Table of Contents

1. Alphabet and Pronunciation

2. Word Endings

3. Verbs

4. Cases

5. Nouns

6. Adjectives

7. Pronouns

8. Articles

9. Possessives

10. Spelling Rules

11. Questions

12. Negation

13. Numbers

14. Time

15. Letters


pronunciation
Alphabet and Pronunciation

No.	Capital	Small	Sign	Pronunciation Sound
1	A	a	<a>	father
2	B	c	<b>	bed
3	V	v	<v>	vet
4	G	g	<g>	get
5	D	d	<d>	dept
6	Đ	đ	<j>	jazz
7	E	e	<e>	bed
8	Ž	ž	<zh>	pleasure
9	Z	z	<z>	zone
10	I	i	<ee>	meet
11	J	j	<y>	boy
12	K	k	<k>	kettle
13	L	l	<l>	loud
14	Lj	lj	<ly>	loud+boy  (digraph:soft l)
15	M	m	<m>	mint
16	N	n	<n>	nine
17	Nj	nj	<ny>	nine+boy  (digraph:soft n)
18	O	o	<o>	bottle
19	P	p	<p>	pet
20	R	r	<r>	error (rolled)
21	S	s	<s>	sign
22	T	t	<t>	tent
23	Č	č	<tsh>	Charles
24	U	u	<oo>	boot
25	F	f	<f>	father
26	H	h	<h>	high
27	C	c	<ts>	ts
28	Ć	ć	<ch>	chip
29	Dž	dž	<dzh>	dept+pleasure (digraph:hard j)
30	Š	š	<sh>	shall

Stress in words

Some Serbian words are proclitic or enclitic, thus having no accented syllable of their own. Apart from these, every word form has one accented syllable. It is accent, not stress, because pitch and length are ivolved rather than intensity. Accent can alternate in placement or contour within the paradigm of a word. There are four accents alltogether:

1. short falling

2. long falling

3. short rising

4. long rising


Word Endings

Serbian is an inflected language. Grammatical relations between words are shown by changes in the endings of words. For example, the Serbian for London is London in the nominative case. But in London is u Londonu.


Verbs

1. Aspect

2. Present Tense

3. Future Tenses

4. Past Tenses

5. Moods

6. Participles

7. Verbal Adverbs

8. Some Useful Verbs


Aspect

Serbian, as other Slavic languages, expresses the category of verbal aspect. Aspect affects a lexical item's whole paradigm; a verb is either perfective (napisati 'to write' - completed action), or imperfective (pisati 'to write' - ongoing action). Some verbs are bi-aspectual, such as čuti 'to hear', both as completed and as ongoing sensation.


Present Tense

The most convenient way to remember the present-tense of Serbian verbs is to learn first person singular and third person plural, for example učiti 'to learn' učim 'I learn', uče 'they learn' The other forms can be reconstructed using the following endings:

Sg                         Pl

-m  uči-m     -mo         uči-mo

-š  uči-š        -te           uči-te

-0  uči-0       No Rule  uče

Present tense of biti = 'to be' and htjeti = 'want'

The present-tense auxiliary clitic of the verbs biti and htjeti is used to form the compound tenses.

biti 'to be'

	Full	Clitic	Negated	2nd Present
Singular	jesam	sam	neću	budem
	jesi	si	nećeš	budeš
	jest(e)	je	neće	bude
Plural	jesmo	smo	nećemo	budemo
	jeste	ste	nećete	budete
	jesu	su	neće	budu

htjeti 'want'

	Full	Clitic	Negated
Plural	hoću	ću	neću
	hoćeš	ćeš	nećeš
	hoće	će	neće
Plural	hoćemo	ćemo	nećemo
	hoćete	ćete	nećete
	hoće	će	neće


Future Tenses

There are two future tenses: Future and Future 2  (used only in subordinated clauses):

Futur = auxiliary clitic  u with infinitive (before or after it)

raditi 'to work'

Singular	Plural
ću raditi/radiću	ćemo raditi/radićemo
ćeš raditi/radićeš	ćete raditi/radićete
će raditi/radiće	će raditi/radiće

Futur 2  = second present of 'to be' with l-participle

raditi 'to work'

Singular m/f/n	Plural/m/f/n
budem radio/radila/radilo	budemo radili/radile/radila
budeš radio/radila/radilo	budete radili/radile/radila
bude radio/radila/radilo	budu radili/radile/radila


Past tenses

There are four past tenses in Serbian: perfect, pluperfect, aorist, and imperfect. The latter two are used only very rarely, and both can be supplanted by perfect.

