How to Link Words in Serbian

here with our next episode which is about linking words and sounding more natural

while speaking in serbian so this is going to be very useful because when

we study serbian

we see the proper coursebook kind of sentences and we try to use them

in our daily lives but in real life actually some of them are not

used at all so we would like to share some facts and

some useful tips about sounding more natural in serbian today

so nicola let's start with our um first part which is about saying things

together linking them really close as we learn the words especially in beginner levels

we say the word separately right which happens in english as well like yes

in in real life we say them together as if they sound like one

word which makes learners understand the local people like in a

very difficult way yes can be hard to tell apart like what people are

saying especially if they talk quickly uh often in my beginner lessons as well

i teach students to uh say every word separately mostly in order to

remember them well to practice pronunciation but for some students it sticks and stays

like that for future so we need to correct that we in the last

episode we mentioned in critics and we said that they are words that sound

they don't have stress and they mix with other words and sound like a

one word even though it can be two or three words and here you

have ja ne znam, right?

Yeah, ne znam sounds like one word.

Yes. Mostly we expect ne znam, but it doesn't work like that.

It should be separate, yes.

So even in Serbia, people like native Serbian, Serbian language speaking people

write this together, which is of course incorrect.

It should be written separately.

The negative form of the verb ne should always be written separately.

that's true and do you have even shorter version i found it but i'm

i wanted to check with you yeah well yeah that's uh when people speak

in a language they can mumble some words if they speak quickly definitely but

it this is how it should be written yes Ne znam.

Ne znam, yeah.

And šta je to?

Right. Yeah, šta je to?

Je, again, as an enklitic, written separately, but it sounds like a one word,

šta je, šta je to.

So it's all of three words sound like one.

Yes, exactly, šta je to?

And when you're learning it, it's šta je to?

Exactly, three words.

This is okay, easier, because there are only a couple of syllables, but sometimes

they put everything together.

for example i would say pa idemo ugrad a posle ukafano yeah

so you you might say it a little bit slower some people can talk

fast and say pa idemo ugrad a posle ukafano right and that sounds like

a one sentence but that's just the problem with speed and in critics but

mostly speed unfortunately but there is is there a rule like we do it

most of the time for example in english when the word ends with the

consonant and the next word starts with a vowel you do that all the

time but in serbian does it work the same way i think it's you

connect everything together but uh no i mean there is no rule other than

critics uh that i mentioned before i the only one can think of about

prepositions is preposition sa which means with you can shorten it to be just

so you can just

say sa if the unless the next letter starts with sa and sa that's

it sa or similar because the sunyam wouldn't be so exactly or doesn't make

doesn't work that's true okay uh so also uh

is a kind of shortened way of saying um using one verb only right

yeah yeah that's very practical yes so if one subject is used like we

go that all other verbs that are related to that same subject don't you

don't have to always say me or we or yeah And generally, we can

have a segue to that.

Generally, you don't have to use ja ti on all the time when you

make a new sentence.

Right? So you can say, instead of saying, ja idam u prodavnicu, ja ću

da kupim hleb, ja ću pričati sa prijateljima.

