Serbian 902 — every relative has their own word, and the word tells you which side they came from.
This is the hardest vocabulary in the language, and not because the words are long. Serbian does not have one word for uncle or one for sister-in-law: it has a separate word for each position in the family, and the position is defined by whose side the person comes from and how they arrived — by blood or by marriage.
| Side | By blood | Married in |
|---|---|---|
| father’s brother | stric | his wife: strina |
| mother’s brother | ujak | his wife: ujna |
| either parent’s sister | tetka | her husband: teča |
That row in the middle is where nearly every learner slips, and so do a lot of dictionaries: ujna is not a sister. A sister of your mother or father is tetka. Ujna married in — she is your ujak’s wife.
The in-laws work on the same logic, seen from whichever spouse is speaking:
| Seen by | His / her family |
|---|---|
| a wife, of her husband’s family | svekar · svekrva · zaova (his sister) · dever (his brother) · jetrva (his brother’s wife) |
| a husband, of his wife’s family | tast · tašta · svastika (her sister) · šurak (her brother) · šurnjaja (that brother’s wife) |
Two symmetries make it learnable. Zaova and svastika are the same relation from opposite sides — the spouse’s sister. Dever and šurak likewise: the spouse’s brother. And jetrva and šurnjaja are the wives of those two brothers.
Last, the loveliest one: prijatelji. Serbian has no word for my son’s wife’s parents, so it uses the word for friends — two families joined by a marriage call each other prijatelji, and a wedding is where you meet yours.
The English cue names the exact position — write the Serbian word.
1. brother
2. sister
3. father-in-law (husband’s father)
4. mother-in-law (husband’s mother)
5. father-in-law (wife’s father)
6. mother-in-law (wife’s mother)
7. sister-in-law (husband’s sister)
8. sister-in-law (husband’s brother’s wife)
9. brother-in-law (husband’s brother)
10. sister-in-law (wife’s sister)
11. brother-in-law (wife’s brother)
12. sister-in-law (wife of the wife’s brother)
13. uncle (father’s brother)
14. aunt (wife of the father’s brother)
15. uncle (mother’s brother)
16. aunt (wife of the mother’s brother)
17. aunt (father’s or mother’s sister)
18. cousin, relative (m.)
19. cousin, relative (f.)
20. nephew
21. niece
22. niece (brother’s daughter)
23. female cousin (aunt’s daughter)
24. in-laws (the two sets of parents, to each other)
SR (lat): Upisuje se samo imenica. Latinicom ili ćirilicom; dijakritici su opcioni.
СР (ћир): Уписује се само именица. Латиницом или ћирилицом; дијакритици су опциони.
EN: Type the noun only. Latin or Cyrillic, diacritics optional.
Three exercises at the top level. More arrive as the lists come in.
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