Perfect = auxiliary clitic 'sam' with l-participle

raditi 'to work'

Singular m/f/n

sam radio/radila/radilo

si radio/radila/radilo

je radio/radila/radilo

Plural m/f/n

smo radili/radile/radila

ste radili/radile/radila

su radili/radile/radila

Pluperfect = perfect of 'to be' as au iliary with l-participle

raditi 'to work'

Singular m/f/n

sam bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

si bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

je bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

Plural m/f/n

smo bili radili/bile radile/bila radila

ste bili radili/bile radile/bila radila

su bili radili/bile radile/bila radila


Verb Moods

conditional = auxiliary 'bih' and l-participle

Singular m/f/n

bih radio/radila/radilo

bi radio/radila/radilo

bi radio/radila/radilo

Plural m/f/n

bismo radili/radile/radila

biste radili/radile/radila

bi radili/radile/radila

imperative

Singular	inf/pres. tense stem + -0/-i/-j
	neka + present tense
Plural	inf/pres. tense stem + -mo/-imo/-jmo
	inf/pres. tense stem + -te/-ite/-jte
	neka + present tense
Singular	radi
	neka radi
Plural	radimo
	radite
	neka rade


Verb Participles

participle - used to form compound verb forms in active voice

		Singular		Plural
	m	-o	m	-li
infinitive stem +	f	-la	f	-le
	n	-lo	n	-la

passive participle - used to form passive voice:

		Singular		Plural
	m	-(e)n/-t	m	-(e)ni/-ti
inf/present tense stem +	f	-(e)na/-ta	f	-(e)ne/-te
	n	-(e)no/-to	n	-(e)na/-ta


Verbal Adverbs

past verbal adverb (denotes antecedent actions):

inf. stem + (a)vši  uradivši (having done)

present verbal adverb (denotes simultaneous actions)

3.person Present tense + ći   radeći (working)


Some Useful Verbs

English	Imperfective	Perfective
to understand	razumevati razumevam,razumevaju	razumeti razumem,razumeju
to watch	gledati gledam, gledaju	pogledati pogledam, pogledaju
to take	uzimati uzimam, uzimaju	uzeti uzmem, uzmu
to speak/say	govoriti govorim, govore	kazati kažem, kažu
to go	ići idem, idu	poći pođem, pođu
to see	gledati gledam, gledaju	videti vidim, vide
to smile	osmehivati se osmehujem se osmehuju se	osmehnuti se osmehnem se osmehnu se
to do	raditi radim, rade	uraditi uradim, urade
to buy	kupovati kupujem, kupuju	kupiti kupim, kupe
to meet	sretati srećem, sreću	sresti sretnem, sretnu
to telephone	telefonirati telefoniram, telefoniraju
to answer	odgovarati odgovaram, odgovaraju	odgovoriti odgovorim, odgovore
to open	otvarati otvaram, otvaraju	otvoriti otvorim, otvore
to arrive	stizati stižem, stižu	stići stignem, stignu
to tell, relate	pričati pričam, pričaju	ispričati ispričam, ispričaju
to read	čitati čitam, čitaju	pročitati pročitati, pročitaju
to return	vraćati se vraćam se, vraćaju se	vratiti se vratim se, vrate se


Cases

1. General Information

2. Genitive

3. Dative

4. Prepositional or Locative

5. Instrumental


Case General Information

Serbian adjectives, like nouns, have different endings to show gender, case, singular/plural. Adjectives always have to be in the same case as their accompanying nouns.


Genitive

1. The genitive case literally means 'of somebody or something' as a 'glass of wine' or 'the brother of Milan'.

2. The genitive case is the most useful case in Serbian after the nominative and accusative.  It is used for four main purposes:

1. counting

2. possession

3. after many prepositions

4. in negative constructions


Dative

1. Two common prepositions take the dative case:

Prepositions		Use
Serbian	English	Serbian	English
prema	towards	prema kući/meni	towards the house/me
ka	towards	ka njemu/nama	towards him/us


Prepositional or Locative

The commonest three prepositions requiring the prepositional (locative)

case are:

u      in

na      on

o       about

For example, the answer to 'Where is he?' Gdje je on might be 'He's in Belgrade On je u Beogradu. 'He' is On, 'in' is u, and 'Belgrade' is Beogradu.


Instrumental

The primary meaning of the instrumental case is 'by means of'.

