Learn Serbian & Može kafa podcast: Episode 4 - Practical Dialogues

I'm Nikola. Welcome to episode number four of our podcast, our two podcasts

combined, Može Kafa and Learn Serbian podcast.

Today we're here to help you learn Serbian in one more episode.

And today's topic is role play for different occasions where you can try using

your Serbian in different contexts.

Exactly. And I will be asking you a lot of questions, Nikola, today.

Yes.

Let's start with the party.

Yeah, well, let's start with the party, exactly.

Everyone, I think, who comes to Serbia ends up in a party, right?

Either a house party or a party.

Exactly. In a kafana or bar.

But this one is a house party.

Let me be the female one.

Of course. Hey Miloše, drago mi je što si došao?

Hey Milice, hvala na pozivu.

Ovdje je baš veselo.

Jesi li probao kolače?

Pravili smo ih sami.

Da, probao sam.

Fenomenalni su. Ko je kuvar?

Moja sestra i ja.

Drago mi je da ti se sviđaju.

You did great.

What does it do again in the evening?

After the coffee, we plan to play.

Do you play?

Of course. I can't forget it.

Okay. So, the first question, I think many people know, but still it's something

unique in Serbian.

The names are Milica and Miloš, but they call each other Ej Miloše and

Ej Milice. yep so that's vocative grammatical case which uh

you only would use when addressing someone that's talking to someone using their name

or uh it's usually used names usually uses names of people but also like

titles mr mrs professor doctor that can also be vocative.

Yeah, if you do not use vocative, if you just say, hey Miloš, hey

Milica, would it sound not correct to you?

Yeah, it's incorrect, sounds weird.

But also, vocative is very tricky because it has a lot of exceptions.

So, mostly we would add a letter,

but a lot of names will stay the same as in nominative.

For example, my name, Nikola, will stay the same

my name my key yeah same stays the same so I would advise remember

how that person is invocative how other people call them and use that yeah

okay so maybe we will make a list one day for everyone's common words

okay so here one of the useful thing is Hlala

not possible thank you for inviting exactly

okay and also igranje to me it could be video games it could be

games it could be dancing which context is this you think so I would

say it's probably dancing right but I wouldn't use igranje I would say maybe

plesanje plesanje is to dance exactly same as igratje sure

but

is dancing. So it's a noun derived from a verb.

If it was a game, like playing a game, then they need to specify

what game, right?

They wouldn't just say igranje.

I guess, yeah.

You'll say planeramo da igramo, whatever, whichever game.

But if this group is already so familiar with each other and they always,

let's say, play something like king, and they automatically know that that's the game

or taboo, right?

Yeah. And this would be okay, maybe.

Yeah, of course.

Okay.

Good. So for the parties, Drago mi yeştası doşao, like, good to see you

here, and huala na pozivu, I think these are very useful.

And koya kuvar is also something that I wanted.

Kovar is like, here they are talking about kolache, which is a cake, right?

Yes, cakes, small cakes.

So it's the same for a person who prepares meals, desserts.

Everyone is Kovar.

I would say yes, yeah, Kovar.

Okay, okay, nice.

To me, Kovar was always the chef.

But it makes sense, who is the chef?

I think, yeah, chef, kovar.

I don't know if there is a word for some making cakes or cookies,

so I can't think of any.

Okay, good.

All right, now another situation that we can find ourselves quite often is asking

for directions. Exactly.

In Serbian, pitania za pravac.

Pravac. Pravac's direction, yes.

Okay. So I would be the first then.

Excuse it? Can you tell me how to get to Kalemegdana?

Of course. You can go right here, this street.

You will go along the Republic of the Republic.

And then you will go left.

You will see the signs for Kalemegdan.

Thank you very much.

There's no way.

Enjoy the table.

I don't think a person who is learning Serbian, but advanced levels or intermediate

levels maybe you'll understand but but everyone will use their hands right the body

language yeah exactly you can always point so the first question is prolasnik what

does that mean passerby so prolasnik prolas it used to pass by or through

depends so okay okay and the rest is like just

go straight summer editor prawo right over with it so over with it some

here is instrumental is that yes we can use instrumental for places that are

usually long and narrow so street so you don't have to use any preposition

um usually for streets I see

good it's an instrument for places

good znakove is like Kalemegdan znakove is like a post signs yeah

okay by the way I like Kalemegdan so much do you often go there?

every time I'm in Belgrade I'll always go to Kalemegdan it's one of the

best places best view of the city many dates happened there many romantic nights

happened there as well it's the date spot of dark meet yeah

Yeah, you will see a lot of people very close to each other, right?

Yeah. And the prolaznik says, uživajte u šetnje.

So enjoy your walking.

Yes, šetnje is again walking or strolling, a noun derived from a verb,

šetati.

Very nice. Okay, so this is like a model for asking directions.

