LingoflySerbian
Serbian — Indo-European family, about 9–12 million speakers, depending on how you count (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: two equal alphabets: Vukovica (Cyrillic) and Gajevica (Latin). This site has 4047 words and 30 letters with audio.
Try one phrase
Demo language: Serbian
Read the card and choose an answer. No sound or sign-up needed.
добар дан
dobar dan
good afternoon
Without JavaScript: read the card, choose an answer in your head and open the explanation.
1 / 2 · Choose an answer
добар дан
dobar dan
- no
- good afternoon
- hello
- please (for requests)
Show the answer
добар дан
good afternoon
2 / 2 · Choose an answer
___, изволите?
Good afternoon, what can I get you?
- молим · molim
- да · da
- Добар дан · Dobar dan
- здраво · zdravo
Show the answer
добар дан
good afternoon
Two checks complete
добар дан
good afternoon
This is a choice based on text. Conversation and remembering over time still need practice and checking.
How answers are counted
Answers stay on this page. Statistics include the demo stage, overall result, interface language and saved counter consent choice, without answer text or a profile.
Where to start
- →Serbian alphabetAll letters with sound
- →Serbian wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- здравоzdravohelloWorks for meeting people and parting alike, like Italian ciao. With strangers lead with dobar dan instead.
- добар данdobar dangood afternoonThe neutral, polite greeting. With someone you do not know, open with this rather than zdravo.
- добро јутроdobro jutrogood morningThe letter j is the English "y" sound, so jutro sounds like "you-tro". Morning hours only; after that switch to dobar dan.
- добро вечеdobro večegood eveningc-with-a-caron (č) is a firm "ch" as in "church", while c-with-an-acute (ć) is softer, closer to "ty". The two letters look alike and sound distinct.
- хвалаhvalathank youYou will say it a hundred times a day. The replies are molim and nema na čemu, and both mean "you are welcome".
- молимmolimplease (for requests)Literally "I ask". One word with three jobs: "please" in a request, "you are welcome" in reply to hvala, and "pardon?" when you did not hear.
- довиђењаdoviđenjagoodbyeLiterally "until seeing". The letter d-with-stroke (đ) is a soft "dj" — like the "d" of "during" said with a buzz, close to the "j" of British "juice".
- ћаоćaobyeBorrowed from Italian ciao and just as informal. The letter ć is a softer "ch" than in "church" — tongue closer to the teeth.
How it sounds
Five words spoken aloud: click the speaker and pick the translation. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.
Curiosities in Serbian
Vuk Karadžić reduced spelling to one line: “Write as you speak and read as it is written.” One letter, one sound, no exceptions; once you have learned the thirty characters, you can read any Serbian word aloud correctly without understanding a word of it.
About the language
| Native name | Српски (srpski) · srpski |
| Official in | Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro |
| Also spoken in | Croatia, North Macedonia, Austria and Germany |
| How many speakers | about 9–12 million speakers, depending on how you count (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Indo-European family, Slavic group |
| Script | two equal alphabets: Vukovica (Cyrillic) and Gajevica (Latin) |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: cases that do not match English prepositions, and “false friends” at every step.
Easy: spelled the way it sounds, loanwords you already know.
What people most often take it up for: moving to Belgrade and Novi Sad, residence permits, work.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Serbian?
With the script: 30 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Serbian?
About 9–12 million speakers, depending on how you count — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Serbian hard?
Cases that do not match English prepositions, and “false friends” at every step. At the same time, spelled the way it sounds, loanwords you already know.
Where is Serbian spoken?
An official language in: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Noticeable communities: Croatia, North Macedonia, Austria and Germany.
Is Serbian in Duolingo?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Duolingo’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Serbian in full: 4047 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.