Serbian 902 — rebellion, curiosity, and the verbs that carry their own case.
A text about old people who refuse to behave like old people — and a vocabulary list that quietly teaches two things at once.
The first is the buniti se family. Pobuniti se is to rebel, once and decisively; buntovnik is the person who does it; pobuna is the rebellion itself. Same root, three word classes, and the prefix po- doing what it always does — closing the action.
| Word | Trap |
|---|---|
| stajalište | a view or standpoint — and a bus stop. Context decides, and both come from stajati. |
| radovati / radovati se | Radovati nekoga is to gladden somebody. Radovati se is to look forward to something — and it takes the dative: radujem se letu. |
| maknuti se | not simply to move, but to move aside, out of somebody’s way. Makni se! is sharp. |
| žudeti | takes za + instrumental: žudeti za slobodom. |
The second thing is register. Na temelju is bookish where na osnovu is neutral; svrstati belongs to reports and statistics; iz pristojnosti is the phrase a Serb reaches for when explaining why they said yes to something they did not want. Learning which of these you would actually say out loud is most of what C2 is.
English on the left, the Serbian word in the box.
1. fun, entertainment
2. to give up
3. to gladden, to cheer somebody up
4. powerlessly
5. out of politeness
6. to categorise, to sort into groups
7. a rebel
8. curious
9. to experience
10. to nurture, to cultivate
11. to rebel
12. a standpoint, a view
13. to move aside, to get out of the way
14. to insult
15. to crave, to long for
16. to join in
17. based on
18. to begin
19. a homeland
20. to characterise
21. to worsen, to make worse
22. to create
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.
The hardest vocabulary in Serbian — every in-law has their own word.
Rodbina po tazbini →