Lesson 14. My family
Family words are among the first you learn in any language. In Serbian, many of them sound almost like English or Russian.
Parents and children
Most of these feel familiar, right? The only unusual one is ćerka (sounds like “chyar-ka”).
Grandma and grandpa
All together — family
My (different forms)
Serbian possessive pronouns agree with the word they go with:
moj— with masculine words (brat,tata).moja— with feminine words (sestra,mama,baka).moje— with neuter words (dete“child”,more“sea”).
Talking about family
imam means “I have.” nemam means “I don’t have.” For now, just remember these two forms.
Exercises
Exercise 1
How do you say 'my grandma' in Serbian?
Show explanation
Correct: moja baka. The word baka is feminine, so you need the form moja.
Exercise 2
Find the word that doesn't belong:
Show explanation
čokolada means “chocolate,” while the other three are family words (porodica — family, roditelji — parents, sestra — sister).
Exercise 3
Write in Serbian Cyrillic: Moj brat i moja sestra.
Show answer
Мој брат и моја сестра.
Exercise 4
Build the sentence “I have a mom and a dad” in Serbian.
Show answer
Imam mamu i tatu. Notice: mama → mamu, tata → tatu — the endings change because the words follow imam (“I have whom/what?”). That’s a case, which we’ll study in detail later.
Exercise 5
Say 2–3 sentences about your own family in Serbian (with mom/dad/brother/sister).
Show answer
For example:
— Moja mama se zove Ana. (My mom’s name is Ana.)
— Moj tata se zove Ivan. (My dad’s name is Ivan.)
— Imam brata. (I have a brother.)
Lesson vocabulary
- porodica (породица)
- — family
- roditelji (родитељи)
- — parents
- sin (син)
- — son
- ćerka (ћерка)
- — daughter
- baka (бака)
- — grandma
- deda (деда)
- — grandpa
- dete (дете)
- — child
- moj (мој)
- — my (masc.)
- moja (моја)
- — my (fem.)
- moje (моје)
- — my (neut.)
- Imam… (Имам…)
- — I have…
- Nemam… (Немам…)
- — I don't have…