Serbian 101 · Basics
Thirty letters, thirty sounds, and not a single silent one. Serbian spelling is the easiest part of the language — here's why.
Vuk Karadžić reformed Serbian spelling in the nineteenth century around a single rule: write as you speak, read as it is written. Every letter is one sound, every sound is one letter, and nothing is ever silent. After English — where though, through and tough all rhyme with nothing — this is a gift. Once you know the thirty letters, you can read any Serbian word aloud correctly, including words you have never met.
Serbian is written in two alphabets, and educated speakers use both without thinking. Ćirilica (Cyrillic) is the official script; latinica (Latin) is what you'll see on most websites, in texting, and on shop signs. They map onto each other one-to-one, so learning one gets you most of the other for free.
Don't rush the Cyrillic. Start by recognising it, not writing it — you'll learn far more Serbian in your first months from the Latin script, and the Cyrillic will settle in quietly alongside. Every exercise on this site accepts both, so nothing is ever gated behind the script.
Sva slova
Cyrillic on the left, its Latin twin on the right. Orange marks a sound English doesn't have.
А — И
Ј — Р
С — Ш
Seven sounds have no English letter of their own. Most of them you already say — you just spell them with two letters.
| Letter | Sounds like | In a word |
|---|---|---|
| Ж ž | the s in pleasure | žena — woman |
| Ш š | sh in shop | šuma — forest |
| Ч č | ch in church, hard | čaj — tea |
| Ћ ć | softer, closer to t in nature | noć — night |
| Џ dž | j in jungle, hard | džem — jam |
| Ђ đ | the soft twin of dž | đak — pupil |
| Ц c | ts in cats — never a k | cena — price |
The pair worth patience is č / ć and dž / đ. Serbs hear the difference instantly; foreigners rarely do at first, and nobody will misunderstand you if you get it wrong. It comes with listening, not with effort.
Two more that trip up English speakers: Ј ј is the English y, so Jelena is "Yelena", and Љ љ and Њ њ are single letters, not two — which is why they need one Cyrillic character but two Latin ones. In a Serbian dictionary, lj sits between l and m, all on its own.
And there is no W, no Q, no X, no Y. Foreign names get rewritten as they sound: Njujork, Vašington, Šekspir.
Play it
Four short games. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for — just start.
Match the letters
Match them again, faster
Azbuka — what comes next?
Cyrillic script — practice
Alphabet with fun games
Pesma za ovu lekciju
Marina has just finished her own alphabet song — it lands right here.
Print it
Four PDFs — for the table, the classroom, or a child who'd rather colour than click.
The first exercises are in Latin script, with Cyrillic accepted everywhere — start with the verb biti and build from there.
Serbian 101, Exercise 1 →Serbian 101
Zdravo, dobar dan, prijatno — and knowing which one to use with whom.
BasicsCounting, prices, phone numbers, and the ages you'll be asked about.
GrammarThe first verb, the short and long forms, and the word order that follows.
VocabularyWhere gender first becomes visible — crven, crvena, crveno.
GrammarMoj, moja, moje — possessives that agree with what's owned, not who owns it.
GrammarThe dictionary form, and the case every other case is measured against.