Lesson 6. Serbian Cyrillic: ј, љ, њ, ћ, ђ, џ

In the previous lesson we saw 24 Serbian Cyrillic letters that are the same as the Russian ones. Today — six special letters. We already know their Latin twins.

Six special Cyrillic letters

Let’s go through them one by one.

ј — “y” sound

The letter ј looks like the Latin j. It sounds like the English “y” in “yes”.

љ — soft “l”

The letter љ looks like л and the soft sign ь merged together. It sounds like a soft “l” (as in “million”).

њ — soft “n”

The letter њ looks like н fused with ь. It sounds like a soft “n” (as in “canyon”).

ћ — soft “ch”

The letter ћ has a small bar across the top in the middle. It is a soft “ch” sound.

ђ — soft “j” (as in “jeans”)

The letter ђ looks like ћ, but with a little tail. It is a soft “j” sound.

џ — hard “j”

The letter џ looks like ц, but the tail is on the right leg. It is a hard “j” sound.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Read these Serbian words in Cyrillic: јабука, кућа, ноћ, коњ, књига, љубав.

Show answer

“ya-bu-ka”, “ku-tcha” (soft ch), “notch” (soft ch), “kon’” (soft n), “kn’i-ga” (soft n + i), “l’u-bav” (soft l).

Exercise 2

Write these in Latin script: ђак, џем, краљ, мој.

Show answer

đak, džem, kralj, moj.

Exercise 3

How are the letters ћ and ђ different? What sounds do they stand for?

Show answer

ћ is a soft “ch”, with no tail at the bottom. ђ is a soft “j”, with a tail at the bottom. Both are soft.

Exercise 4

The word књига has four letters. But how many sounds does it have?

Show answer

The word књига has five letters: к, њ, и, г, а. And five sounds: к + њ (soft n) + и + г + а.

Exercise 5

The English word “horse” in Serbian is konj (in Latin) or коњ (in Cyrillic). How many letters are there in the Serbian word коњ?

Show answer

Three letters: к, о, њ. The letter њ counts as one.

Lesson vocabulary

jabuka јабука

apple

kralj краљ

king

knjiga књига

book

konj коњ

horse

kuća кућа

house

noć ноћ

night

đak ђак

pupil

džem џем

jam

ljubav љубав

love

moj мој

my