Although I was studying Serbian a bit here and there in the past few days, I could not find a dedicated time to focus on learning this language as my schedule was quite far from being healthy…

I am learning the language from a Udemy Professor whom can be reached by clicking the link here.

Conjugation of biti/jesam : the be-verbs

For the singular pronouns, biti verb conjugates itself as below:

Pronoun	Unstressed	Stressed	Negative Form
Ja (1)	sam	jesam	nisam
Ti (2)	si	jesi	nisi
On (M)	je	jeste	nije
Ona (F)	je	jeste	nije
Ono (N)	je	jeste	nije

For the plural pronouns, biti conjugates as below:

Pronoun	Unstressed	Stressed	Negative Form
Mi (1)	smo	jesmo	nismo
Vi (2)	ste	jeste	niste
Oni (M)	su	jesu	nisu
One (F)	su	jesu	nisu
Ona (N)	su	jesu	nisu

The stressed form is mostly used to answer yes or no questions. Some examples:

• Ja sam Korejski : I am a Korean
• Da, on jeste Kanađani : Yes, they are Canadians

Some interrogatives

To ask a yes-no questions in Serbian, one may use da li with the following recipe:

da li + verb + (subject) + rest.

For instance:

• Da li on spava? / Да ли он спава? : Is he sleeping?
• Da li me poznajete? / Да ли ме познајете? : Do you know me?
• Да ли говорите енглески? : Do you speak English?

It would be nice if all questions can be yes-no questions, but the world is a bit more chaotic. The following table has some other interrogative helpers:

Serbian	English Translation
Kad	When
Gde	Where
Kako	How
Zašto	Why
Koliko	How many / much
Sa kim	With whom

Some examples:

• Колико је ово? : How much is this?
• Колико је сати? : What time is it? (Serbians ask time by asking “how much time is there?” I suppose…?)
• Где живите? : Where do you live?
• Зашто си тзжна? : Why are you sad?
• Зашто је он мушкарац?: Why are you a man? (Unsure if I translated OK)

To ask for one’s name, one says како се зовеш? To understand this sentence, one needs to know how to conjugate the verb звати се.

Singular	Plural
Ja se zovem	Mi se zovemo
Ti se zoveš	Vi se zovete
On(_,a,o) se zove	On(i,e,a) se zovu

I don’t know much yet, but from the description given by the professor, I suspect that the particle се is there to refer to onself?

The negative forms of the verbs above can be made by adding ne/не on the main part of the verb. For instance, a sentence Ти се не зовеш Теодора would mean you are not called Teodora. To make this into a question, one may use да ли or како as:

• Како се она зове? : What is her name?
• Да ли се онљ зове Теодора? : Is her name Teodora?