Serbian
The Best Books for Learning Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian
Over the years I’ve spent learning and refining my Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, I’ve tried out plenty of textbooks and learning guides. Most of them were terrible. But a few have risen to the top and are worth recommending. These books aren’t the very first step you should take into the language; your first few minutes of Serbian learning should …
Fluent Serbian in 20 Minutes — Fake Your Way Through Any Rakija-Soaked Conversation
Effortless, fluent, minimally communicative Serbian with the Tipsy Pilgrim Language Method
Make Sweet Ljubav in Serbian: Slang for Love Piles, Sex, Consent, and Gossiping About it All
The Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian language skills that you learn in lessons and grammar books are decidedly not the most useful. These often overlook the key body parts, as well as the things you should exclaim when they smash. Plus the lack ways to express affections, dirty and sweet, for your south-Slav love muffins. Hence …
Can You Count to One in Serbian? It’s Fucking Harder Than You’d Fucking Think!
Today we’ll learn to count in Serbian / Bosnian / Croatian. But this South Slavic linguistic shitshow is crazy, so all we’re really going to understand is the number one. If we get really masochistic, we may cover the numbers two, three, maybe even four and more in some other article. This is a grammar …
Više vs. Još in Serbian/ Bosnian/ Croatian: The Differences and When to Use Each One
The horrors of Serbian/Croatian/Bosian hit you one after another: cases, verb aspect, and conjugations… And then at some point, probably later in the process, the bizarre and seemingly random distinctions between više and još will also start to get on your nerves. These words can be translated, variously, as “more”, “even more”, “yet”, “any more”, “still”, etc. …
How to Search Multiple Definitions and Translations in a Single Click — for Language Learning and Translating
One of the annoying, charming things about language is that definitions are squishy; there’s no one perfect definition. Each speaker of the language will have a slightly different idea of what “bread” tastes and looks like, for instance, or about whether a “soirée” is classier or tackier or more passé than a “party”. This is …
Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian Possessive Adjectives from Nouns: How People Own Stuff in these Languages
Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian have a way of showing who belongs to what that corresponds to apostrophe+S in English. It is called the derived possessive adjective. Milan’s rule — Milanovo praviloMarija’s pool — Marijin bazen As you can see the endings are not quite as uniform as the English version, but as Serbian language things …
Love = Murder? Balkan Romance (and Serbian Grammar!) as Understood in the Song “Ubiću Te”
If you love someone should you kill her? Probably yes, according to one Serbian-language song. Magnifico’s tune “Ubiću Te” is a frenetic ride into romance, and translates as: “I Will Kill You.” On this blog I’ve long suggested that you should all pour yourself a rakija, eat some cupi, and learn some Serbian. But taking …