serbian course

8/7/2019 serbian course

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Serbian for BeginnersIn this course we will use the Serbian Latin Alphabet in the beginning. The reason is that some people

may have difficulties with handling the Cyrillic script at this stage.

Part one of this course is only intended for absolute beginners.

Contents

Lesson 1: The Serbian AlphabetAlphabet

Lesson 2: The Verb "To Be"To Be Personal Pronouns Vocabulary Exercises

Lesson 3: Nouns and adjectives (part 1)Gender Plural Adjectives Vocabulary Exercises

Lesson 4: Nouns and adjectives (part 2)More Nouns More Adjectives Numbers Exercises

Lesson 5: The verb TO HAVE / The Accusative caseTo Have Accusative Case Exercises

Part One - The BasicsLesson 1: The Serbian Alphabet

Alphabet

Serbian can be written in either the cyrillic or latin alphabets. In this course, we will be using just the latin

alphabet. Wondering how the Serbian Latin Alphabet differs from the English one? Take a look at the

chart below. You will note that some letters aren't there (like q,w,x,y) and that there are some new letters

(like ,,, and ). You will also notice that there are three digraphs: lj, nj and d. This digraphs are

considered as one letter in Serbian, as they represent one phoneme. We will not go further into the

pronunciation at this moment, we will leave that for later.

CyrillicLatin

A a

B b

V v

G g

D d

E e

Z z

I i

CyrillicLatin

J j

K k

L l

Lj lj

M m

N n

Nj nj

O o

P p

R r

Cyrillic


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Latin S s T t U u F f H h C c D d


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Lesson 2: The Verb "To Be"

To Be

In our first lesson we will learn how to conjugate the verb biti ("to be") in the present tense. This verb is

really a special case: Not only its present forms have nothing to do with its infinitive, but it also has two

forms: the stressed (or the long) form and the unstressed (or the short) form. Today we will learn only the

short (unstressed) one and the negation of the whole verb (which again is built differently from other

verbs).

BITI TO BEJa sam I amTi si You are (sg.)On je He isOna je She isOno je It isMi smo We areVi ste You are (pl.)

Oni su They (pl. of "He") areOne su They (pl. of "She") areOna su They (pl. of "It") are

Personal Pronouns

As you can see we've also introduced the personal pronouns. I hope they are not hard to remember.

Unlike in English, Serbian has different pronouns for the singular and plural of the 2nd person. Also Vi

is used for formal addressing (like Vous, Usted, Sie, etc.), but in that case it's always spelt with a capital

letter. Ono (and the plural Ona) is not the exact equivalent to the english "it", it's used rather to replace

nouns of the neuter gender. The biggest surprise might be the fact that we use 3 pronouns for the 3rd

person plural: Oni, One and Ona. Simply put:

On + On = Oni

Ona + Ona = One

Ono + Ono = Ona

In the general case (when the gender is unknown) or when the case is mixed (e.g. On + Ona), we use

Oni.

Now lets get back to our verb "Biti". For bulding the negative form, just add the preffix "ni-" to the

present form.

Ja nisam I am notTi nisi You are not (sg.)On nije He is notOna nije She is notOno nije It is notMi nismo We are notVi niste You are not (pl.)Oni nisu They (pl. of "He") are not


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One nisu They (pl. of "She") are notOna nisu They (pl. of "It") are not

Isn't that easy?

Vocabulary

ovde heretamo thereu inSrbija Serbiakola schoolprijatelj (pl. prijatelji) friendnapolju outsidekod kue at homeodsutan absentpark park

slika picturelep beautifuldobar good

Exercises

Exercises A: Fill out the blanks in the following sentences. (either with the short form of

the verb biti, or the corresponding personal pronoun.)1) Ja _______ Marko.

2) Mi _______ tamo.

3) On i ona _______ u Srbiji.

4) Vi _______ ovde.

