7 Serbian Cases: What Cases Are and How to Learn Them

Serbian Cases for Beginners: a must-watch for anyone starting Serbian or feeling desperate with the Serbian cases
I'll explain how to understand the cases and I'll talk about the best technique to learn them - an approach that really works.
Presentation language: English
Examples in: Serbian and English
My article about the 7 Serbian Cases
www.serbiancou...

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

I enjoyed following your online course. Thank you.

[@mariasoto1837]

I like to listen to Jenni Martin since my native language is Spanish and her and I seem so speak similarly

[@stop.using.my.account]

Thankyou. I appreciate you speak slow enough for me to understand.. i am slowly learning Serbian thru your awesome KZbin clips.. hoping to go see my new friend in Serbia in a few years.. sooooo exciting!!

[@nikolamalkovich9575]

This was a BIG help! I was born in Bosnia but moved to the USA when I was a toddler. I grew up speaking serbian my whole life but was rarely corrected on my grammar. I usually did what you said about people who are fluent but speak faster so we can hide our endings hahah. Thank you, you are amazing

[@adelsobeh8984]

one of the best videos bout Serbian Grammers , hvala Vam do Neba 🙏

[@yinzhuquan7097]

Thanks for the video white board could help a lot. Not only visual but also another way to absorb information

[@Serbonika]

Thank you for your comment. When I made this video, I didn't have a white board. You can look at the blog post for written information: www.serbiancourses.com/2018/09/27/how-to-learn-serbian-cases/ Best regards, Magdalena

[@baptistedelelcourt7946]

SiiSTer 🇬🇧SeSTra🇷🇸 SUN🇬🇧SUNce🇷🇸 DAy🇬🇧DAn🇷🇸 BRoTher 🇬🇧BRaT🇷🇸 And so one...So Serbia🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@lunaradin4361]

Awesome video!!

[@wojciechgrzybowski7497]

Serbian case endings can be an issue to us too, native Slavic speaking person here. I used to learn Russian in my primary school and in my teens, when I also started learning Serbian, unfortunately I would get confused with the Serbian declination. I would be somehow putting either Polish or Russian case ending instead. The accusative case is the worst for me...

[@jezmo3761]

insightful lesson, i find when i speak serbian its more difficult to remember the correct pro-noun to use (right case) , it causes a lot of mistakes on my part

[@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827]

This is a great and useful lesson. Thank you!

[@yashagarwal8741]

Only in the kajkavian dialect the difference is kept in plural. IN my native language hindi cases vannished by mughal period while hindi developed particles which took the use of cases. I studied sanskrit and i also speak a hindi dialect which kept 6 cases of sanskrit. and sanskrit cases are very similar to serbian due to the indo european connection. this video was very helpful. i picked up cases instantly cause alot of them work the same way. and comes with russian

[@danielnikolic]

This is a very good explanation, however there's a small detail which people learn wrong in school. The difference between dative and locative was STRESS in some nouns (belonging to the so-called stress paradigm C). That seems to have disappeared long ago in Serbia. Regarding the vocative, it's less used more you go west - no vocative in Slovenia - but the bad news is that dat, loc and ins tend to be different in western dialects in Croatia, and of course Slovene. Another thing often overlooked is that some nouns change stress/tone in different cases. For example, voda famously has a rising stress in nom and falling in acc, which can jump to a preposition. The actual system is quite complicated, but foreigners can learn an approximation...

[@Serbonika]

Hi Daniel, thank you for your elaborate comment! Please note that this lesson is aimed at the A1-A2 levels. I don't teach advanced ideas until I can discuss them in Serbian/Croatian with my student. What beginners need is encouragement that our case system is easy enough to master, not detailed explanations of how complex it is - that approach scares most of them away from our grammar. Kind regards, Magdalena

[@danielnikolic]

@@Serbonika I agree with you completely. I just want to add that D and L are not kept separate in grammars because they have different functions, but because grammars are incredibly conservative. For example, the usual listing order (nom-gen-...) is inherited from Latin and Ancient Greek grammars, along with names of cases. So I don't think "different functions" should be mentioned at all. They are simply listed separately because they were different long ago and because they are different in most Slavic languages.

[@Serbonika]

@@danielnikolic Thank you for this! I never dared to say it out loud! :D

[@danielnikolic]

@@Serbonika This is not a secret... any linguist will say the same

[@Serbonika]

@@danielnikolic it sounds like blasphemy. I don't think our teachers ever talked about it, not even at the Uni. I believe I realized L=D when I started teaching Serbian as L2!

[@z.dragic3107]

I Miss your videos😢💖

[@Serbonika]

Me too :) I've been working so much lately and had no time for making videos. I'll come back to youtubing once things are settled in my company, hopefully in a moth or so. Puno pozdrava!

[@z.dragic3107]

Serbian Language Courses To je odlično😊. Thanks for the answer😊

[@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827]

What I really appreciated here was your BRILLIANT suggestion to create an archive of example sentences with different cases, instead of trying to learn tables. So I made a start with a „feminine“ sentence (it was quite hard!). Here it is ..... is it okay?? Zena je covala hranu rernom i davala majki devojke (The Woman cooked the food and gave it to the girls mother) What do you think? I will try a „masculine“ sentence next 🙂🙂

[@raptorxxl1904]

Zena je kuvala (umesto kuvala moze i spremala) hranu i davala devojcinoj majci. Rerna se obicno koristi za pecenje, mada ima zabelezenih slucajeva da ljudi u njoj kuvaju kafu i sl.

