Lesson 7. Vowels a, e, i, o, u — always the same

You have already read many Serbian words. Today comes a rule that will make reading easier once and for all.

Five vowels

Serbian has only five vowel sounds:

a, e, i, o, u (in Cyrillic — а, е, и, о, у).

And every vowel is always read the same way, no matter where it stands: stressed or unstressed.

Compare with Russian

In Russian we write one thing and say another:

• We write “молоко́” but say “малако́”. The first two “o” sound like “a”.
• We write “сестра́” but say “систра́”. The first “е” sounds like “и”.

In Serbian this does not happen. It is read exactly the way it is written.

Read it clearly: mle-ko. Both sounds — “e” and “o”.

Clearly: vo-da. The first “o” is “o”, not “a”.

Clearly: se-stra. The first sound is “e”, not “i”.

Why e = “e” (hard)

The Serbian e is a hard “e”, not the soft Russian “е”. This matters: consonants in front of it are not softened.

In Russian “море” the “р” is soft (рь). In Serbian more the “r” is hard: it sounds like “mo-re”.

In Russian “не” sounds like “n’-e”. In Serbian ne it is “n-e”, with a hard “n”.

There are no vowels “ya, yu, yo”

Russian has the letters я, ю, ё, е (soft). Serbian does not have these separate letters. If you need the sound “ya”, “yu”, “yo”, you write two letters: j + a vowel.

• Russian “я” = Serbian ja (ја)
• Russian “ю” = Serbian ju (јy)
• Russian “ё” = Serbian jo (јо)
• Russian soft “е” = Serbian je (је)

Exercises

Exercise 1

Read aloud, pronouncing every vowel clearly: voda, mleko, sestra, more, noga, riba.

Show answer

“vo-da”, “mle-ko”, “se-stra”, “mo-re”, “no-ga”, “ri-ba”. Every vowel is clear, nothing is “swallowed”.

Exercise 2

The word pivo (beer) has two vowels. Which ones? How are they read?

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i and o. They are read clearly: “pi-vo”.

Exercise 3

How should you read dobro (good)? And how not to read it?

Show answer

Correct: “do-bro”. Wrong: “da-bro” (that is the Russian way, where an unstressed “o” becomes “a”; in Serbian it does not).

Exercise 4

Write the sound “ya” at the start of a word in Serbian Latin.

Show answer

ja (in Cyrillic ја). Serbian has no separate letter for “ya”.

Exercise 5

How many vowel sounds are in the word jesti (to eat)?

Show answer

Two: e and i. The letter j is the consonant “y”, not a vowel.

Lesson vocabulary

dobro (добро)

— good, well

pivo (пиво)

— beer

ne (не)

— no, not

da (да)

— yes

jesti (јести)

— to eat

piti (пити)

— to drink