Lesson 2. Serbian Latin Alphabet: Familiar Letters

In the last lesson we learned that Serbian has two alphabets. Today we’ll work on the Latin one.

Good news

The Serbian Latin alphabet has 30 letters. Most of them are familiar. They are read almost the same way as in Russian or English.

Letters that are easy to read

Latin	Cyrillic	Sound	Example
a	а	а	mama — mom
b	б	б	brat — brother
c	ц	ц	cena — price
d	д	д	dom — home
e	е	э	more — sea
f	ф	ф	foto — photo
g	г	г	grad — city
h	х	х	hleb — bread
i	и	и	riba — fish
k	к	к	knjiga — book
l	л	л	lav — lion
m	м	м	mleko — milk
n	н	н	noga — leg
o	о	о	oko — eye
p	п	п	pas — dog
r	р	р	ruka — hand
s	с	с	sestra — sister
t	т	т	tata — dad
u	у	у	ruka — hand
v	в	в	voda — water
z	з	з	zima — winter

Compare with Russian

voda (вода)

— water

In Russian “вода” we almost say “вада” — the first “o” is unstressed. But in Serbian voda we pronounce it clearly: “вода”. Both “o”s sound like “o”.

mleko (млеко)

— milk

Here there are fewer letters than in Russian “молоко”, and it is read exactly as written: “млеко”.

Letters that are missing

The Serbian Latin alphabet has no letters q, w, x, y. They appear only in borrowed names.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Read aloud: mama, tata, brat, sestra, voda, hleb.

Show answer

“мама”, “тата”, “брат”, “сестра”, “вода”, “хлеб”. Every letter is read as it is written.

Exercise 2

Read: pas, mleko, riba, oko. What do these words mean?

Show answer

pas — dog, mleko — milk, riba — fish, oko — eye.

Exercise 3

Write the Serbian word grad in Cyrillic.

Show answer

град. All the letters match the Russian ones.

Exercise 4

How many syllables are in the word more? How is it read?

Show answer

Two syllables: mo-re. It is read “мо́-рэ”. Note: Serbian e sounds like Russian “э”, not “е”.

In the next lesson — four special letters: č, ć, š, ž.

Lesson vocabulary

dom дом: home
more море: sea
grad град: city
hleb хлеб: bread
riba риба: fish
mleko млеко: milk
oko око: eye
ruka рука: hand
noga нога: leg
pas пас: dog

Completed

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