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?