Serbian 901 — one root, four prefixes, and a Sunday that fell apart.
A text about a Sunday that went nowhere, with stranded whales in it — and, underneath, one verb root bent four different ways by its prefixes.
| Word | Prefix | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| propasti | pro- | to fall through — a plan, a business, an exam |
| propast | — | the noun: ruin, doom, the end of things |
| raspasti se | raz- | to fall apart — into pieces, in every direction |
| raspad | — | the noun: disintegration, break-up |
Raz- is the scattering prefix, and once you see it you see it everywhere in this list: razbacati, razbacivanje, raznobojni — throwing about, a throwing-about, many-coloured. Everything raz- touches goes outwards.
Two pairs show aspect at work. Slegnuti ramenima is one shrug; slegali su ramenima is the imperfective past, and it means they kept shrugging, again and again — which is why the English needs would. And omamljen is the participle, omamljenost the state itself: dazed, and daziness.
Nauk is a lovely old word: the lesson a story leaves behind. It is what a fable has at the end, and it shares a root with nauka — science — and naučiti, to learn.
English on the left, the Serbian word or phrase in the box.
1. to fail, to come to nothing
2. to scatter, to throw around
3. to procrastinate, to drag things out
4. grogginess, a stupor
5. to shrug one’s shoulders
6. the end of the world
7. whales
8. an outing, a day trip
9. a whale
10. stranded (plural)
11. doom, ruin, the end
12. dazed, stupefied
13. scattering
14. disintegration, break-up
15. then, next
16. to fall apart
17. multicoloured
18. they would shrug their shoulders
19. the moral of a story
SR (lat): Upisuje se cela reč ili fraza. Latinicom ili ćirilicom; dijakritici su opcioni.
СР (ћир): Уписује се цела реч или фраза. Латиницом или ћирилицом; дијакритици су опциони.
EN: Type the whole word or phrase. Latin or Cyrillic, diacritics optional.
Three exercises at the top level. More arrive as the lists come in.
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