Learning Serbian /Croatian/Bosnian

I must admit that since I started reading these lessons and my homework lists, I have started reading more and more croatian/serbian words and actually understanding them!! I feel that Hvala ti puno is not enough words for how I felt when I made my first baby sentences with minor mistakes.



Thank you to everyone .. and please .. keep the lessons coming!! I will be posting my homework list again soon ..

homework check please.

zastava - banner/flag
zato - because/so
život - living/world
žalost - sorrow/regret
žuto - yellow
To je važno - this is important
Ja sam Hrvat - I am Croatian (masculine)
težak - severe/painful
žao mi je - we are sorry/bad/wrong
rado - gladly
piti - drink
kupiti - buy/acquire/collect
sjesti - sit down/sit
Uzmi jedna jabuku - *this one got me is it referring to something not so close??
Dvije jabuke - two apples
probati - attempt

Hvala ti puno!!

težak also means heavy.
the meaning i'm most familiar with for žao mi je is "I'm sorry" (in a "I feel sorrow because of that" sort of way, not in a "excuse me" sort of way) And the "mi" is dative "I". it's like "there's sorrow to me" or something like that.

*guesses* uzmi jedna jabuku - "take an apple"?

i'm still learning though, so take it with a grain of salt.

They're all right and pthalo explained the wrong ones
And it's
uzmi jednU jabuku

život-life
and...
kupiti means all of that you said... but there is a difference in accent between kupiti=to buy and kupiti=to collect/acquire.
That first "kupiti" has a long "u" (but not too long), and in kupiti=to collect all the vowels are very short. Try saying it aloud.

Pthalo - THANK YOU!!
Luby91 - THANK YOU!!
Baska - THANK YOU!!

To all of you Hvala ti puno!! what I am seeing is that in Croatian/Serbian - there can be one word with many different meanings dependant on how its pronounced.
I suppose it will take time and practice to throughly know which meaning is meant by what is before or after it in the sentence.

I am learning though and that is the important thing!!

Nur Demir, im just interested where you are from? And why you've decided to learn Croatian?

sorry for offtopic guys

težak - heavy, difficult

This stone is heavy - Ovaj kamen je težak.
Croatian is not difficult - Hrvatski nije težak.

Painful - bolan

Žao mi je - I am sorry
Žao nam je - We are sorry

In Hungarian we also have the same word for difficult and heavy (nehéz). One way to remember that is that it's difficult to lift something heavy. It helps to think of heavy and difficult as the same concept in a language where there's one word for the both of them. Instead of thinking of it as one word with two different meanings that you have to figure out from context.

Da li ima nešto propis za glagoli čiji se infinitiv osnova završava na "-ći"? Na primer "peći" Znam da nije "Ja pećem ti pećeš..., ja sam pećla? pekla? pešla?"

ići - idem. peći pedem?
reći - kažem, ja sam rekla
moći - mogu, mogla.
seći - ?
naći - nađem, našla sam
vući - ?

trenutno ne nađem drugih primeri, ali znam da ima više slično glagoli, nađem ih u rečenicu a uvek pretražim nešto sinonim, jer ne mogu da ih konjugiram.

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

Nur Demir, im just interested where you are from? And why you've decided to learn Croatian?

sorry for offtopic guys

I live in the USA, and have been learning Croatian for a little over a year now. I found some Croatian/Macedonian music and fell in love with it and the language. I have been learning every since. I have also been studying Turkish a little over a year as well. I was fortunate to be able to visit Turkey this past march, I am hoping that next march I can visit Croatia and the surrounding countries as they are beautiful countries as well.

Originally Posted by pthalo

Da li ima nešto propis za glagoli čiji se infinitiv osnova završava na "-ći"? Na primer "peći" Znam da nije "Ja pećem ti pećeš..., ja sam pećla? pekla? pešla?"

ići - idem. peći pedem?
reći - kažem, ja sam rekla
moći - mogu, mogla.
seći - ?
naći - nađem, našla sam
vući - ?

trenutno ne nađem drugih primeri, ali znam da ima više slično glagoli, nađem ih u rečenicu a uvek pretražim nešto sinonim, jer ne mogu da ih konjugiram.

here are the examples for present tense and perfect tense.

