi kapu. 
3. Vidim ženu koja razgovara s nekim. 
4. Vidim dete koje nosi haljinu. 

• čovek koji radi = a man who is working
• žena kojA radi = a woman who is working
• dete kojE radi = a child who is working
• ljudi koji rade = people who are working
• žene kojE rade = women who are working
• deca kojA rade = children who are working

In our previous post you could watch the video and practice OVO - ONO - OVDE - ONDE - EVO GA - ENO GA and play a hidden object game.

Now, it is time for you to listen to the video and these two exercises:

Here or There?

OVDE or ONDE

Serbian Accusative - Exercise with IT, HIM and HER

GA or JE



If you are not sure how to pronounce the words correctly, do listen to me doing them!
Special thanks to all my Patrons who support creating these video and grammar lessons. HVALA!

You can study Serbian by simply watching Youtube channels. With this new tool which I've discovered recently, I'll be adding annotations to a certain part of the video, in its basic form, and you can use it when learning / teaching Serbian. For example:



When you see "+ulica", make one of the following sentences:

1. Želeo / želela bih da vidim + mesto (= place, but in Accusative)
2. Hoću da vidim /posetim (visit) + mesto in Accusative
3. Interesuje me + mesto in Nominative (use plural with common nouns)
4. Sviđa / sviđaju mi se + mesto in Nominative (sviđa + Sg. or sviđaju + Pl.)

The first example:
1. Želela bih da vidim zgrade (u Beogradu).
2. Želela bih da posetim Skupštinu (u Beogradu).
3. Interesuje me da vidim Sava centar (u Beogradu).
4. Sviđaju mi se ulice (u Beogradu).