Uses of Instrumental

1. The primary meaning of the instrumental case is 'by means of'.

For example:

English                                                  Serbian

She wrote with (by means of) a pencil.  Ona piše olovkom.

Here the -om in olovkom 'pencil' means 'by means of'.

2. After six prepositions:

English	Serbian
with	s(a)
behind	za
between	među
above	nad
in front of, before	pred
under	pod

Example:

English                                 Serbian

Meet (get to know) Mira.     Upoznaj se s Mirom.


Nouns

1. Noun Gender

2. Case Ending


Noun Gender

Serbian nouns all belong to one of three different genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), depending on what the last letter is.  Gender of nouns is important because it determines how you form the plural and the various cases, and how you form the ending of accompanying adjectives.

1. Most masculine nouns end in a consonant:

Serbian     grad            brat        London

English     town, city   brother   London

Notice that the pronoun on 'he' also ends with a consonant.

2. Most feminine nouns end -a:

Serbian    žena       voda     Marija   zemlja      reka

English    woman   water    Mary     country    river

Notice that ona 'she' also ends with -a.

3. Most neuter nouns end with -o or -e:

Serbian       jutro         polje      pismo

English       morning   field       letter

4.  Nouns ending with an a <a> which denote males are masculine:

Serbian    sluga             Vanja      tata

English      manservant   Vanya     dad


Case Ending of Nouns

1. Masculine Nouns

2. Neuter Nouns

3. Feminine Nouns ending in -a

4. Feminine Nouns ending in -0


Masculine Nouns

Sg		'city'	'husband'	'window'
	Nom.	grad	muž	prozor
	Gen.	grada	muža	prozora
	Dat.	gradu	mužu	prozoru
	Acc.	grad	muža	prozor
	Voc.	grade	mužu	prozore
	Loc.	gradu	mužu	prozoru
	Inst.	gradom	mužem	prozorom
Pl
	Nom-Voc	gradovi	muževi	prozori
	Gen	gradova	muževa	prozora
	Dat-Inst- Loc	gradovima	muževima	prozorima
	Acc	gradove	muževe	prozore


Neuter Nouns

Sg		'place'	'heart'	'study'
	Nom- Voc-Acc	mesto	srce	učenje
	Gen.	mesta	srca	učenja
	Dat-Loc	mestu	srcu	učenju
	Inst	mestom	srcem	učenjem
Pl
	Nom- Voc-Acc	mesta	srca	učenja
	Gen	mesta	srca	učenja
	Dat-Loc- Inst	mestima	srcima	učenjima


Feminine Nouns ending in -a

Sg		'woman' 'wife'	'soul'	'manservant'
	Nom.	žena	duša	sluga
	Gen.	žene	duše	sluge
	Dat.	ženi	duši	sluzi
	Acc.	ženu	dušu	slugu
	Voc..	ženo	dušo	slugo
	Loc.	ženi	duši	sluzi
	Inst.	ženom	dušom	slugom
Pl
	Nom-Acc	žene	duše	sluge
	Gen	žene	duše	sluga,slugu
	Dat-Loc- Inst	ženama	dušama	slugama
	Voc	žene	dušo	slugo


Feminine Nouns ending in -0

Sg		'bone'
	Nom.	kost
	Gen.	kosti
	Dat.	kosti
	Acc.	kost
	Voc..	kosti
	Loc.	kosti
	Inst.	kosti
Pl
	Nom-Voc- Acc	kosti
	Gen	kostiju, kosti
	Dat-Inst- Loc	kostima


Articles

Serbian does not use equivalents of 'a' or 'the'.

Serbian       Ja sam Englez.

English       I am an Englishman. (literally 'I am Englishman')


Possessives

In Serbian it is normal to omit the possessive if the possessor is clear from the context. In other contexts you will want to specify ownership:

Nominative	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
my	moj	moja	moje
your (familiar)	tvoj	tvoja	tvoje
our	naš	naša	naše
your (polite/plural)	vaš	vaša	vaše

Accusative Forms:

Masculine Inanimate	Masculine Animate	Feminine	Neuter
moj	mog(a)	moju	moje
tvoj	tvog(a)	tvoju	tvoje
naš	našeg(a)	našu	naše
vaš	vašeg(a)	vašu	vaše

Plural Forms:

Singular	Plural
moj   my	moji,e,a
tvoj  your (familiar)	tvoji,e,a
naš   our	naši,e,a
vaš   your (polite/plural)	vaši,e,a


Adjectives

1. Case Endings

2. Ordinal Numbers

3. Comparatives


Adjective Case Endings

Serbian adjectives, like nouns, have different endings to show gender, case, singular/plural. Adjectives always have to be in the same case as their accompanying nouns.

