The Serbian Alphabet has 30 letters, 25 consonants, and 5 vowels.
A, a – B, b – C, c – Č, č – Ć, ć – D, d – Dž, dž – Đ, đ – E, e – F, f – G, g – H, h – I, i – J, j – K, k
L, l – Lj, lj – M, m – N, n – Nj, nj – O, o – P, p – R, r – S, s – Š, š – T, t – U, u – V, v – Z, z – Ž, ž
We have 8 unique letters: Č, Ć, Đ, Š, Dž, Nj, Lj.
These last three are exceptions, they are two-symbol letters, but they still have one
sound.
Serbian is 100% phonetic. One letter – one sound – and it’s always the same sound.
We don’t have W, X, Y, and Q.
But if we do have to talk about these letters, we would call them duplo V, iks,
ipsilon and ku.
Take a look:
C, c gigahertz / carina – customs
Č, č church / čovek – man
Ć, ć gotcha / ćao – hi
Đ, đ juice / đak – pupil
Š, đ shoes / šta – what
Dž, dž junk / džem – jam
Nj, nj New York / konj – horse
Lj, lj million / ljubav – love
always C, never s or k (cigarette, customs)
always G, like go, get, grammar, never a dži like giraffe, German, gym
always E, get, never I, like get,
always I, never ai, like situation
always J, never džej
always U, never ju
This is customs. = Ovo je carina.
I am a man. = Ja sam čovek.
He is a pupil. = On je đak.
What is this? = Šta je ovo?I eat jam. = Ja jedem džem.
That is a horse. = To je konj.
That is love. = To je ljubav.
tea – čaj
boat – čamac
glass – čaša
four – četiri
chocolate – čokolada
strange – čudan
I hear – čujem
bald – ćelav
Serbian style meat fingers – ćevapi
hi ; hello – ćao
mosque – džamija
jam – džem
pocket – džep
pupil – đak
devil – đavo
love – ljubav
mistress – ljubavnica
I kiss – ljubim
people – ljudi
shell – ljuska
his – njegov
her – njen
cropland – njiva
what – šta
hand – šaka
sugar – šećer
cup – šoljica
mug – šolja
hat – šešir
six – šest
school – škola
spaghetti – špageti
forest – šuma
ham – šunka
wide – širok
frog – žaba
thirsty – žedan
stomack – želudac
train station – železnička stanica
wire – žica
life – život
animal – životinja
alive – živ
yellow – žut
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