When some tourist come to another country, usually the first thing he/she learns are bad words.

That's really sad, especially because there are so many better and more useful things to learn.
In my opinion, numbers are definitely one of them, especially because we're deeply connected with
numbers? How's it possible? I'll explain to you right now.

1. If you want to buy something in a market, you have to know how much is it going to cost - so it
means that you have to know numbers.
2. If you want to pay any task, travel, etc you have to know numbers , if you don't know them, you're
not going to be able to do anything you planned.
3. If you want to note some expense or gaining, you're not going to be able to do it if you don't know
numbers.

There are so many examples more, but I'm not going to right them now because if'd write them, I
think I'd write too long story about that and it's not my purpose.

What are benefits that this article is going to bring to you:

1. You're going to know how to count in Serbian

2. You're going to learn ordinal numbers;
3. You're going to know how to ask "how old are you"
4. You're going to know how to give the correct answer
5. You're going to know how to ask " what time is it"
6. You're going to know how to give the correct answer.
How to count:
1 - jedan, 2 - dva, 3 - tri, 4 - četiri , 5 - pet, 6 - šest , 7 - sedam, 8 - osam, 9 - devet, 10 - deset, 11
- jedanaest, 12 - dvanaest, 13 - trinaest, 14 - četrnaest, 15 - petnaest, 16 - šesnaest, 17 -
sedamnaest , 18 - osamnaest, 19 - devetnaest, 20 - dvadeset.
21 - dvadeset jedan (or "dvadeset i jedan"), 22 - dvadeset dva (or "dvadeset i dva"), .... 29 -
dvadeset devet (or" dvadeset i devet"), 30 - trideset, 31 - trideset jedan (or trideset i jedan) ...
40 - četrdeset ... 50 - pedeset, ... 60 - šezdeset, ... 70 - sedamdeset , 80 - osamdeset, 90 -
devedeset
100 - sto, 1000 hiljadu (or "jedna hiljada") , 2000 - dve hiljade , 3000 - tri hiljade, ....
10 000 - deset hiljada, 100 000 - sto hiljada
1 000 000 - milion (or "jedan milion") , 1 000 000 000 - milijarda (or "jedna milijarda" )
1 000 000 000 - milijarda (or "jedna milijarda") 1 000 000 000 000 bilion (or "jedan bilion")
You count when you talk about something/someone (describing how much/many of something
there is)
How many people are on this picture?

How to say "how old are you" in Serbian?

You are going to ask "Koliko imaš godina?" (literaly it woud be "How many years do you
have"... and literaly the English people would ask in Serbian "Koliko si star/a" but it doesn's
sound good at all)

How to answer?

Lična zamenica (personal pronoun) + Glagol "imati" (Verb "to have")

Ja (I) Imam
Ti (you) Imaš
on,ona,ono (he,she,it) Ima
Mi (we) Imamo
vi, Vi (you) Imate
oni, one,ona (they - m. pl., they- f. pl. , they - n.pl.) Imaju
+ Number
Example:
Imam: 1,21,31,41,.... godinu
Imaš: 2,22,23,24,...32,33,34,...42,43,44,... godine
Ima: 5 + godina

Koliko imaš godina? - How old are you?

The table below is going to help you how to use correctly the numbers so you can tell us "How old
are you". You're going to have completely clear view, especially because I made differences using
these colors: yellow, green and grey.

1 (godinu) 2 (dve), 3 (tri), 4 (četiri) 5 (pet)-20 (dvadeset) , 30 (trideset) ...

(21, 31…101…) (22, 23…54…) (50...100...)

godinu godine godina

As you can see from the table, we say godinu only if the number contains the numeral 1 (as in
these numbers – 21, 51, 81, 101, 1001).

We say godine only if there are examples like figures 2, 3 or 4 (as in these numbers – 32, 53, 84,
102, 1004).

We say godina only if there are are examples like figures 0, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (as in these numbers –
35, 57), or numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and decades like 20, 30, 70, etc.
What's the time? Telling the time

If you don't have a watch and you want to know how to ask "what's the time" you're going to
ask: " Koliko ima sati? or "Koliko je sati?

Very important: There are two ways of telling the time: the traditional (12-hour clock) way and
the digital (24-hour clock) way. Both are in common use, however, the latter one is used more in
official contexts.

The table below is going to help you how to use correctly the numbers and minute/s , hour/s so you
can tell us "What time is it". You're going to have completely clear view, especially because I made
differences using these colors: yellow, green and grey.

Čas, sat is an hour; minut is a minute.

1 (jedan) 2 (dva), 3, 4 5-20

(21) (22, 23, 24)

Čas,sat Časа,sata Časova,sati

1 (jedan) 2 (dva), 3, 4 5-20, 30...(29, 47…)

Minut minuta minuta

What if I have to say: A quarter to, half past?

