Л л — el
«el» is a consonant of Serbian, the “Serbian Cyrillic” script, read as “l as in "lamp"”. A plain l as in "lamp"; the soft l is a separate letter (lj). The Serbian alphabet has 30 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “хвала” — thank you.
In short
| Character | Л л |
| Name | el |
| Sound | l as in "lamp" |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 13th of 30, its neighbours in the course are к and љ, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
A plain l as in "lamp"; the soft l is a separate letter (lj)
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | l | — |
The character in the “read them the way they look” group
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".
Words with this character
- хвалаhvalathank you
- молимmolimplease (for requests)
- лошеlošebadly
- одличноodličnoexcellent
- одакле си?odakle si?where are you from?
- полакоpolakoslowly
- поновите, молимponovite, molimrepeat, please
- говорите ли енглески?govorite li engleski?do you speak English?
- хлебhlebbread
- колико кошта?koliko košta?how much does it cost?
- рачун, молимračun, molimthe bill, please
- салатаsalatasalad
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound, see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 30 letters — at once.
- 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.
Frequently asked
How does the Serbian character л read?
As “l as in "lamp"” — it is a consonant of the “Serbian Cyrillic” script. A plain l as in "lamp"; the soft l is a separate letter (lj).
What is the letter л called?
El. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Serbian script: it is called “el” and reads as “l as in "lamp"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.