Now at the cafe.

ukafani it says but kafani and ukafic i would say right uh yeah ukaficu

yeah you can say ukafeu but we will usually say kafic kafana is um

where the rest here is i mean yes the restaurant but oddly enough it

got it of course got its name from uh kafa so first it was

only serving coffee, but now it's something else.

Yeah, that's true.

Okay, I'm Jovana this time.

Ciao, Marko. How are you?

Ciao, Jovana. I'm good.

And you? Super.

Tell us that we'll drink coffee a little bit.

Great idea. What are you going to do?

I think I'll take a cup of coffee.

And you?

I'll drink espresso, as always.

Konabar, you can be.

Okay, dobar dan.

Šta želite da naručite?

Jedan kapučino za mene, molim vas.

Meni jedan espresso, hvala.

And stiže odmah.

Yes, now my question to you, Nikola.

Why this Michael doesn't say Jovane?

Ciao Jovane.

Ciao Jovane. Okay, yeah, that's interesting.

so a lot of names in serbian have double doublets how do they say?

Jovan is masculine, Jovana feminine, or male-female name.

Dragan, Dragana, Zoran, Zorana, and so on.

So you have to be careful when addressing them and changing, declining them.

Sometimes they have same forms.

So when you say, idemo građi sa Jovanom, it can be male or female.

You wouldn't know, right?

But here, is there a rule like for Jovan, you would say, for female,

you can't or Jovan doesn't?

Jovan stays the same in vocative, so Jovan.

Okay, not to confuse.

Good. And Marco also stays the same, right?

Yep, Marco.

Okay. So, Časkamo, I knew.

Pro Časkamo is something new.

Yeah. so that's one of those aspects perfective, imperfective aspect we can add a

prefix to change slightly the meaning Proces Kamu is like to have a little

bit of chat Chats Kamu is to chat and this is like to chat

a little bit

so slight difference in meaning and it's stressing with malo malo proces

yes exactly Even that.

And here, as you said before, chu is used instead of talabih, walalabih, or...

Yes, chu. Shortcut.

Yes. Chu espresso.

Yes. Kau yu ek is a nice expression, I think.

As always, yes.

Yeah. And also here, sije olma.

Do you hear it a lot from the konobars?

I would say yes.

Yeah, very frequent.

comes right away Yeah, yeah.

It's a nice one.

To me, Stignam and what was the other one?

Dolazim. Dolazim or dodgem.

Yeah, dodgem. There's even the third version.

That's true. Exactly.

So, Stignam is to arrive, let's say, and dodgem to come.

So, again, kind of interchangeable.

Interchangeable. Nice. Good.

and the last one of course everyone finds themselves in the supermarket as well

and it's also type of culture like the organization of supermarkets i guess

and i remember like not finding my way around supermarkets easily when i first

moved in especially if you're a smaller shop like corner stores there's a lot

of them and the owner works there as well and he arranges in a

specific way. So it can be harder to find.

So we have now kupac i prodalac.

Yes. Kupac is the shopper and I am that one, please.

So, извини, where can I find the milk products?

Good morning. The milk products are in the third row immediately after the bread.

Thank you. And another question.

Do you have a organic milk?

Yes, we have.

You are found on the bottom of the page when you are in that

red. Great. Where can I find the oil oil?

The oil is in the red with oil and the ingredients right after the

production.

Great. Thank you for your help.

No problem. The Happy Kupovina.

I never heard about the Happy Kupovina.

No, I'm not.

Very polite. Very polite.

It's nice, right?

The like a pole.

Happy shopping. Yep.

Okay. So, proizvode.

I think this is a word that you keep seeing everywhere, right?

Proizvode. Yeah. Proizvode is products, produce.

Yep.

So, mleko became mlečne.

Should I ask you this or not?

That's hard. So there's a lot of adjectives derived from nouns.

And it's very hard.

There's no system or pattern.

You can notice that it's always the same.

So this mlechnu is an adjective.

Milk, produce. So milk is an adjective in that.

Does it mean also dairy?

Dairy, yeah.

The whole structure.

Yeah, good.

Okay. And trecam, red is ale, right?

Yeah.

exactly

organic milk is organic milk I guess okay

now as you say it's found it is placed it's located yes it's

reflective okay alright I think the rest I'm very familiar

just Huala Napomochi I wanted to ask what was the the and

here the endings

are different because the verbs are different I know is a bit irregular yes

it is that group that ends on a consonant but it's not masculine it's

feminine so it has ending e and this is locative okay

good

Is there any other way of saying thank you for helping or this is

the most common one you would say?

Well, I would say this is the easiest one.

You can always say hvala.

You can always say hvala što ste pomogli, you know.

But this is better, I would say.

Hvala na pomoć, yeah.

Okay, super. Thank you so much.

Hvala vam puno.

Hvala na čemu.

Okay. I hope this was useful and please let us know if you have

any questions, if you want any clarification, Nikola will help you.

I will also try to ask him to help you.

Exactly. Okay. Yeah.

Ciao.