1. Masculine

2. Neuter

3. Feminine

Masculine Adjectives

Sg	'new'	Pl	'new'
Nom-Voc	nov,novi	Nom-Voc	novi
Gen	novog(a)	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novom(e,u)	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	Nom or Gen	Acc	nove
Inst	novim

Neuter Adjectives

Sg	'new'	Pl	'new'
Nom-Voc	novo	Nom-Voc	nova
Gen	novog(a)	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novom(e,u)	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	novo	Acc	nova
Inst	novim

Feminine Adjectives

Sg	'new'	Pl	'new'
Nom-Voc	nova	Nom-Voc	nove
Gen	nove	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novoj	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	novu	Acc	nove
Inst	novom


Ordinal Numbers

English	Serbian	English	Serbian
first	prvi,a,o	sixteenth	šesnaesti,a,o
second	drugi,a,o	seventeenth	sedamnaesti,a,o
third	treći,a,e	eighteenth	osamnaesti,a,o
fourth	četvrti,a,o	nineteenth	devetnaesti,a,o
fifth	peti,a,o	twentieth	dvadeseti,a,o
sixth	šesti,a,o	twenty-first	dvadeset prvi,a,o
seventh	sedmi,a,o	thirtieth	trideseti,a,o
eighth	osmi,a,o	fortieth	čtrdeseti,a,o
ninth	deveti,a,o	fiftieth	pedeseti,a,o
tenth	deseti,a,o	sixtieth	šezdeseti,a,o
eleventh	jedanaesti,a,o	seventieth	sedamdeseti,a,o
twelfth	dvanaesti,a,o	eightieth	osamdeseti,a,o
thirteenth	trinaesti,a,o	ninetieth	devedeseti,a,o
fourteenth	četrnaesti,a,o	hundredth	stoti,a,o
fifteenth	petnaesti,a,o


Comparatives

English Adjective	Serbian Adjective	English  Comparative	Serbian  Comparative (also for adverbs  ending in -o -e)
good	dobar,bra,bro	better	bolji,a,e
cheap	jeftin,a,o	cheaper	jeftiniji,a,e
easy	lak,a,o	easier	lakši,a,e
large	velik,a,o	larger	veći,a,e
little	malen,a,o	less	manji,a,e
long	dug,a,o	longer	duži,a,e
much	mnogo	more	više
beautiful	lep,a,o	more beautiful	lepši,a,e
difficult	težak,ška,ško	more difficult	teži,a,e
expensive	skup,a,o	more expensive	skuplji,a,e
interesting	zanimljiv,a,o	more interesting	zanimljiviji,a,e
often	često	more often	češće
nice	prijatno	nicer	prijatnije
quick	brz,a,o	quicker	brži,a,e
slow	spor,a,o	slower	sporiji,a,e
small	malen,a,o	smaller	manji,a,e
bad	loš,a,o	worse	gori,a,e


Pronouns

1. Personal Pronouns

2. Dative

3. Accusative and Genitive

4. Prepositional or Locative

5. Instrumental


Personal Pronouns

Serbian	English
ja	I
ti	you (familiar form;  used to address family,  friend or child)
on	he
ona	she
ono	it
mi	we
Vi, vi	you (polite or plural form;  used to address more than  one person, unknown person)
oni	they


Pronouns in Dative

The primary meaning of the dative case is 'to' a person:

English	Serbian
to me	meni, mi
to you (familiar)	tebi, ti
to him	njemu, mu
to her	njoj, joj
to it	njemu, mu
to us	nama, nam
to you (polite/plural)	vama, vam
to them	njima, im


Pronouns in Accusative and Genitive

           Nominative                  Accusative and Genitive

Serbian	English	Serbian	English
ja	I	mene, me	me
ti	you (familiar)	tebe, te	you (familiar)
on	he	njega, ga	him
ona	she	nju, ju	her
ono	it	njega, ga	it
mi	we	nas	us
vi/Vi	you  (polite/plural)	vas/Vas	you  (polite/plural)
oni	they	njih, ih	them


Pronouns in Prepositional or Locative

                               Prepositional

Serbian	Serbian	English
meni	o meni	about me
tebi	o tebi	about you (familiar)
njemu	na njemu	on him
njoj	o njoj	about her
njemu	u njemu	in it
nama	o nama	about us
vama	o vama	about you (polite/plural)
njih	o njima	about them


pronouns in instrumental
Instrumental

Nominative                      Instrumental

Serbian	English	Serbian
ja	I	mnom
ti	you (familiar)	tobom
on	he	njim
ona	she	njom
ono	it	njim
mi	we	nama
vi/Vi	you  (polite/plural)	vama/Vama
oni	they	njima

Example of usage:

English	Serbian
with him	s njim
between us	među nama
in front of you	pred tobom


Spelling Rules

The basic prinicple is one sound to one letter correspondence. The only exeptions are digraphs lj /soft l/, nj /soft n/ and, dž /hard j/.


