Serbian/Main Contents/Level 1/Lesson 2
< Serbian < Main Contents < Level 1Serbian language can be hard to master for foreigners, because words tend to have different forms in different contexts, then some words can sound similar to other non related words. Serbian has, like most Slavic languages, noun cases, and verbs tend to inflect quite liberally. Good news is that Serbian uses both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, exception among European languages. Variation of Latin alphabet that Serbian uses is shared with two other languages, Croatian and Bosniak.
Basic vocabulary and useful phrases
| English | Serbian |
|---|---|
| I | Ја/Jâ* |
| You (sing.) | Ти/Tî* |
| He | Он/Ôn* |
| She | Она/Òna* |
| It | Оно/Òno* |
| We | Ми/Mî* |
| You (pl.) | Ви/Vî* |
| They | Они/Òni (оне/òne, она/òna)* |
| Good morning | Добро јутро/Dobro jutro |
| Good afternoon | Добар дан/Dobar dan |
| Good evening | Добро вече/Dobro veče |
| Good night | Лаку ноћ/Laku noć |
| Thanks | Хвала/Hvala |
| Goodbye (formal) | Довиђења/Doviđenja ('till seeing) |
| You're welcome | Нема на чему/Nema na čemu |
| Here you go | Изволи/Izvoli (can also mean What do you want?) |
| You're welcome | Молим/Molim (can also be used as What? and Please) |
| Bye | Здраво/Zdravo, Ћао/Ćao (from Italian word Ciao) |
| Man | Мушкарац/Muškarac |
| Woman | Жена/Žena (can also mean wife) |
| Yes | Да/Da |
| No | Не/Ne |
| My name is... | Зовем се/Zovem se... (lit. I call myself) or more rarely Име ми је/Ime mi je... |
| Water | Вода/Voda |
| Food | Храна/Hrana |
| I love you | Волим те/Volim te or Ја те волим/Ja te volim |
| Next | Следећи/Sledeći |
| Fool | Будала/Budala |
| Hello, hi | Здраво/Zdravo (also means healthy), Ћао/Ćao |
*Diacritics here are used only for easier pronunciation, they are normally not used when writing Serbian
Nominative case of nouns
Serbian language has three grammatical genders (Masculine, Feminine and Neuter) and two grammatical numbers (Singular and Plural), in the past there was a third number, Dvojina used only for exactly two objects, but it is not used in modern Serbian.
Jednina/Singular
Masculine nouns in nominative usually do not have fixed ending. Student, Profesor, Radnik are all masculine nouns.
Feminine nouns have several endings -ica (Radnica), -ka (Profesorka), -kinja (Studentkinja), -a (Plaža)....
Neuter nouns usually end with -o (Vino) or -e (Dete).
| Muški rod (Masculine) | Ženski rod (Feminine) | Srednji rod (Neuter) |
|---|---|---|
| Student | Student + kinja = Studenkinja | Víno |
| Radnik | Radnik + ica = Radnica* | Dete |
* K in Radnik is lost in feminine form Radnica
Množina/Plural
When masculine nouns are in plural usually have suffix -i (Profesori) or -ovi (Gradovi)
Feminine nouns in plural loose -a and add -e onto ending
Neuter nouns when in plural replace -o and -e with -a onto end. Some nouns insert -en between word itself and ending (Ramena). Some nouns also have irregular plural, in that case -a suffix isn't applied (Uho (ear)-Uši; Oko (eye)-Oči)