Lesson 3. Special letters: č, ć, š, ž

In the last lesson we learned 21 letters of the Serbian Latin alphabet. Today we meet four special letters. Each has a small mark on top: a “hat” (ˇ) or a “tick” (´).

Four letters with little hats

Two different “ch” sounds: č and ć

The main tricky part is the two “ch” letters: hard and soft. English has just one “ch” sound, and Russian has only one too. Serbian has two.

č — hard “ch”

This is the “ch” you hear in English words like “church” or “chair”. Say it firmly.

ć — soft “ch”

ć is softer. There is no exact match in English. Try to say “ch” in a gentle, almost whispered way — somewhere between “ch” and “ty” in “got you”. It is a soft, smoothed-out “ch”.

š — this is “sh”

The letter š is read like English “sh” in “shoe”.

ž — this is “zh”

The letter ž is read like the “s” in “measure” or “pleasure”.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Read aloud: čaj, čokolada, škola, žaba.

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“chai”, “chokoláda”, “shkola”, “zhába”. The letters č, š, ž sound like English “ch”, “sh”, and the “s” in “measure”.

Exercise 2

Read aloud: kuća, noć. Is this the hard or the soft “ch”?

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Soft: “koo-chya”, “noch”. The letter ć is always a soft “ch”.

Exercise 3

Write in Cyrillic: čaj, šećer, žena, noć.

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чај, шећер, жена, ноћ. Remember: č → ч, ć → ћ, š → ш, ž → ж.

Exercise 4

The word šećer has two special letters. Which ones?

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š (sh) and ć (soft ch). It sounds roughly like “SHE-cher”, but with a soft “ch”.

Exercise 5

What do the letters č, ć, š, ž have in common? How are they different?

Show answer

All four have a mark on top. č, š, and ž wear a “hat” (ˇ). ć has a “tick” (´) — that is a hint: ć is the soft one.

Lesson vocabulary

čaj (чај)

— tea

čokolada (чоколада)

— chocolate

kuća (кућа)

— house

noć (ноћ)

— night

škola (школа)

— school

šećer (шећер)

— sugar

žaba (жаба)

— frog

žena (жена)

— woman