5) Ti i ja _______ prijatelji.

6) Ona _______ Marija.

7) Ti i Aleksandar _______ u koli.

8) One _______ napolju.

Exercise B: Give these phrases a negative meaning.1) Ja _______ kod kue.

2) Ana _______ odsutna.3) Mi _______ u parku.

4) Marko i ti _______ prijatelji.

5) Slika _______ lepa.

6) Oni _______ dobri.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:


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1) Ja sam Marko.

2) Mi smo tamo.

3) On i ona su u Srbiji.

4) Vi ste ovde.

5) Ti i ja smo prijatelji.

6) Ona je Marija.

7) Ti i Aleksandar ste u koli.

8) One su napolju.

Solution of Exercise B:1) Ja nisam kod kue.

2) Ana nije odsutna.

3) Mi nismo u parku.

4) Marko i ti niste prijatelji.

5) Slika nije lepa.

6) Oni nisu dobri.


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Lesson 3: Nouns and adjectives (part 1)

In the exercises for the previous lesson we encountered some words like slika, prijatelj, lep, dobar. These

are nouns and adjectives, and in this lesson we are going to learn some basic things about them.

Gender

First, you should know that the Serbian language has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.

That means that every noun in the Serbian language is either masculine, feminine or neuter. You'reprobably wondering how you will know the gender of a noun. Well, the only real solution is to look it up

in the dictionary and remember it. But don't be scared, there are some rules which can help you

determine the gender of the noun:

* Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant: prijatelj (friend), uitelj (teacher), prozor(window), mrav (ant)* Feminine nouns usually end in -a: ena (woman, wife), majka (mother), maka (cat)* Neuter nouns end in -o and -e: selo (village), polje (field), more (sea)

Unfortunately this formula is pretty much fallible, because:

* Some masculine nouns end in -o and -e: ore, Marko, Mile, Slavko. (those are usuallymasculine proper names.)* Some masculine nouns end in -a: sudija (judge), voa (leader)* Some feminine nouns end in a consonant: stvar (thing)

But the above formula can help a bit, now you know that feminine nouns can never end in -o or -e, and

neuter nouns can never end in -a or a consonant.

Plural

Now let's learn how to make the plural of a noun. For this lesson we will only get to know the basic

concept of things.

* The nouns that end in a consonant (both masculine and feminine) build their plural by addingan -i : prijatelj -> prijatelji, stvar -> stvari

* The nouns that end in -a (both masculine and feminine) build their plural by changing that -ainto -e: ena -> ene, sudija -> sudije

* The nouns that end in -o and -e (both maculine and neuter) build their plural by changing-o/-e into -a: polje -> polja

You're now probably thinking how it's very easy to make plural in Serbian, but I must disappoint you.

Not all nouns build their plural this way. In future lessons we will return to this.

Adjectives

Adjectives are words which are closely tied to nouns, and they must follow the nouns in gender andnumber. That means that if you want to put an adjective which describes ene, you must put it in the

feminine plural form.

How do we do this? Well, again we're going to learn just the basic concept and leave the complicated

irregularities for the future lessons.

When you open a dictionary, you will find the adjectives put in the masculine singular indefinite form,

such as lep (beautiful). This form is fit to describe only masculine nouns in singular: lep prozor(a


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beautiful window). Lets see how other forms are made:

* For the feminine singular form add -a : lepa ena (a beautiful women)* For the neuter singular form add -o : lepo selo (a beautiful village)* For the masculine plural form add -i : lepi prozori (beautiful windows)* For the feminine plural form add -e : lepe ene (beautiful women)* For the neuter plural form add -a : lepa sela (beautiful vil lages)

Don't be fooled by the noun ending: the gender of the noun is what determines the adjective ending.