it can just be idem u prodavnicu kupicu hleb prečuču se prijateljimas you don't

have to start with ja all the time yes it sounds like you are

a bit egoistic like i am doing this what are you doing here yes

exactly um and it's also emphasizing i will do this i will right so

exactly and as we use here pa i i started using it quite later

i mean because i wasn't sure how to use it but pa i think

is a very nice word to sound like more natural yeah it's like so

so or well yeah uh there are some that can't be translated ma

i don't know how to translate uh so it doesn't translate well to english

but it's they have here good examples of filler words yes uh znači of

Ionda are quite uh frequent in spoken Serbian especially Znaci I

did the previous episode on songs and I had my friends as guests and

while writing what they were saying I think I wrote Znaci in every episode

like 10 times and I told them that you used Znaci let's say 15

times and they were like so shocked and embarrassed because they actually do not

do it on purpose it's just so natural they do not even realize that

they're using it too much yes we should avoid using it like if you

try to be formal or stuff like that so for example if you ask

me to translate i like coffee but i also like tea to serbian i

would basically just say

i would forget that e there because it's

yes it's after the verb you know it's not so common yes that that's

a good thing and a very frequent thing e means and right uh but

if you have it in unusual places like this i like and t the

thought it means also as well that's what it means there exactly so that's

a very good way of saying it can be do you want a couple

of more with that kind of structure uh with e yes for example you

can say

you can start with e you

can start with e it means both my friend and i like to what

do i say play football yes you can start with the because you want

to emphasize that this and that or in sense also as well yeah that's

good let's negate them so that we also practice ni which is yes that's

good ne volim kafu ali then ali wouldn't work right ne volim kafu ni

chai yeah ali ni chai I don't like coffee, neither

do I like tea.

It can be neat tea as well.

For example, Neither does my friend nor

do I play football.

And you also negate the verb.

If you use a neat, you have to use a negative verb.

so it's similar to english neither nor yes only the verb stays negative as

well in english okay good examples and let's give some uh sentences for

znači so you're saying something right uh you're saying uh

She has a job, so she is not here.

Yes. Yes.

She works the whole day today, so she has a lot of work.

But that means like it means, sorry, it's so.

It can kind of mean so.

But in addition to that, it doesn't mean anything.

You can feel a word.

So I go to the city today and I'm happy Jovan and we go

to the coffee and she says...

So some people have it as a filler word.

Not even in the beginning.

I always hear, I thought it would be in the beginning, but as you

use now, you could put it before any word.

You can put anywhere, if it's just like a filler word.

I see. Good.

i will try to use it let's see while thinking you can just say

zanachi right then so you use it to also confirm something someone is talking

to you and you just to confirm and repeat you can znači or to

conclude then you can use it as well exactly for example you are paying

something in the restaurant let's say the bill was 35 euros and then you

would just say uh like five euro you pay 40 znači moram da

dobijem 5 euro yes so to conclude exactly you can also use

dakle which is also a word that can be used like that dakle is

used a lot as well and pa as we said before whatever we are

doing when we talk about our actions we can easily put pa without any

connecting meaning or connecting function here.

Yes, it can have a meaning, it can have different functions.

For example,

So we're going for lunch and then

technically we'll go to a coffee shop.

But also it doesn't have to have a meaning.

for example so it's an exclamation word and it

doesn't mean anything I don't know how to translate that the sentence means you

haven't eaten anything

I use pa most of the time because I hear and I mimic what

people say yeah exactly that's an exclamation word it doesn't mean so whatever

kind of meaning it has okay i wanted to give some um instead

of this try this kind of examples so i will try to read the

simple ones and you can make them sound more natural okay let's see i

don't know the answer i want to say i will say yeah maybe you

can say that works instead of for example I need to

go now. Moram sadha da idem, I would say.

Moram da idem sadha.

That works.

Technically in Serbian you have free form, wherever you want to put the word,

you usually can.

So both of them mean the same thing.

They're not wrong.

Yeah. Right? But it's just...

There's also a short form of sadha.

Sad. exactly.

and as i learned posle toga in the beginning i was trying to use

but um i am going to park after that i'm going to the shop

so idem park posle toga idem prodawnicu

yes so you can say idem park a posle u prodawnicu yes and that's

a use of a which is a good thing So A also means and,

but A is used for connecting to different things or opposing things.

And E is used to connect to same or similar things.

Exactly. I thought in the beginning, like A is always like when you are

adding something on the contrary.

But it's not like this.

It's also and.

Here there's nothing contrasting.

And then instead of E, why do we use A here?

I never know, but...

Well, yeah.

If you wanted to use i, then you can say idemo park.

Yeah, that doesn't work.

