Learn Serbian & Može kafa podcast: Episode 8 - Say it Right

podcast. I am Nikola and this is...

Hey, I am here.

Okay, welcome to everyone.

So today we're going to talk about stress and accents and position of stress

in different words.

As you know, you can have a lot of words that look the same

but actually have different meaning just because they are differently stressed and we have

a different position of stress in that word.

Also, even though some words are unique, you need to know where the stress

is. Otherwise, people don't understand you.

This happened to me many times.

Because I put the stress on the wrong syllable, people were like, what are

you saying? And they say it and I hear the same thing.

but then I realized I just put the stress on the wrong syllable.

That's why it's confusing.

Let's start with the basic rules.

Like, Nicole, I wanted to ask you if there is a rule.

Like, one syllable word is fine, lep, or I don't know.

But the second, two syllable words, three syllable words, are there any rules that

can be followed?

Technically, there are rules.

when it comes to, there's a couple of things to pay attention to.

The most important one is the position of the stress in a word.

It should never be on the last syllable.

So the last vowel, for example, in a word.

It should always be at the first or second, depending on the length of

the word. So with short words, it's usually on the first.

But for example, for longer words, like mathematics,

It's on the second third or uh fourth syllable depending on length i see

okay and you mentioned before we started recording there are four accents could you

yes we explain what they are so we call it accents accented there are

four of them so they are different in tonality high and low accent and

they're different in length short and long so when you think about accents um

it it matters which accent you use in a word because if you use

a wrong one the word can have a different meaning but it's not as

severe as for example in mandarin language where it's so different if you you

misuse a accent it's totally wrong now people will still understand what you want

to say but um what matters is where you place the accent or the

stress so don't place it on wrong wrong syllable and the second one is

uh the biggest thing to pay attention to is if you use a short

and long uh stress that's what matters the most all the rest it's some

people won't even notice the difference if you make a mistake but those two

are very important things to know good just for everyone to understand better can

you give the examples that you have written yes i have some here so

we have short uh climbing accent for example pekara pekara on it's

on a then we have short uh down from short lowering accent cello

so it's it's other way I'm mixing it so short climbing accent is cello

and short down accent is pekar then you have

long climbing accent, which is mleko, and long down accent,

which is majka.

So it's mleko, majka.

That's the difference.

I see. And pekar and selo.

Okay. So just, I confirm one more time.

So, kratkoslazny means going down, like the stress lowers.

So, pekar. So, the first one is pekar.

But when it comes to selo, lo is selo.

Selo. So, the stress is still on e, but o picks up a little

bit of that accent.

It's almost like it transfers a little bit to the second syllable, but the

stress is still on e, selo.

Okay, selo. and majka yes

so majka sits climbing down and mleko climbing up yeah I

hear the difference but I can't wait to say sometimes it's hard it's usually

harder with the short ones to tell a difference with the short climbing and

short down coming accent that's the hardest part but again those are what matter

the less you should tell a difference between long and short that's what you

should focus on for example we have a word uh grad uh which

is a city grad but you also have a word grad which is a

short it means hail like in hailstorm so that type of difference i say

grad and grab That's easier to pick, apparently.

Yes. But I never, I guess, paid it.

i didn't know about hail so i probably used both short and for long

word forms of grad i guess yes so what will confuse people if you

talk to them is not the length of the stress even though it's kind

of is does make a difference it's the position if with in longer words

if you place it in a wrong you know uh syllable that will confuse

people i see okay um the idea came to me because i was speaking

about some cities and for some people i was challenging for serbians i mean

to understand what i'm saying because for example i realized uh for khrushchevats where

i lived i was saying in the beginning because it felt like an English

accent thing. But actually the Kruševac, like U is the stress.

Yes, first syllable.

So that's the problem usually with English native speaking students.

In English, stress is usually in the last kind of on the, near the

end of the word, I would say.

And that's what's most problematic for English natives.

So try focusing on the first.

Okay. Let's practice the city's names first then, so that everyone can say them

from now on properly.

Let's start with the capital, Beograd.

Yes, Beograd. So with these words that have O in the middle, stress usually

should be on that O.

Beograd. Good. Because many people would say Beograd, right?

Beograd. Yes. Or, yes.

Or Belgrade, but it's Belgrade.

Yeah. How about Novi Sad?

Novi Sad. Novi Sad.

So those are two words.

Novi sad. Sad is stronger as I hear.

Yeah. So both have its own stress.

How about subotica?

Subotica. Subotica. You see?

You're putting O more stress, right?

Well, so the stress is on U, but O can pick up a little

bit. So it might sound like it's on O, but it's subotica.

not Subotica but Subotica Subotica all right and

can you tell a couple of other cities let's see Jagodina for

example Shabbat that's a short word

Nish is a one syllable word so there's no mistake there Shabbat it's on

shadow

So it would be the same for Čačak, right?

Čačak, yep. Čačak, Valjevo, Kraljevo.

Kraljevo. Most of them is on.

I'm trying to think some that might be a little bit specific that I

can't find.

That's okay. That's about it.

Okay, how about food names?

We always try to order food or talk about food when we speak, practice

Serbian. Let's say them correctly.

Let's dive into the most famous food names.

Yes, so for example, some words have specific place of the accent.

So one, cevap, jedan cevap, but cevapi is plural.

Yes, but in the beginning, singular one, cevap, right?

Cevap, yep, and many cevapi.

Cevapi.