Nouns that are of a feminine gender and end in a consonant will still have the adjective ending in -a (lepa

stvar- a beautiful thing). There is only one exception (Remember this!!!): The masculine nouns that end

in -a will in singular take the basic (masculine singular) adjective form (jak voa - a strong leader),

whereas in plural they will take the feminine (!) plural form (jake voe - strong leaders; not "jaki voe"

as one might expect).

Vocabulary

mlad youngkua (f) house

sluga (m) servantglup stupidslan saltymarljiv hardworkingkolega (m) collegueKnjiga (f) booknov newtih quietvisok tallvelik big

Exercises

Exercises A: Translate into Serbian:1) a young servant

2) a beautifil house

3) stupid things

4) a salty sea

5) hardworking collegues

6) young cats

Exercise B: Rewrite the following phrases into plural:1) Uitelj je lep.

2) Sudija je tih

3) Knjiga je nova

4) Ja sam visok

5) Kua je velika


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Exercise C: In order not to forget what we learned in the past lesson, rewrite these

phrases into the affirmative form:1) Ja nisam visok.

2) On nije lep.

3) Mi nismo ovde.

4) Majka nije mlada.

5) One nisu jake.

Solution of Exercise A:1) mlad sluga

2) lepa kua

3) glupe stvari

4) slano more

5) marljive kolege

6) mlade make

Solution of Exercise B:1) Uitelji su lepi.

2) Sudije su tihe.

3) Knjige su nove4) Mi smo visoki.

5) Kue su velike

Solution of Exercise C:1) Ja sam visok.

2) On je lep.

3) Mi smo ovde.

4) Majka je mlada.

5) One su jake.


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Lesson 4: Nouns and adjectives (part 2)

In the previous lesson, we learned the basics of building the plural of the nouns. Unfortunately for you,

things aren't that simple. Today we're going to learn more about some peculiarities of the plural forms in

some word.

More Nouns

We've said that masculine nouns ending in a consonant form their plural by adding -i (prijatelj ->prijatelji). This practically means that 'prijatelj-' is the stem for forming plural. But some nouns (that are

masculine and end in a consonant), don't add the suffix -i directly, but they broaden the stem with -ov- or

-ev- and then add -i. Let's take an example: for the word grad (town, city) you would expect that the

plural is gradi. But no, it isn't. Between grad- and -i you must insert -ov-, so the correct plural ofgrad is

gradovi.

Let's look at some of the nouns that have this -ov-/-ev- broadening:

cvet (flower) -> cvetovi (flowers)stan (flat/appartment)-> stanovi (flats/apartments)klju (key) -> kljuevi (keys)

mu (husband) -> muevi (husbands)

If you're wondering how you'll know when the noun has an -ov- broadening or when it has an -ev-

broadening or when it has no broadening at all, the only advice I can give you is to learn them by heart.

Alternatively, if you have a really good dictionary, it will tell you all the peculiarities about the noun.

There are some nouns that have double forms - with and without broadening - and both are corect: liaj

(lichen) -> liajevi orliaji (lichens) (more examples below). This practically means that you can use

both forms equally. In some dialects, one form may be more common than the other but in standard

language both forms are correct.

Now let's move on to some on to some "easier" stuff. There is another irregularity concerning the pluralof masculine nouns ending in a consonant, this time specifically ending in -k, -g and -h. These 3 are the

only velar consonants in the Serbian language. The irregularity consists of changing these 3 dental

consonants: c, z and s. So, before adding the suffix -i, you will change the final kinto c, g into z, and h

into s.

uenik (student, pupil)-> uenicijezik (language) -> jezicibubreg (kidney) -> bubrezikoveg (coffin) -> koveziorah (nut) -> orasi

This rule does not apply to those nouns that have stem broadening with -ov-/-ev-, k/g/h are left unalteredthere:

rak (crab) -> rakovistrah (fear) -> strahovikrug (circle)-> krugovi

But for those nouns that have double forms double forms I mentioned above, in the the unbroadened

form you will change k/g/h into c/z/s, while in the broadened form k/g/h, will of course alter:


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vuk (wolf) -> vukovi or vucipauk (spider) -> paukovi or pauciduh (ghost, spirit) -> duhovi or dusi(though dusi is less common in ordinary speech, both are standard)

More Adjectives

Now that we've hopefully processed all that, let's go back to the adjectives. We've said the basic form is

the masculine singular (lep), and then we add -a for femenine singular (lepa), -o for neuter singular

(lepo), -i for masc.pl (lepi), -e for fem.pl. (lepe), and -a for n.pl. (lepa).

