Lesson 12 · Part 2

Lesson 12. What's your name?

In the last lesson we said hello. Now we’re going to introduce ourselves.

What’s your name?

Kako se zoveš? (Како се зовеш?)
— What's your name? (to one friend)
Kako se zovete? (Како се зовете?)
— What's your name? (polite, or to several people)

How to answer

Zovem se Ana. (Зовем се Ана.)
— My name is Ana.
Zovem se Marko. (Зовем се Марко.)
— My name is Marko.

You can also say it in a shorter way:

Ja sam Ana. (Ја сам Ана.)
— I'm Ana.

Ja sam means “I am” or simply “I”. The little word sam is important — it’s a form of the verb “to be”. We’ll look at it in detail later.

Nice to meet you

Drago mi je. (Драго ми је.)
— Nice to meet you. (lit.: it is dear to me)
Drago mi je, Ana. (Драго ми је, Ана.)
— Nice to meet you, Ana.

A dialogue

— Zdravo! Kako se zoveš? (— Здраво! Како се зовеш?)
— — Hi! What's your name?
— Zovem se Marko. A ti? (— Зовем се Марко. А ти?)
— — My name is Marko. And you?
— Ja sam Ana. Drago mi je! (— Ја сам Ана. Драго ми је!)
— — I'm Ana. Nice to meet you!
— Drago mi je, Ana. (— Драго ми је, Ана.)
— — Nice to meet you, Ana.

Exercises

Exercise 1

How do you say «My name is Marko»?

Show explanation

Correct: Zovem se Marko. The first option is a question — “What’s your name, Marko?” — and the third means “Nice to meet you, Marko”.

Exercise 2

Translate into Serbian: «I'm Ana.»

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Answer: Ja sam Ana.

Zovem se Ana. is also fine — both versions are correct.

Exercise 3

Imagine you’ve just met a friend. How do you ask their name?

Show answer

Kako se zoveš? — to a friend, informal. To an adult you don’t know, polite: Kako se zovete?.

Exercise 4

Continue the dialogue: «— Zdravo! Kako se zoveš? — …»

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For example: Zdravo! Zovem se [your name]. A ti? or Ja sam [name]. Drago mi je!

Exercise 5

Write in Cyrillic: Kako se zoveš? Zovem se Marko. Drago mi je.

Show answer

Како се зовеш? Зовем се Марко. Драго ми је.

Lesson vocabulary

Kako se zoveš? (Како се зовеш?)
— what's your name? (informal)
Kako se zovete? (Како се зовете?)
— what's your name? (polite/plural)
Zovem se… (Зовем се…)
— my name is…
Ja sam… (Ја сам…)
— I'm…
Drago mi je (Драго ми је)
— nice to meet you
A ti? (А ти?)
— and you?