Questions

Questions to which there is a 'yes' or 'no' answer are formed using the particle 'li'. For example:

                       English             Serbian

Statement       He knows           On zna.

Question        Does he know?   Zna li on?

Question Words:

These are questions which contain question words such as 'what' šta, 'who' ko, 'when' kada, 'why' zašto, 'where' gde, 'how' kako. For example:

English           What is this?

Serbian            Šta je to?

English           Who here speaks English?

Serbian            Ko ovde govori engleski?

English           What (how) are you called?

Serbian           Kako se zoveš?

English           Why does he not know?

Serbian           Zašto on ne zna?

English           Where does Milan work?

Serbian           Gde Milan radi?


Negation

'Not' is ne, and is placed in front of whatever is negated.


Numbers

Number	Serbian	Number	Serbian
0	nula	18	osamnaest
1	jedan	19	devetnaeset
2	dva	20	dvadeset
3	tri	21	dvadeset jedan
4	četiri	22	dvadeset dva
5	pet	23	dvadeset tri
6	šest	24	dvadeset četiri
7	sedam	25	dvadesest pet
8	osam	30	trideset
9	devet	31	trideset jedan
10	deset	40	četrdeset
11	jedanaest	50	pedeset
12	dvanaest	60	šezdeset
13	trinaest	100	sto
14	četrnaest	1000	hiljada
15	petnaest	2000	dve hiljade
16	šesnaest
17	sedamnaest


time of day;days of the weeks;months;divisons of the day
Time

Time of Day

English	Serbian
What is the time?	Koliko je časova?
It is one o'clock.	Jedan čas.
It is 2, 3, 4 o'clock.	Sada je dva, tri, četiri časa.
It is six o'clock.	Šest je časova.
It is five past one.	Sada je jedan i pet.
It is now a quarter past two.	Sada je dva dva i četvrt.
It is twenty-two minutes past four.	Četiri i dvadeset dva.
It is half past ten.	Pola jedanaest.
It is now half past two.	Sada je pola tri.
English	Serbian
When?	Kada?
At three o'clock.	U tri časa.
At half past two.	U pola tri.

you can either use the 24-hour clock:

5.30 am	pola šest (pet i trideset)
9.15 pm (21.15)	devet i petnaest (dvadeset jedan i  petnaest)
The train arrived at 11.37 pm.	Voz je došao u jedanaest i trideset.  sedam.

Divisions of the day in spoken Serbian:

English		Serbian
'night'	midnight to 4 am	noć
'morning'	4 am to 9 am	jutro
'morning'	9 am to midday	prepodne
'afternoon'	midday to 6 pm	poslepodne
'evening'	6 pm to midnight	veče

Months

Only February in Serbian is feminine, all other are masculine:

English	Serbian
	Nominative	Genitive
January	januar	januara
February	februar	februara
March	mart	marta
April	april	aprila
May	maj	maja
June	jun	juna
July	juli	jula
August	avgust	avgusta
September	septembar	septembra
October	oktobar	oktobra
November	novembar	novembra
December	decembar	decembra

Days of the Week

English	Serbian
Monday	ponedeljak
Tuesday	utorak
Wednesday	sreda
Thursday	četvrtak
Friday	petak
Saturday	subota
Sunday	nedelja


Letters

1. Letter opening:

Writing to	English	Serbian
a friend	Dear Marija,	Draga Marija!
a friend	Hello Marija,	Zdravo Marija!
president/ businessman/ unknown person	Dear Mr. Marković	Cenjeni gospodine Marković!
a businesswoman	Dear Mrs. Marković	Cenjena gospođo  Marković!

2. Letter closing:

Writing to	English	Serbian
a close friend	love,	Voli te,
a close friend	I kiss,	Ljubi te,
a friend	Good-bye,	Doviđenja,
formal letter	Yours sincerely,	S poštovanjem,

3. All forms of the pronoun Vi are capitalized (out of respect).