But look at exercise 1B, sentence 6 ("Oni su dobri") and the vocabulary explanation below ("dobar=

good"). How come dobarhas an "a", but dobri doesn't? This has to do with a very common alternation in

Serbian, which we can call "the disappearing a". It happens that in some words that end in consonant + a

+ consonant and that have more than one syllable (dobar, kratak, vredan), that a drops out in other forms

of the words (mostly when you add a vowel suffix). Let's see how we will make other forms adjectives.

dobar(good) - dobar, dobra, dobro, dobri, dobre, dobra

kratak(short) - kratak, kratka, kratko, kratki, kratke, kratka

vredan (hardworking; valuable) - vredan, vredna, vredno, vredni, vredne, vredna

Note that this doesn't apply to monosyllabic words like mlad (young), star(old), jak(strong) - they keep

theira's in all forms.

Why does this alternation happen? Well, long ago the Proto-Slavic language had a semivowel (yer),

which in Serbian developed either into an a or it dropped out. I assume before that happened the forms

of the adjective dobarwere: , , . In the first case became a, and in the next two it

dropped out.

It's worth mentioning that this alternation also happens in some nouns when they form plural.

lovac (hunter) -> lovci

starac (old man)-> starcilanac (chain) -> lanci

Numbers

And at the end of this lesson I'll give you the numbers from 0 to 10:

0 nula1 jedan (jedna, jedno)2 dva (dve, dva)3 tri4 etiri5 pet

6 est7 sedam8 osam9 devet10 deset

The numbers 1 and 2 follow the gender of the noun. (Jedan prijatelj = one friend, jedna ena = one

woman, jedno selo = one village; dva prijatelja = two friends, dve ene = two women, dva sela = two

villages)


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Exercises

Exercise A: Give the plural of these nouns:1) put (m. -ev-) = road

2) knjiga (f.) = book

3) plan (m. -ov-) = plan

4) radnik (m.) = worker

5) krst (m. -ov-) = cross6) jutro (morning) = morning

7) siromah (m) = a poor man

8) vuk (m., double form) = wolf

9) duh (m., double form) = ghost

Exercise B: Complete the following table:1) dobar - _________ - _________(good)

2) ljubazan - _________ - _________(polite)

3) _________ - dosadna - _________(boring)

4) _________ - _________ - sitno (tiny)

5) tanak - _________ - tanko (thin)

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:1) putevi

2) knjige

3) planovi

4) radnici

5) krstovi

6) jutra

7) siromasi8) vuci/vukovi

9) duhovi/dusi

Solution of Exercise B:1) dobar - dobra - dobro

2) ljubazan - ljubazna - ljubazno

3) dosadan - dosadna - dosadno

4) sitan - sitna - sitno

5) tanak - tanka - tanko


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Lesson 5: The verb TO HAVE / The Accusative case

To Have

First, a review: we've learned the present form of the verb biti, how to make the plural forms of nouns

and how to make forms of other genders of adjectives. Now it's time to move a bit further and learn

another important verb in the Serbian language: the verb imati (to have).

Imam I haveIma You have (sg.)Ima He / she / it hasImamo We haveImate You have (pl.)Imaju They have

While we're here, we might as well learn the negative form.