PEĆI (to roast/to bake)

present

ja pečem
ti pečeš
on-ona-ono peče

mi pečemo
vi pečete
oni peKu

perfect

ja sam pekao/pekla
ti si pekao/pekla
on-ona-ono je pekao/pekla/peklo

mi smo pekli
vi ste pekli
oni su pekli

IĆI (to go)

present

ja idem
ti ideš
on-ona-ono ide

mi idemo
vi idete
oni idu

perfect

ja sam išao/išla
ti si išao/išla
on-ona-ono je išao/išla/išlo

mi smo išli
vi ste išli
oni su išli

MOĆI (to be able to/can)

present

ja mogu
ti možeš
on-ona-ono može

mi možemo
vi možete
oni mogu

perfect

ja sam mogao/mogla
ti si mogao/mogla
on-ono-ona je mogao/mogla/moglo

mi smo mogli
vi ste mogli
oni su mogli

SEĆI (to cut)

ja sečem
ti sečeš
on-ona-ono seče

mi sečemo
vi sečete
oni seKu

perfect

ja sam sekao/sekla
ti si sekao/sekla
on-ona-ono je sekao/sekla/seklo

mi smo sekli
vi ste sekli
oni su sekli

NAĆI (to find)

ja nađem
ti nađeš
on-ona-ono nađe

mi nađemo
vi nađete
oni nađu

perfect

ja sam našao/našla
ti si našao/našla
on-ona-ono je našao/našla/našlo

mi smo našli
vi ste našli
oni su našli

VUĆI (to pull/to drag)

present

ja vučem
ti vučeš
on-ona-ono vuče

mi vučemo
vi vučete
oni vuKu

perfect

ja sam vukao/vukla
ti si vukao/vukla
on-ona-ono je vukao/vukla/vuklo

mi smo vukli
vi ste vukli
oni su vukli

and finally

REĆI (to say)

present

we rarely use this verb in present tense, but anyway the correct form is "reknem/reknes/rekne/reknemo/reknete/reknu" (but i've heard that form "rečem-rečeš...." is used in Montenegro.... anyway, that is incorrect). Instead of that we use, as you sad, verb "kazati" (with the same meaning). And it's forms are kažem/kažeš/kaže/kažemo/kažete/kažu.

perfect

ja sam rekao/rekla
ti si rekao/rekla
on-ona-ono je rekao/rekla/rekli

mi smo rekli
vi ste rekli
oni su rekli


There is a rule, but i think that the rules are based on knowledge of these forms (it's funny, i know). I'll look for that and if i was right, then the rule will be completely useless for you and all the others whose mother tongue is not Serbian.

Sjajno, hvala lepo za pomoć.

It looks like these verbs remove the ći (infinitive ending) and add č, š, đ, or ž sound before conjugating them. Maybe you just know as a native speaker which one sounds right.

One thing that does help is spell check in Firefox. I have it for latinica but not for ćirilica unfortunately. It can't help me if my guess is too wrong, but if I'm close it does help quite a bit.

How understandable are mistakes with these verbs? Na primer, if I were to write "naćem" instead of "nađem" would people know what i meant from the context? I wouldn't use naćem because I've already learned to conjugate naći, but with a new verb I'll probably guess wrong the first time.

Nema na čemu, zato sam tu

Well that's right, native speakers just know which is right. But some people make mistakes saying peču/vuču/seču instead of peku/vuku/seku. They just don't know that's incorrect. And yes, a part of those rules is removing -ći and alternating the consonant. If i find something useful, i'll post it here.

That firefox thing sounds really good, i didn't know for that. Then use latinica and then just change it to ćirilica. And you'll guesses will be just closer and closer, i'm sure.

To be honest, i didn't get what your "naćem" meant. Haha. My first thought was Spanish "nacho". But I'm sure that's because you wrote that word alone. People would realise what that meant from the context, if they just try.

So, I'll try to remember some more verbs ending in -ći, and write the examples for them. I'll look for those rules as well.