30 minutes are 1/2 (pola) of an hour. That's why we say just like this:
1: 30 - pola dva (half past two) ---- because it's going to be two o'clock in thirty minutes.
2:30 - pola tri (half past three) ---- because it's going to be three in thirty minutes.
5:30 - pola šest (half past six)---- because it's going to be six in thirty minutes.
etc
As you could see, this part is so similar like in English. I'll explain it to you a bit further so you can
understand me a bit better.

For example:

1:30 - half past two... so it means that 30 minutes have just passed. As 30+30 are 60, and 1h contains
60 minutes, then it's logical that we need 30 minutes more until the next hour come.
a quarter are fifteen minutes of an hour. However, carefully with the way how are you going to use it.
1. If you are going to say: a quarter to .... then it's going to be 15 do ... (because quarter is 1/4 of an
hour ; 15x4 = 60)

Take a look at these examples: 5:45 , 1:45, 8:45

5:45 - a quarter to six, so it's going to be PETNAEST DO ŠEST
1:45 - a quarter to two, so it is going to be: PETNAEST DO DVA
8:45 - a quarter to night, so it is going to be PETNAEST DO DEVET
2. If you're going to tell a quarter past .... then you're going to say just like this:
.... i petnaest (... and 15) , or 15 minuta je prošlo od .....(literally it means: a quarter past from ..)

Let's take a look at these examples:

7:15 , 6:15 , 3:15 - sedam i petnaest, šest i petnaest, tri i petnaest (petnaest minuta je prošlo od :
sedam, šest, tri)

How am I going to say if 5, 10,20, .... to ?

It's going to be the same just like a quarter to...

Remember the gold rule that I have just mention: MINUTES (5,10,20,...) + TO (DO) + THE NEXT
HOUR. P. S. We almost never mark this "minuta".
Let's take a look at these examples:

6:50, 3:55, 9:40 (deset do sedam, pet do četiri, dvadeset do deset)

There is an additional way to say it:

It is going to be - biće ..... sat (a/i) IN (ZA) .... minut/s - minut(a)

For example:

6:50, 3:55, 9:40

Biće sedam sati za deset minuta, biće četiri sata za pet minuta, biće deset sati za dvadeset minuta

My suggestion is to use the first way because it is much simpler and we use it more often.
My people say: "Ponavljanje je majka znanja" - "Repeating is the mother of the knowledge" and I
completely agree, because if you don't repeat anything you're going to forget very easily.
That's why I ask you to take it very seriously and try to do these exercises the best you can.

Are you ready to practice?

A. Fill in with godinu, godine, godina

Marko ima 5 ........... .

Tanja ima 26 ........... .
Marija ima 3 ........... .
Nikola ima 29 ........... .
Petar ima 31 ........... .
Stefan ima 24 ........... .
Nenad i Nikolina imaju 33 ........... i 30 ........... .
Biljana, Milan i Branko imaju 7 ........... , 10 ........... i 11 ........... .

B: What time is it:

18:45 , 11:05, 10:20, 22:46, 19:15

Before I finish with this article I'd like to tell you some interesting information:

1. It's considered impolite to ask about women's age in Serbia so I suggest you to try not to ask it if
you don't have to.
2. There is also one way more to ask "What time is it" and it is: "Koliko šljaka tika taka?" - literally it
is going to be "How much does tick tock work" (šljakati, raditi, rintati - to work. Carefully with the
word "raditi" cause it may mean to work or to do, depend on the way how are you going to use it. ),
but it is veeery informal way of asking, so I suggest to use it ONLY if you are with close friends or
with your family.

Just like people say: " Whatever is good must have the end, just like it has it's start. " I totally agree
with them. This article isn't an exception.

I really hope you liked this article and you enjoyed it so much, but especially I hope it was very
helpful to you. If you have any further questions, please, feel free to ask me.

Good luck with your Serbian

Answer key

Exercise 1:
Marko ima 5 ..godina.........
Tanja ima 26 ..godina......... .
Marija ima 3 ....godine....... .
Nikola ima 29 ...godina........ .
Petar ima 31 ....godinu....... .
Stefan ima 24 ...godine........ .
Nenad i Nikolina imaju 33 ...godine........ i 30 ...godina........ .
Biljana, Milan i Branko imaju 7 ....godina.... , 10 ..godina......... i 11 ....godina.....

Exercise 2:
1. Sad je 18 časova i 45 minuta
2. Sad je 11 sati i 05 minuta
3. Sad je 10 sati i 20 minuta
4. Sad je 22 sata 46 minuta
5. Sad je 19 sati i 15 minuta