Only i can work.

So you can say, we can go back to like i ti i ja

idemo park. Ja idemo park, i ti ides u park.

That works. But since park and shop are different places, that's why we use

a. Just to draw a difference a contrast.

Okay, then I'll ask you this because it happens to me and I always

use i. Let's imagine I'm in a taxi and I'm trying to tell the

driver where to turn.

So I would say I would

say E onda, but it wouldn't work actually, right?

It doesn't work.

So it's Essentially, sometimes

you can in some context, but if you want to really make a contrast,

a. Yes. So it's easy to remember this way then.

If there's any difference between the things that you're connecting, a is the safer

word than e.

Yes.

Okay. And I would say, I can speak in a language.

that like both both work

um is now can also be used to say like knowing how to do

it doesn't have to be to know something it can be knowing to do

something so you can say is nam da preacham serbski that also works exactly

yeah yeah i think this is used by znaš srpski they asked me they

don't know yeah okay that's also common but znaš is more common than a

preacher i guess there you go okay let's also use um make use of

da because i listen to songs a lot and some of the songs i

thought were serbian but they're actually creation and i realized that's my one of

my friends gave me this hint that is a very important word to understand

if it's creation or serbian i don't know if you would agree because that

is used more for example but would also be

correct grammatically but mostly used by creations right so creations

as far as I know, yes, they do use morphing with the infinitive.

Depends on the region, right?

So, mogu prečati, mogu ići u grad, or

posle ćemo ić u grad.

But that also works in Serbian as well.

So depends again on the region where you are at.

So, in Serbian we have two ways to constructive peace verbs together either

da plus present tense form or just infinitive so you have two verbs first

verb is usually like i want i can i'm i must i like i

know and second word is any verb that makes sense with that so for

example i want to go hoću da idem but also hoću ici or for

example i like to

drink coffee would be ja volim da pijem kafu but also ja volim piti

kafu works so both work in Serbian but Grecian I think mostly uses infinitive

yeah that's why some of my friends I guess think or they in their

region it's more common to use da whenever I use the infinitive they correct

me yes da plus present might be more frequent in southern regions of

serbia or center regions but in belgrade you can hear them equally maybe infinity

even more in the west part of serbia i noticed because i lived in

east southeast i lived in belgare now in west serbia i noticed that difference

so in west serbia and north north vojvodina they can use infinity more and

central and south da plus present tense more if you watch news like news

or tv shows on rts channel you might hear infinity for more slightly

more they give advantage this slightly more in standard serbian but both are okay

to use okay and also from the way they link does it tell you

the the region in serbia like you would from the stress let's say or

from the way they connect words together you would easily say ah this person

must be from west from yes from the way they connect but mostly on

based on accents as well and stress so south serbia uses the stress at

the end of the word it's in dialects it's not part of standard serbian

the forms with which they use so basically no infinitive is used in those

regions in south in dialects

while in north they use infinity more as i told you and the stress

is on the first syllable and there's four accents opposed to only one stress

or accent in the south so i see sometimes i watch um street interviews

on youtube even though i do not understand everything uh of course i feel

i feel and hear the difference the way they speak in the way they

put the stress on but i never know which region that is like i

just see the difference a little bit that's it yeah it's it's an interesting

game to play definitely i because i've been teaching serbian for a while i

studied it as well i could tell with good accuracy where the person is

from which part of serbia but still sometimes in one region you have different

villages or towns that speak differently so and also some people move to other

cities and they start living there and you but this gave me the idea

that i used a kind of an interview in one of my posts and

there are five six people answering the question so maybe i'll ask you in

one of our episodes if you would guess where they are from them.

Okay, nice. We can try.

All right. It was very useful for me.

And thank you for your explanations.

And people can, you can easily ask us questions.

If you have other examples, please feel free to share with us.

We always love to hear from you.

Exactly. We do most.

Ciao.

you