Tek sam našla pravopis za fajrfoks, koji ima oboje latinicu i ćirilicu: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5125

stići = stižem, stižeš, stiže, stižemo, stižete, stižu, stigla, stigao, stigli, a to znam samo zato što sećam se da sam jednom (davno) videla reč "stiže"

I'm still curious about koliko su razumljivi greške ako vidiš rečenice, dakle: "Milan nije mogao da izbeče njegove bivše devojke" Da li biste znali da sam mislila na glagol "izbeći"?

fajrfoks pravopis mi pokaže "izbeže." *googles "izbeže"* izgleda da to je dobro. Dakle, izbežem... ne, fajrfoks ne priznaje "izbežem". Onda ne znam.

Izbegnem Weel, I didn't know which verb is it untill you said "izbeći" It sounds very different
I think it's better for you to put infintive when you're not sure. That woudn't be correct but people will understand...

Seems to me that the easiest way is to separate those verbs into groups which have the same way of making those forms.
I found the rules about forming all the tenses... and it's stupid! The bases for verbs are derivated from aorist. And when i looked up forming aorist, i found instructions like "aorist base + suffix". The rule is circular, which makes it really stupid. It's useful only for native speakers.

No mistakes in forms for "stići", great!

izbeći... uf... I guess this is hard one for you. The correct form is "izbegne". I didn't realize what "izbeče" could mean. Maybe that's because there iz a verb "izbečiti" (it means something like to open eyes wide, usually in someone's face, as a sign of surprise) in Serbian, so that was my first association.

In Serbian there are usually many similar verbs with same meaning, but they are used in different tenses*. For example, the similar one to izbeći is izbegavati... So, if you find the verbs of the same meaning and same root, maybe it could help you (in this case, it would remind you of letter G).
*-the difference between "izbeći" and "izbegavati" (both of them mean to avoid) is that "izbeći" is activity which happened once, and now it's over, but "izbegavati" is activity which is being done countinuously for some time. That's why we don't have continuous tenses in Serbian. Those are so called over and non-over verbs (svršeni i nesvršeni glagoli).

So, for izbeći, forms are: izbegnem-izbegneš-izbegne-izbegnemo-izbegnete-izbegnu for present tense, and izbegao-izbegla-izbegli for perfect tense.

There are also some short ones, which i remembered.

ući (to enter)- uđem-uđeš-uđe-uđemo-uđete-uđu and ušao-ušla-ušli
sići (to come down)-siđem-siđeš-siđe-siđemo-siđete-siđu and sišao-sišla-sišli
pući (to break, to crack, to burst)-puknem-pukneš-pukne-puknemo-puknete-puknu and pukao-pukla-pukli
tući (to beat)-tučem-tučeš-tuče-tučemo-tučete-tuKu and tukao-tukla-tukli
svući (to take of-clothes)-svučem-svučeš-svuče-svučemo-svučete-svuKu and svukao-svukla-svukli

Maybe you can notice some analogies here... I think there's no other way or rule which helps to learn this. Maybe you'll be able to have feeling which is correct later.

And yes, i agree with Vlada, you better use infinitive when you're not sure which form to use. Incorrect forms are really confusing (both Vlada and I proved that ), so infinitive is the best solution.

hey guys!
I started learning serbian one week ago and everyday i checked this forum.
It's very nice and I'm learning quickly.


Well, I found an interesting site that can help us a lot with the serbian language:

www.serbianschool.com

very very nice!
and it has audio as well.
bye ! I'll come back tomorrow!

Guys, I love you all!
I just came back from holidays and checked what's new in this thread. Well, I'm glad to see that we're improving! I really enjoy it and I have to admit I'm getting more confident regarding my knowledge of Serbian.

I've also found out that if I know the 1st person of the verb (ja volim), I automatically know the rest, because it's very similar to Slovak.

At the moment I'm watching silently trying to learn everything, but there'll be a time when I'd like to start creating whole sentences...I got a book (some novel) in the library in Serbian language. Even though there's still many words I don't understand, I believe it will help me to understand all the grammar in a context.

Keep up the good work & thanks again!!!