[@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827]

@@raptorxxl1904 Thank you Raptor!! Hvala LEGO!

[@raptorxxl1904]

@@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827 Koji je tvoj maternji jezik i koji su tvoji motivi za učenje srpskog jezika?

[@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827]

Thank you again Raptor, but my Serbian is not good enough to understand your message. Sorry 🙂

[@raptorxxl1904]

@@edwgwilymedwgwilym2827 What is your native language and what are your motives for learning Serbian language?

[@VegascoinVegas]

I never hear Serbian in the course of any day of my American life. In the effort to be among people who would be naturally speaking Serbian, I attend a church for Serbian immigrants. There I sit/stand never understanding any single word. I have attended services with up to 5 languages spoken. English, Church Slovenic, Russian, Ukrainian and Serbian. I am still a Kindergarten level to hearing Slavic lanquages. But the Slovenic liturgy is written in latinic alphabet and I challenge my eyes to follow reading the words I hear as they are spoken. This video makes me realize what I have read now must also be cases in Church Slovenic. I am not ready for formal courses. I am merely trying to spend time exposed to the alphabets and language. I am only letting my brain soak in what it can learn on it's own before making a commitment to study it like physics or calculus. How long should I be playing in the sandbox learning church slovenic before I am wasting too much time there and it is time to be more intentional about Serbian? What are basic concepts common to both? I never attended orthodox before and I was mistaken to believe the entire service would be exclusively Serbian. I hear far more Serbian at the church's social events than I hear in the services.

[@Serbonika]

Hello and thank you for your comment. Learning the language in class actually helps in learning it at social events, and vice versa. When you do both things, the sooner you start learning formally, the sooner you'll understand more as people speak. And as you listen to the people more, it's easier for you to learn formally. Both methods go hand in hand to accelerate and support each other. Language is a skill and a means of communication more than anything else. To make it work, we learn it a little like calculus, and a little like skiing: by learning some and practicing, then learning some more and practicing... Serbian Church service is in another language, Russian-Slavonic (one variant of Old Church Slavonic). And it doesn't really help in learning spoken Serbian. If nothing else, I'd definitely recommend you to complete at least the free Introductory course at Serbonika: serbonika.com/course/a1-1-introductory-serbian-course/

[@VegascoinVegas]

@@Serbonika An update from when I first wrote this post. I was totally wrong about the liturgy written in latinic. It was phonetic English. I eventually realized on my own it was a waste of my time. Instead, I found a Serbian prayer book written in cyrilic. I believe the grammar must be perfect. And my eyes are now catching instances all seven cases. Ohio State University has all the courses I need to finish a college degree. I am so close I only need one language and one history class. It is just challenging to get the space in my daily life to make the time. Your courses are always helpful to me in my position.

[@nikicao.8238]

Very useful for learning. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXrEe2igftOjldkfeature=shared

[@marieljackman1850]

2:37 in Greek there are like 14 different adjective paradigms and over 35 noun paradigms.

[@reichlu1631]

Maybe I will go for 1 year to Serbia. And I really wish lern the league... where I should start?

[@sindraaleksr.5030]

i started with basic words and phrases, little by little every day :) make sure to learn every letter and its pronunciation(latin letters), it's easy since serbian is phonetical. if you're a total beginner you should not start with cases but introduce them as soon as possible because they are very important. feel free to contact me if you want to practice together :)

[@sindraaleksr.5030]

Hyunii check your dms

[@mariasoto1837]

I found it very helpful to travel and force yourself to speak with many people in different situations who cannot speak your native language. My Serbian improved greatly after 3 weeks. I am about a level A2 :)

[@raptorxxl1904]

Najbolje bi bilo da pocnes sa mnom.

[@aleksandras.6505]

There is no Macedonia Language. Sad to here from a language teacher

[@bojanstare8667]

It is very sad, that you have the old opinion from 19th century. Macedonian language is present and you cannot deny it.

[@Apaurie]

At least, being french i could not be confused with declension............we don't have any (not anymore) xD That's the same with words. Once, i tried to speak basic words and phrases in russian to a russian, and only serbians words came to me. he didn't twig a bloody words of what I sayd xD

[@delfinigor]

Ja znam srpski i nemam pojma zasto sam ovde?

[@janabulatovic7555]

Imaš još društva 😂

[@oreradovanovi5204]

Ja sam upravo ovde, govorim 4 strana jezika ali ni jedan nema padeže, sada učim Tamil, koji ima padeže, tako da mi treba sistem kako da ih učim.

[@lapislazuli2644]

Now I can flex here Kuća = House 1) Kuća 2) Kuće 3) Kući 4) Kuću 5) Kućo 6) Kućom 7) Kući

[@MayaNirwan]

You said kući twice

[@lapislazuli2644]

@@MayaNirwan No I did not mistaken. I know i write it twice.

