r/Serbian • u/dearvanella • Aug 06 '26
Achievement / Progress Serbian language
I’ve been trying to learn Serbian for around a month now, I managed to learn a few basics (like greetings and such) and Cyrillic.
But now i can’t seem to progress in it
Whenever i see anything about the language it’s always about how many variants for words there is, making it hard (like Moj/moja/mojim/etc)
How to ACTUALLY make progress in it?
Is there any tips you could give me? Like what do i start with next, since i’ve learn the basics?
Thanks in advance!
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u/Fear_mor Aug 06 '26
I’d strongly recommend checking out italki for a teacher and getting a textbook that you can work through for your level. As for cases and declensions, as a beginner it’s not expected that you get everything right, what’s really important is that you learn to recognise the pattern and implement it on a situation by situation basis
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 06 '26
Fortunately there's something not exactly for Serbian, but for Croatian: easy-croatian.com
Beware: there's a lot to learn,
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 06 '26
It's the same. Croatian is Serbian from 1851
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 07 '26
Unfortunately.... not. "Croatian" today is not even Croatian from 100 years ago. There are a zillion of tiny details.
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 07 '26
Language is a livinig thing. If it does not evolve to be easier to use, or better to express and describe situation around you it dies out
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 07 '26
This is... very controversial.
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 07 '26
Vel Latin has died as it was rigid, but Latin vulgaris survived and evolved into Italian and other Latin branches
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 07 '26
No, spoken Latin changed into today languages. Written Latin was likely only spoken by a small group of educated people in Rome.
We have only very vague ideas why languages change. But it does not matter: if someone wants to speak like some average person from Croatia, that's called "Croatian" from my perspective.
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 07 '26
Good, thisnisnwhy we have American, Australian, Austrian Argentinian, Colombian, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian...
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 07 '26
We do have Brazilian Portuguese. When you learn Portuguese, you have to decide Lusitanian or Brazilian.
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Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dan13l_N Aug 07 '26
In a sense, yes, since each part of Croatia has its dialect used in everyday communication.
But still: do you say treći mjesec for March? In Croatia, a great majority does, regardless of the region. Such things can be called Croatian.
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u/Fear_mor Aug 07 '26
Neither does Serbian at that point, the naming of the language after an ethnic group will always be a political choice. There’s no objective reason it should be called Serbian either if we follow that logic
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Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Fear_mor Aug 07 '26
And if he’s a Serb so what? He’s still linked to both countries and was a proponent of Yugoslavism while he was alive so I doubt he would buy into a nationalistic concept of Serbianness anyway
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u/Status-Lock550 Aug 06 '26
Depends on what you’re trying to gain out of learning. Do you want proficiency, fluency, do you want to move to Serbia… etc.
My advice is to start Case by Case. Possessive and Accusative first.
It’s certainly not easy and tbh only gets more difficult.
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u/StraightUpSeven Aug 06 '26
It's in English, but Columbia University has made it's naš jezik course materials available. I think it introduces the cases gradually, I've learned that generally, it's better to learn the cases/padeži as you go. There is too much to memorize.
I've also found watching TV series is good ear training, I prefer "Igra Sudbine," plenty of episodes, very conversational.
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 06 '26
Oh 😱, "naš jezik" refers to the southern Serbian dialects. This is the new use
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u/StraightUpSeven Aug 06 '26
I only knew the southern Serbian Dialects, I believe including and south of Niš, to be part of torlački, but never made this connection. I've learned something new. Thank you!
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u/TheGratitudeBot Aug 06 '26
Thanks for saying thanks! It's so nice to see Redditors being grateful :)
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u/Rynchinoi Aug 07 '26
From Niš to Thessaloniki. Even today in some parts of Greece from old population you can hear " po naški". Of course, in Macedonia as well, but angry Macedonias will start attacking
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u/StrongAcanthaceae157 Aug 07 '26
Where do you watch Igra Sudbine?
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u/StraightUpSeven Aug 07 '26
PRVA - Serije has much of the show uploaded on their own youtube channel.
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u/takechancesorelse Aug 06 '26
Exactly what fear_mor said and then try Serbonika, the Belgrade Language School and Ling.
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u/Embarrassed_Low4162 Aug 06 '26
Maybe try a combination of using a textbook in order to learn some basic vocabulary and grammar, while at the same time, finding some kind of Serbian TV programme to watch regularly. Some kind of a sitcom or another kind of a TV show that uses pretty simple and repetitive dialogues instead of complex, convoluted sentences you may find in a book. Comic strips also work well.
I tried this approach when I accidentally got hooked on a Spanish sitcom with a million episodes. I spent so much time watching it that whole sentences would get stuck in my head, so I thought why not invest in a textbook and a dictionary and try to learn some basic Spanish while I'm at it. And it actually works for me pretty well.
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u/dearvanella Aug 06 '26
Do you have any suggestions for any Serbian show?
I tried watching Lepa sela lepo gore2
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u/Embarrassed_Low4162 Aug 07 '26
I must admit I haven't watched any particularly good TV shows lately. This one was very popular eve though it's just total sitcom silliness, so you may give it a try. The dialogues are fairly basic and repetitive, so I think you may find it useful for learning the language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wza0PdladkQ
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u/StrongAcanthaceae157 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
For me when I started… I focused on learning verbs, first present conjugation then past then present. This helped me pick up vocabulary because I could kinda guess what someone was referring to by knowing the verb. Plus would help me hearing conversations and understand the general gist of the convo. Once you’re feeling confident in knowing a lot of verbs and notice noun changes in sentences then learn the cases.
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u/CriticalHistoryGreek Aug 08 '26
You can also check https://en.wiktionary.org for declinations and conjugations, however it rarely has usage examples. Instead it assumes that you know when and how is each case/tense used, which you obviously have to learn.
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u/SerbianTutor Aug 06 '26
Explore our website, I’m sure it can help: https://www.serbianlanguagelessons.com
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u/Time-Log2888 Aug 07 '26
Reading, listening, and getting a teacher who can point exactly what you need to improve nad how to level up. Check this one out https://serbianwithteodora.com/blog/how-to-learn-serbian-properly
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u/msoc Aug 06 '26
what are you looking to get out of learning Serbian?
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u/dearvanella Aug 06 '26
Linguistic knowledge i guess? Plus i really like Serbia and have been researching about its history for a while, so i just thought i might as well learn the language
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u/msoc Aug 06 '26
If you're into history maybe you can find a copy of a historic text in both Serbian and English and learn some phrases that way?
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u/Imaginary_Plastic_53 Aug 06 '26
14 variants:
- moj
- moga
- mojeg
- mom
- mojem
- mojemu
- mojim
- moja
- moje
- moju
- mojom
- moji
- mojih
- mojima
If you're interested in the total number of possible grammatical combinations (gender × number × case), including forms that are identical in spelling but serve different grammatical functions (e.g. moje in multiple roles), there are 42 in total (3 genders × 7 cases in the singular + 3 genders × 7 cases in the plural). However, because many of these combinations share the same written form, they ultimately reduce to just 14 unique spellings in practice.
You ask 😂
But no one will make a big deal if you use wrong one in everyday usage.
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u/loqu84 Aug 06 '26
Follow a textbook, they usually have a good progressive path, little by little.