Р р — er
«er» is a consonant of Serbian, the “Serbian Cyrillic” script, read as “a tapped r”. One tap of the tongue, like the tt of American "butter"; between consonants it becomes a syllable of its own: prst reads "pərst". The Serbian alphabet has 30 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “здраво” — hello.
In short
| Character | Р р |
| Name | er |
| Sound | a tapped r |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 20th of 30, its neighbours in the course are п and с, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
One tap of the tongue, like the tt of American "butter"; between consonants it becomes a syllable of its own: prst reads "pərst"
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 | r | — |
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
- здравоzdravohello
- добар данdobar dangood afternoon
- добро јутроdobro jutrogood morning
- добро вечеdobro večegood evening
- доброdobrofine
- драго ми јеdrago mi jenice to meet you
- Рус самRus samI am Russian
- не разумемne razumemI do not understand
- говорите ли енглески?govorite li engleski?do you speak English?
- ресторанrestoranrestaurant
- триtrithree
- четириčetirifour
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 р read?
As “a tapped r” — it is a consonant of the “Serbian Cyrillic” script. One tap of the tongue, like the tt of American "butter"; between consonants it becomes a syllable of its own: prst reads "pərst".
What is the letter р called?
Er. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Serbian script: it is called “er” and reads as “a tapped r”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.