STUDY GUIDE

Learn Serbian. Have fun.

LESSON 23

GRAMMAR
VOCABULARY
PRACTICE
ANSWER KEY

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GRAMMAR
PRACTICE - ADJECTIVE S AND NOUNS

In our previous lessons we learned that both adjectives and nouns belong to the
Open Class Words which means they have different forms because they reflect,
gender, number and case. We have talked about the Gender & Number
Agreement when it comes to adjectives and nouns. The gender and number of
the noun will dictate the form of the adjective (its gender and number) because
adjectives describe nouns, a singular masculine form of an adjective will go with
the singular masculine form of the noun
Example: dobar prijatelj (good friend)

Let’s recall how to tell the difference between masculine, feminine, and neuter
forms of words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives and some numerals) in Serbian:
Masculine words end with a consonant 90% of the time, feminine nouns end with
an a 90% of the time, and neuter words end with an e or o 90% of the time.

Posao means job. Although it ends with an o, it’s a masculine noun.

Mesto means place. It ends with an o, and it’s neuter.
Restoran means restaurant. It ends with a consonant, and it’s masculine.
Zemlja means country. It ends with an a, and it’s feminine.
Hrana means food. It ends with an a, and it’s feminine.
Jezik means language. It ends with a consonant, and it’s masculine.

Study Guide 2
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Now, let’s learn some useful adjectives to describe the nouns we just learned.
Interesantan means interesting and it’s masculine because it ends in a consonant.
Remember, adjectives have 3 genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and their
gender depends on the nouns they are describing.
So, how would you say interesting in a feminine form? Interesantna. Notice how
the word is not INTERESANTANA. For some adjectives we need to drop the a to
get the adjective stem to which we then add the endings for the feminine or
neuter form.
Example: dobar (good) - masculine form, dobra (good) - feminine form, dobro
(good) - neuter form
Example: interesantan (good) - masculine form; interesantna (good) - feminine
form (we drop the a after the consonant t and add -a ending for the feminine
singular form at the end of the word); interesantno (good) - neuter form (we
drop the a after the t and add -o for the neuter singular form at the end of the
word)
Sound Alternation – THE FLEETING A
The vowel a that we keep dropping in order to make the feminine and neuter
forms of some the adjectives is a sound alternation called the Fleeting A. The
main purpose of this sound alternation it to make the pronunciation easier for
us. We often see it with adjectives when changing forms from masculine to
feminine / neuter.
For example in our next example, the adjective zabavan which means fun.
Zabavan is a masculine form because it ends with a consonant. To make the
feminine form of this adjective we have to drop the a which gives us the
adjective base zabavn. As you can see, this brings the consonants V and N
together. Then can add the -a ending at the end of the word for the feminine
singular form – zabavna the -o ending for the singular neuter form of the
adjective – zabavno.

Study Guide 3
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 Expensive – skup (masculine), skupa (feminine), skupo (neuter)
Big – veliki (masculine), velika (feminine), veliko (neuter)
Small – mali (masculine), mala (feminine), malo (neuter)
Nice or pretty – fin (masculine), fina (feminine), fino (neuter)
Now, let’s try to use these new words and make some phrases. How do you say
interesting language? First, we need to know what gender the word language is
and make sure we match the gender of the noun with the gender of the
adjective. Jezik means language, it’s masculine because it ends with a consonant.
Since jezik is a masculine singular noun it must be accompanied by a masculine
singular adjective i.e. interesantan jezik.
How do you say nice place? Fino mesto. Again, since mesto is neuter we must use
the neuter form of the word fin, which is fino.
How do you say expensive restaurant? Skup restoran.
How do you say wonderful food? Divna hrana.

VOCABULARY
NOUNS

Serbian English Gender

osoba person feminine
posao job masculine
mesto place neuter
restoran restaurant masculine
zemlja country feminine
hrana food feminine
jezik language masculine

Study Guide 4
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ADJECTIVES

English Masculine Feminine Neuter

interesting interesantan interesantna interesantno
fun zabavan zabavna zabavno
wonderful divan divna divno
expensive skup skupa skupo
big veliki velika veliko
small mali mala malo
nice or pretty fin fina fino

LESSON EXAMPLES

Serbian English
divno mesto wonderful place
zabavna osoba fun person
interesantan jezik interesting language
interesantna osoba interesting person
interesantno mesto interesting place

ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY

Serbian English
imenica noun
pridev adjective
nepostojano a Fleeting A

Study Guide 5
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PRACTICE
EXCERCISE #1
Translate the following nouns into English and identify their gender:

# Serbian English Gender

1. zemlja (example) country feminine

2. jezik
3. posao
4. hrana
5. osoba
6. mesto
7. restoran

EXERCISE #2
Translate the following adjectives into English:

# Serbian English
1. zabavan (example) fun

2. mali
3. fin
4. divan
5. skup
6. interesantan
7. veliki

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EXCERCISE #3
Guess all 3 forms of the adjectives:
# English Masculine Feminine Neuter

1. fun (example) zabavan zabavna zabavno

2. small
3. nice or pretty
4. expensive
5. wonderful
6. big
7. interesting

EXCERCISE #4

Choose the right form of the adjective to match the gender of the noun and translate them into
English:
# noun adjective English
1. ________ zemlja (example) veliki/velika/veliko big country
2. _______________ jezik interesantan/interesantna/interesantno
3. ______________ mesto mali/mala/malo
4. ______________ hrana divan/divna/divno
5. ______________ posao zabavan/zabavna/zabavno
6. ____________ restoran skup/skupa/skupo
7. ______________ osoba fin/fina/fino

Study Guide 7
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ANSWER KEY
EXCERCISE #1

(The answer is underlined and in bold)

Translate the following nouns into English and identify their gender:

# Serbian English gender

1. zemlja (example) country feminine

2. jezik language masculine
3. posao job masculine

4. hrana food feminine

5. osoba person feminine
6. mesto place neuter
7. restoran restaurant masculine

EXCERCISE #2

(The answer is underlined and in bold)

Translate the following adjectives into English:

# Serbian English
1. zabavan (example) fun
2. mali small

3. fin nice
4. divan wonderful
5. skup expensive

Study Guide 8
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 # Serbian English
6. interesantan interesting
7. veliki big

EXCERCISE #3

(The answer is underlined and in bold)

Guess all 3 forms of the adjectives:
# English Masculine Feminine Neuter

1. fun (example) zabavan zabavna zabavno

2. small mali mala malo
3. nice, pretty fin fina fino

4. expensive skup skupa skupo

5. wonderful divan divna divno
6. big veliki velika veliko
7. interesting interesantan interesantna interesantno

EXCERCISE #4
(The answer is in bold)

Choose the right form of the adjective to match the gender of the noun and translate them into
English:
# noun adjective English
1. _velika_ zemlja (example) veliki/velika/veliko big country
2. _interesantan_ jezik interesantan/interesantna/interesantno interesting language
3. _malo_mesto mali/mala/malo small place

4. _divna_ hrana divan/divna/divno wonderful food

5. _zabavan_posao zabavan/zabavna/zabavno fun job
6. _skup_restoran skup/skupa/skupo expensive restaurant

Study Guide 9
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# noun adjective English
7. _fina_osoba fin/fina/fino nice person

Great job! Ćao, drugari!

Study Guide 10
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