Nemam I don't haveNema You don't have (sg.)Nema He / she / it doesn't haveNemamo We don't haveNemate You don't have (pl.)Nemaju They don't have

Accusative Case

Now in order for you to use this verb with nouns, you must know how to form the accusative case. For

you who only speak languages that don't have cases, you should know that the accusative is one of the 7

cases Serbian has and it shows that the word (noun, pronoun, adjective) in question is the direct object of

the verb, i.e. it is affected by the action of the verb.

For now we will only learn the nominal forms.

Let's start with the nouns that end in -a. We've learned that they can be both masculine and feminine and

that in plural they change that -a into an -e (knjiga -> knjige, sudija -> sudije). That is, of course, only the

Nominative case. You'll need need 12 more forms (6 in singular and 6 in plural) to know the know the

complete declension of a word.

The forming of the accusative for these nouns is very simple: in singular you change that -a into an -u,

and in plural the accusative is the same as the nominative (plural) form.

Knjiga je dobra The book is good (N - sing)Imam knjigu I have a book (A - sing)Knjige su dobre The books are good (N - pl)Imam knjige I have books (A - pl)

Now let's move to the neuter nouns. They end in -o or -e in Nominative singular and change that -o/-e

into an -a in Nominative plural. (selo / polje -> sela / polja). Well, guess what.. for these nouns the

accusative is the same as nominative. One thing less to learn.


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Selo je lepo The village is beautiful (N - sing)Vidim selo I see a village (A - sing)Sela su lepa The villages are beautiful (N - pl)Vidim sela I see villages (A - pl)

Now we come to the masculine nouns that end in a consonant. I've left this for the end, since it's a bit

more complicated. For this group of nouns, it's important to know their meaning, more specifically

whether they are animate (living - people and animals) or inanimate (dead - things, abstract concepts,

plants) objects.

We know from the earlier lessons that the Nominative singluar is formed by adding an -i (profesor->

progesori) to Nominative singular. Some nouns get a -ov-/-ev- broadening (grad -> gradovi, put ->

putevi), and those nouns that end in k, g, orh change those into c, z, s (vojnik-> vojnici)

Accusative, in singular: animate objects will get one -a: Vidim profesora (I see the teacher), vidim vuka

(I see a wolf) while inanimate objects will stay the same: Imam prozor(I have a window)

In plural, the -i from the nominative will change into an -e regardless whether it's animate or not.

(profesori -> profesore, prozori -> prozore). If the noun has the -ov-/-ev- broadening, it will stay in the

accusative plural (gradovi -> gradove), but the k/g/h -> c/z/s alternation will disappear, because we don'thave an -i anymore.

I hope you have understood the basic concept of the accusative case, now let's go to the exercises.

Exercises

Exercise A: Fill in the blanks with the affirmative form of the verb imati:1) Ja ______

2) Oni ______

3) Mi ______4) Ana ______

5) Ana i Bojan ______

6) Ti i ja ______

7) Vi ______

8) Ono ______

9) Ti ______

Exercise B: Choose 10 words form this list (or you can use also the words you know

already), and make sentences with the meaning "I have ..." or "I don't have ...":Avion - airplane

Bata - garden

Bluza - blouse

Cvet- flower(-ov-)

Drug- friend (-ov-)

Flaa - bottle

Grlo - throat

Ispit- exam

Majka - mother


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Mantil- coat

Most- bridge (-ov)

Olovka - pencil

Rad- work(-ov-)

Sveska - notebook

Svet- world (-ov-)

Uitelj - teacher

Exercise C: Change those sentences from B into plural.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:1) Ja imam

2) Oni imaju

3) Mi imamo

4) Ana ima

5) Ana i Bojan imaju

6) Ti i ja imamo

7) Vi imate8) Ono ima

9) Ti imate


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End Of Part OneThis is the end of part one. Now you've learned some of the basics of the Serbian language. In the future

we might create a part two of this course but for now this is all.

Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes or you just want to say something

then please let us know . We do need feedback!

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