Serbian 201, Exercise 4 — the greetings you'll actually need in December, January and at Easter, and the grammar hiding inside them.
Nearly every Serbian holiday wish starts with the same adjective — and it changes ending to match whatever comes next, exactly like dobar / dobra / dobro:
srećan + masculine — srećan Božić, srećan rođendan, srećan Vaskrs
srećna + feminine — srećna Nova godina, srećna slava
srećni + plural — srećni novogodišnji praznici, srećni praznici
Two of these greetings work as a call and response — one person says the first half, the other answers. At Christmas: Hristos se rodi! → Vaistinu se rodi! At Easter: Hristos vaskrse! → Vaistinu vaskrse! You'll most often see them written in Cyrillic — Христос се роди, Христос васкрсе.
One thing you'll notice out in the wild: people often write Srećnu Novu godinu instead of Srećna Nova godina. Both are correct — the first is the accusative, left over from the full sentence Želim ti srećnu Novu godinu. Here we're practising the plain form.
1. Božić! — Merry Christmas
2. Nova godina! — Happy New Year
3. rođendan! — Happy birthday
4. novogodišnji praznici! — Happy New Year holidays
5. Vaskrs! — Happy Easter
Za Božić / At Christmas
Hristos se ! — Christ was born
se rodi! — Truly He was born
Za Vaskrs / At Easter
Hristos ! — Christ is risen
Vaistinu ! — Indeed He is risen
5. — thanks
6. sve — say hello to everyone
1. Happy New Year →
2. Merry Christmas →
3. Christ was born →
4. Truly He was born →
5. Happy birthday →
6. Thanks →
7. Happy New Year holidays →
8. Say hello to everyone →
9. Christ is risen →
10. Indeed He is risen →
11. Happy Easter →
SR (lat): Odgovori nisu osetljivi na velika/mala slova, i može latinicom ili ćirilicom. Dijakritici su opcioni (srećan / srecan). Reči odvojiti jednim razmakom.
СР (ћир): Одговори нису осетљиви на велика/мала слова, и може латиницом или ћирилицом. Дијакритици су опциони. Речи одвојити једним размаком.
EN: Answers are not case-sensitive, and can be typed in Latin or Cyrillic script. Diacritics are optional. Separate words with a single space.
Igra, pa upotreba
Ista gramatika, drugo raspoloženje — Greeting Chase.
Possessive endings are next — moj, tvoj, njen, njegov, and the gender of whatever they're attached to.
Next: Čiji Je? Čija Je? →