Key Serbian sounds, script features, and stress patterns for pronunciation practice. Front: the Serbian word or sound pattern in Cyrillic with Latin transliteration. Back: meaning plus a plain-English pronunciation note.
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- кућа (kuća)
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house. 'ћ' is a soft palatal sound, like a light 'ch' in 'cheap'; it is softer than the harder 'ч' (č), which sounds like the 'ch' in 'church'.- ђак (đak)
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student, pupil. 'ђ' is soft, like the 'j' in 'jeep'; it contrasts with the harder 'џ' (dž), like the 'j' in 'jump'.- шест (šest)
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six. The letter 'ш' is pronounced 'sh' as in 'shoe'.- жена (žena)
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woman, wife. The letter 'ж' is pronounced like the 's' in 'measure' or 'pleasure'.- цена (cena)
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price. The letter 'ц' is always pronounced 'ts' as in 'cats'.- трг (trg)
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square (a town square). The letter 'р' can act as a vowel between consonants, so this word is pronounced with a rolled 'r' carrying its own syllable, with no separate vowel needed.- риба (riba)
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fish. The Serbian 'р' is rolled or tapped with the tongue tip, similar to a Spanish or Italian 'r'.- љубав (ljubav)
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love. The letter 'љ' is a single palatalized 'l' sound, like the 'lli' in 'million', not 'l' plus 'j' pronounced separately.- коњ (konj)
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horse. The letter 'њ' is a single palatalized 'n' sound, like the 'ny' in 'canyon', not 'n' plus 'j' pronounced separately.- spelling and sound
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Serbian spelling is fully phonetic: each letter represents exactly one sound, and each sound is always written the same way, in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.- ч = č
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Every Serbian Cyrillic letter has one fixed Latin equivalent; 'ч' always corresponds to 'č', so learning both alphabets is mostly a matter of learning the letter-to-letter mapping.- pitch accent in Serbian
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Serbian has a pitch-accent system: a stressed syllable can carry a rising or falling tone, which can distinguish word meaning, though most learners can be understood without mastering it.- стари vs старији (stari vs stariji)
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old vs older. Serbian vowels can be pronounced short or long depending on stress, which subtly changes word rhythm, though spelling does not mark this length.- град (grad)
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city. Unlike some Slavic languages, Standard Serbian generally keeps word-final consonants voiced, though some devoicing can occur in casual fast speech.- зима (zima)
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winter. The letter 'з' is pronounced like the English 'z' in 'zoo'.
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