Serbian alphabet
Serbian alphabet is Serbian Cyrillic, 30 letters. 30 letters, 30 sounds — and every letter has a Latin twin that matches it sign for sign. The characters are grouped: the six letters with no english twin, read them the way they look. Every character on this page can be played: the sound is stored as a file and does not depend on the voices installed on your system.
The six letters with no English twin
Everything the Latin alphabet lacks. Four of them are half-pairs: Serbian hears a soft and a hard sound where English makes do with one (the soft ch against the hard ch, the soft dj against the hard dj), and telling them apart by ear is the hardest listening task in the language.
Read them the way they look
Twenty-four letters an English eye reads almost without lessons — they look like Latin and sound like it. Two habits to pick up: e is always e as in "bed", and an unstressed o never fades to "uh".
- А аa as in "father"a
- Б бb as in "book"be
- В вv as in "van"ve
- Г гg as in "go", always hardge
- Д дd as in "door"de
- Е еe as in "bed"e
- Ж жzh as in "measure"že
- З зz as in "zoo"ze
- И иee as in "see"i
- К кk as in "kite"ka
- Л лl as in "lamp"el
- М мm as in "map"em
- Н нn as in "no"en
- О оo as in "more", pureo
- П пp as in "pen"pe
- Р рa tapped rer
- С сs as in "sun"es
- Т тt as in "top"te
- У уoo as in "food"u
- Ф фf as in "fun"ef
- Х хh as in "hat", breathierha
- Ц цts as in "cats"ce
- Ч чch as in "church", hardče
- Ш шsh as in "ship"ša
What to know about the “Serbian Cyrillic” script
There are 30 letters for exactly 30 sounds: Vuk Karadžić built the alphabet on one rule — "write as you speak, read as it is written". Vowels never reduce, silent letters do not exist, and there is no soft sign: softness is written with letters of its own (lj, nj, ć, đ). The Cyrillic and Latin scripts are equal and transliterate letter for letter; three Cyrillic letters are written in Latin with two signs (lj, nj, dž) but count — and alphabetize — as one letter.
Test yourself
Five characters at random. No need to answer aloud — just pick; the answer appears at once.
- Which character reads as “a as in "father"”?
A pure open a, steady as in "father"; an unstressed a never fades to "uh"
- Which character reads as “g as in "go", always hard”?
An ordinary g as in "go", always hard — it never softens before e and i
- Which character reads as “e as in "bed"”?
Always e as in "bed", never the ye-glide of "yes"
- Which character reads as “ee as in "see"”?
A pure ee; the consonant before it stays firm and is not mushed
- Which character reads as “l as in "lamp"”?
A plain l as in "lamp"; the soft l is a separate letter (lj)
How to learn letters so they stay
You cannot learn a table by staring at it. What works: see a character, try to recall its sound, get it wrong, see the right answer — and come back to that character in a day, not in an hour.
- 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.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
That is why the alphabet in the app is learned a few characters at a time, not all at once: nobody holds 30 signs in one sitting.
Frequently asked
How many letters in the Serbian alphabet?
30 letters — Serbian Cyrillic. The characters have capital and small forms.
Can I listen to how the Serbian letters sound?
Yes. 30 signs on this page have sound: click a character to hear it. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.
How long does it take to learn the Serbian alphabet?
A few characters a day — one to two weeks, if you come back to what you covered. The whole alphabet crammed in an evening is remembered for an evening: without reviews the next day and three days later, the characters are almost entirely gone.
Where to start: letters or words?
With the letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a word card tells you no more than a picture.