Serbian 501 — the arguments for the city and against it, in the words people actually use.
This is essay vocabulary: the phrases that appear whenever anyone weighs city life against life outside it. Half of them are complaints and half are advantages, and they pair up neatly.
| Protiv grada | Za grad |
|---|---|
| jako zagađenje | dobar javni prevoz |
| gužva u saobraćaju | sve je na dohvat ruke |
| brzi ritam života | uzbudljiv noćni život |
| raditi pod stresom | više mogućnosti za obrazovanje |
| ružan pogled na grad | veliki izbor |
The gem of the set is trka i frka. It rhymes, it is entirely colloquial, and it means exactly what hustle and bustle means — the running about and the fuss. Serbian loves these paired rhyming phrases: kad-tad, tu i tamo, ni luk jeo ni luk mirisao. Using one correctly buys you more credit than a paragraph of correct grammar.
At the other end of the register sits zdanje — an edifice, a building of some grandeur. You would use it about the National Assembly, never about a block of flats. Its everyday twin is zgrada.
And note na dohvat ruke, literally within reach of a hand. Dohvat comes from dohvatiti, to reach and grasp — the same verb a parent uses when the child is about to grab something off the table.
English on the left, the Serbian collocation in the box.
1. heavy pollution
2. traffic congestion
3. a fast pace of life
4. to work under stress
5. hustle and bustle
6. exciting night life
7. good public transport
8. an ugly urban landscape
9. quaint old houses
10. modern edifices
11. a more luxurious lifestyle
12. everything is close at hand
13. a wide variety to choose from
14. better educational opportunities
SR (lat): Upisuje se cela fraza. Latinicom ili ćirilicom; dijakritici su opcioni.
СР (ћир): Уписује се цела фраза. Латиницом или ћирилицом; дијакритици су опциони.
EN: Type the whole phrase. Latin or Cyrillic, diacritics optional.
Jedanaest kolokacija, i jedan izbor prideva koji se u njima krije.
Marketing Collocations →