Burek, palačinka. Although in some cities I heard palačinka, which for me

is weird, but usually it's palačinka and ajvar.

Palačinka, it's pa, right?

Palačinka. Činka, či, that's true, palačinka.

um so some words can change the stress they can have stress for example

at the beginning of the word and then if you place it in plural

or in or another grammatical case the stress can move to the right but

not with all of them there are rules to remember but i don't teach

usually that's to my students because it's so there's so many exceptions it can

be a little bit hard to learn all that so it kills the mood

of learning a language.

It's more like, it gets boring.

I know. That's why I wanted to keep only the most common examples here.

And I also sometimes still have issues with names because it's the same thing.

For example, I have met a lot of Ivana's.

And in the beginning, I was saying Ivana.

Is it right?

does it right it sounds right i say ivana ivana ivana yeah yeah and

how about your name nikola nikola so it's all of these we have here

so nikola sladjana surgeon ivana sanja i added two here that

i know i know there the stress varies so with names depending where you're

from, you will be called Milena or Milena.

Jasminna or Jasminna.

So you can have both depending which region in Serbia you are.

I see. Okay.

Good. So there's nothing wrong.

You could just say I'm from that.

Yeah, with names.

Yeah, with names, you learn it as it is, as the person is called

it. That's it.

Okay. And a couple of adjectives and adverbs.

lep is one syllable but lepo lep lepo lepa yeah beo

bela belo visok visoka so um with some adjectives the

stress can change visoko and visoko are both proper forms um it

depends if the adjective is specifying something or not specifying something but again it's

a little bit more it's not as important so i wouldn't try explaining that

here it would take too much time i see

with colors it can be zelen or zeleno zeleno yeah it's in the beginning

when i when you say it i mean srechan is going to be used

a lot srechan srechna right srechan pametan

Zanimljiv or ni?

Zanimljiv yeah and the amazing question kako kako the

beginning I was saying it very quickly kako kako is nothing more kako

might be there is no I never thought about it but I say kako

depending on how you want to say it and mnogo it's on no

Mnogo, yeah, on the first syllable.

Mnogo. Okay, good.

And I wanted to add some tongue to assist to practice with you, and

our listeners can also practice by themselves.

But you added something first.

Let's give it a try.

yes so this is a very famous one for showing how accents are important

or stress is important it reads gore i'm not going to read it properly

because i'm not that you know you have to really manage the accents here

it will probably make a mistake but it goes gore gore gore nekšto gore

gore dole and it means the hills up there burn worse than the hills

burn down here because gore can mean hill or a mountain from crnagora for

example

gore can mean up goriti is a form of verb to burn goriti so

that's a name of like homonyms the words having the same look but different

stress and different meaning i see gore gore I would say the same thing.

It's gore, gore, gore.

Next, gore, gore, dole.

Okay.

I would think this is a joke, but this really has a meaning.

Yeah, it does have a meaning.

Okay. Of course, you can say it in a different way, but this is

purpose like that.

Okay. Then we have tongue twisters.

Yeah.

So we have navrh, brda, vrba, mrda.

Navrh, brda, vrba, mrda.

that's for practicing R.

Yeah, that's practicing R, but also the syllable, I mean, the stress is, I

think, in DA, like BRDA, BRBA, BRDA.

The stress is still on R, so R,

can be a consonant or a vowel technically because you can sing it.

You can sing it for an indefinite amount of time.

And when it comes between two consonants, it behaves as a vowel.

So, vrh, brda, vrba, mrda.

The stress is all on the r.

I see. And that's why we can do that in Serbia.

I see. It means on top of the hill, the willow swings or moves.

Vrh, brda, vrba, mrda.

yes that's an easy one the next one okay i haven't seen this before

so okay my favorite and i think

sorry two and two i guess yes exactly i have another one uh that's

one of my favorites.

That's the advanced one, yes.

Chavarliyash here is like chatting, right?

Are you chatting?

Yeah, I guess Chavarliyash can be to chat, to talk, to blabber, I guess.

Okay. So Chavarliyash to Chavarliyash.

The first Chavarliyash is verb.

the second one is also verb or is it a noun?

Yeah, all of these are verbs I mean two verbs connected

with Li it's not something that I'm very familiar with Yeah, it's a question

so you can add Li after the verb to make it interrogative form, a

form of a question.

I see. Okay, good.

And so that you also wanted to mention enclitics a little bit, the stress

on them. I think this is very important, yeah.

So enclitics are words without stress, an accent.

They don't have their own stress, which means that they will merge with another

word which does have a stress.

and it will sound like a one word even though it might be two

or three words so for example jasam means i am right verb to be

is often a short form of verb to be is often in clinic so

it'll be jasam and mismo it sounds like a one word even though it's

two in future i will ya chu michemo one word sounds like a one

word it's two and critics are also personal pronouns short forms of personal pronouns

which we use very very frequently For example, a sentence you called me will

be ti si me pozvao.

And this ti si me is three words.

Ti si me, but it sounds like one.

Vido samte as well.

Samte, two words.

Even when you say my name is, like zovem se, it sounds like a

one word because se is an enclitic.

So those words don't have their own accent or stress.

Which is a great ending to this episode because our next episode will be

about how to link words to sound more like a natural speaker and how

to also use some gap fillers.

So stay tuned, everyone.

And hvala mnogo, Nikola.

Hvala tebi. To je to za danas.

Vidjemo se.