[@MayaNirwan]

Alde..pusti ga!! 😏

[@danielnikolic]

please don't use numbers. Use N kuća A kuću G kuće DL kući I kućom V kućo and that will make all much more simpler. You'll immediately see that N = A for many words, etc

[@MacakPodSIjemom]

@@danielnikolic This is not the order of cases we learn at school, or anywhere in our grammars. Is this an order specifically made for foreign learners?

[@hidansektas]

pokusala sam jednom strancu da objasnim padeze mnogo mi je smesno bilo kad si pomenula "tarzanski srpski"

[@Serbonika]

Sasvim dovoljno dobro za bazičnu komunikaciju :D Mi izvorni govornici moramo naučiti da strancima tolerišemo greške, naročito u padežima i u glagolskom aspektu. Puno pozdrava!

[@VegascoinVegas]

I have another question about Google Translate app. I have worked with Serbians for nearly 10 years. Novo Belgrade is the dispatch. Serbians line up my service calls. The company found a cost reduction. The company now uses the same phone systems that scammers use to terrorize Americans and the blockers now see the Serbians calling us as scammers. Our phones warn us that a scammer is calling but it is our dispatch in Beograd. We have to answer every call because of that cost reduction. At first I only wanted to learn polite things to say. Dobro jutro. Kako ste? Hvala vam. Uskoro. But then I believed it was funny if I pretend my dispatcher is a scammer. I believed that if I say my jokes in Serbian, the effort I make to speak the language will be a display how I am not trying to be rude. I am trying to be funny. I am trying to make my co-worker laugh. My jokes didn't work even though I tried to speak serbian. My sense of humor is very lost in translation. I blame Google Translate. I think maybe it makes me sound unnatural. I think maybe Google Translate makes me sound like Tarzan, as you said. All I do is confuse and baffle my Serbian friends and then they apologize to me. I was pranking to make them laugh, not apologize! Can you make a video determining if Google Translate has limitations that should be respected??

[@Serbonika]

Hello, thank you for your comment. Sorry for answering only now, I haven't seen it before! Jokes are tricky. Humorous sentences don't work the same way in different languages. If you're playing with words, that's usually not easy to translate even for professional translators. Machines are unable to do that, unless we teach them that certain joke or metaphor should be translated in a specific manner. Only at a higher level when learning a foreign language are we able to understand and create jokes. Because that's when we approach native speakers in our understanding of the language and mentality of the people.

[@VegascoinVegas]

Another update since I wrote this post. I have learned how to use Google Translate better. I can't make it go all the way to what I want to say. I need to break things small and translate back and forth repeatedly to achieve a stable translation that will not change. And even then I reach limits where Google Translate can't work. I made friends on Facebook in Serbia. They say my Serbian is good. But I only learned how to use the translate. But Facebook changed me from American to Russian and removed all of my business tools. I repeatedly verified my identity at every request. The only time I ever left the country was a one night visit to Toronto in the 1980's because I wanted to try the Canadian version of beer. Facebook shut down my American business even though I was paying in advance for their services. Without any warning and without any stated cause, they changed me from American to Russian. I can only use business tools in Russia. And Facebook discontinued business tools in Russia. And I can't get help changing back to American because they don't accept support tickets from Russia. I was only talking to Serbs and Czechs. NCR Corporation has campuses in both countries. PRUSA 3D printers is in Prague. I wanted to learn both languages because of my work experience. I was not talking about Russia or Ukraine or making friends with either side. I fear America is identifying us if we want to learn Serbian and this bothers me because I've lived long enough to know what America does to Serbia when it feels justified.

[@jwv6985]

I will be living in Niš Serbia in January 2023. I am planning on taking Serbian language classes. Do you have any suggestions or advice that I should consider?

[@Serbonika]

Welcome! I'd suggest starting with the free introductory course at Serbonika.com and joining our mini-groups in September :)

[@jwv6985]

@@Serbonika Thank you. I will take a look. I have learned a small amount of the language, but I need to get serious.

[@tamarans.ns.ii.4968]

Yeah if you are serious about learning Serbian I wouldn't go to Niš, they are struggling with it too 😅 JK have fun 😉

[@jwv6985]

@@tamarans.ns.ii.4968 😂😂😂

[@baptistedelelcourt7946]

European languagues have 7 cases like the indian languages.

[@sbsssa89]

Well, when you say Latin is not similar… makes me just think you’re not very serious.

[@SlavicRatnik]

Dang LATIN?!

[@zokidobrojebic3595]

Кад сам ја ишо у школу било је 8 падежа. Нисам знао да су избацили један

[@Charodeiski]

Imaš li primer? Mislim da govoriš o ablativu?

[@danielnikolic]

Da. Ali u sanskritu.

[@zokidobrojebic3595]

@@danielnikolic И не само . Постоји такође и у руском , финском , јерменском , турском и мн. др. У нашем језику замењен генитивом.

[@danielnikolic]

@@zokidobrojebic3595 ablativ ne postoji ni u jednom slavenskom jeziku kao posebni padež

[@syrenabest]

i dont know....slow your roll