[Serbian] Language Course

[kibo]

Hi and welcome to the Serbian class at the Unilang VSL.

In this thread I will be posting lessons and exercises for those who'd like to learn the Serbian language. Also this is the place where you can ask questions regarding Serbian to which other native speakers and advanced learners (if any ) and I will answer.

For easier communication (for both the students and myself) I suggest using the following colours:

Lessons and exercises will be posted in BLUE
Students should post their solutions in RED
I will do the corrections in GREEN
The comments on the course will be posted in OLIVE
For other purposes BLACK or any other colour can be used.

Enjoy the course!

[Strigo]

I'll join!

Slavic languages are my second passion, (my girlfriend's the first one).
So, spit them out Bugi!

[FNORD]

Count me on! (wow, three languages togeter!)

[Fenek]

Srdačan pozdrav za srpski razred!

[Car]

Nice idea!

[juanjose1967]

At last!!!!

thank you Bugi for helping us!!!

[Vlacko]

Браво Буги! Коначно да се појави српски језик на овом форуму! Ако треба помоћ, слободно је затражи и срећно!

[Passer-by]

Bravo!
It was high time these lessons were started.
Wish you all the best in covering the subject.

[Passer-by]

PS.
Srdacan pozdrav za Krusevac! Znaci, ipak smo se vratili Forumu i aktivno ucestvujemo.
V.Bojan

[灰鹰(Gray Eagle)]

Добар дан! Како сте? Ja сам Арсениj. Драго ми jе да "see this course". I'm interested in Balcanic languages, so I'm in. Look here:

http://roman-dushkin.narod.ru/projects/ ... index.html

I think it's a very usefull resource for beginners.

There are some resources on different russian sites, you just enter " Сербский язык " at www.rambler.ru

[kibo]

I'm glad there are people interested in this.

The course will begin tomorrow. Get ready!

[E}{pugnator]

yay!

Better leite than neve

[Nukalurk]

Gray Eagle, that's interesting. Roman Dushkin is one of those working on Slovio, a constructed Slavic language. The creator Marc Hucko (a Czech) seems to be a Slavic extremist.

[FNORD]

yay!

Better leite than neve

I prefer neve.

[Nukalurk]

FNORD, do you have something against Serbian?

[kibo]

In this course we will use the Serbian Latin Alphabet in the beginning. As the course develops we will gradually introduce the Serbian Cyrillic Alphabet too. The reason is that some people may have difficulties with handling the cyrillic script at this stage. Of course, if you want to (or if you already know the cyrillic alphabet), you can give the answers to the exercises using the cyrillic script from the start, I won't mind. That way you'll be practicing both the grammar and the vocabulary from the exercises and using the cyrillic alphabet.

Nulta Lekcija: Srpska Latinica.
Lesson 0: The Serbian Latin Alphabet.

Wondering how the Serbian Latin Alphabet differs from the English one? Take a look at this page. You will note that some letters aren't there (like q,w,x,y) and that there are some new letters (like č,ć,š,ž and đ). You will also notice that there are three digraphs: lj, nj and dž. 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.

[kibo]

Prva Lekcija: Glagol "Biti".
Lesson 1: The Verb "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 form: 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 build differently from other verbs)

BITI = TO BE
Ja sam = I am
Ti si = You are (sg.)
On je = He is
Ona je = She is
Ono je = It is
Mi smo = We are
Vi ste = You are (pl.)
Oni su = They (pl. of "He") are
One su = They (pl. of "She") are
Ona su = They (pl. of "It") are

As you can see we've also introduced the personal pronouns. I hope they're 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 not
Ti nisi = You are not (sg.)
On nije = He is not
Ona nije = She is not
Ono nije = It is not
Mi nismo = We are not
Vi niste = You are not (pl.)
Oni nisu = They (pl. of "He") are not
One nisu = They (pl. of "She") are not
Ona nisu = They (pl. of "It") are not

Isn't that easy? Now it's time for you to do some exercises. At the bottom od the posts with exercises you will find the meanings of the words used in the exercises. You needn't remember them now, they're just here in order to clear out any confusion that may ocurr.

Don't forget to write the solutions in red. See you for the next lesson.

[kibo]

Exercises 1A: Fill out the blancs 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. _____ ste ovde.
5. Ti i ja ____ prijatelji.
6. _____ je Marija.
7. Ti i Aleksandar ______ u školi.
8. One ______ napolju.

(Vocabulary for this exercise: ovde = here, tamo = there, u = in, Srbija = Serbia, škola = school, prijatelj [pl. prijatelji] = friend, napolju = outside.)

[Nukalurk]

You forgot to add the "not" in e.g. "Ti nisi = You are (sg.)" not. Yes, the excitement.

[kibo]

Expug:

Добар дан! Како сте? Ja сам Арсениj. Драго ми jе да "see this course". I'm interested in Balcanic languages, so I'm in. Look here:

http://roman-dushkin.narod.ru/projects/ ... index.html

I think it's a very usefull resource for beginners.

Добро дошао Арсениј и хвала на линку.
Dobro došao Arsenij i hvala na linku.
Welcome Arsenij and thanks for the link.


I found this site some time ago, it's very good, but unfortunately it's useful only for russian speakers. If any of you have other online resources, please post them here.

Btw, it's "Драго ми jе да видим овај курс." (Drago mi je da vidim ovaj kurs.)