LingoflyZdravo and dobar dan: who gets which greeting
Serbian zdravo is not the polite greeting it looks like. It is friendly and easy, the word for your own people, and it serves for hello and goodbye alike. For example: “Добар дан (dobar dan), да (da) ли (li) говорите (govorite) енглески (engleski)?” — Good afternoon, do you speak English? A rule from the Serbian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Serbian zdravo is not the polite greeting it looks like. It is friendly and easy, the word for your own people, and it serves for hello and goodbye alike.
Dobar dan is what a stranger, a clerk or a shop assistant expects. Start there in an office or a shop. By the clock it has neighbours: dobro jutro and dobro veče.
The most casual farewell is ćao; its ć is softer than the ch of church, closer to "ty". The polite farewell is doviđenja, word for word "until seeing again".
Table
| Situation | What to say | Note |
|---|---|---|
| a stranger, an office | dobar dan | neutral and polite |
| your own people, peers | zdravo | for greeting and parting alike |
| as casual as it gets, parting | ćao | from Italian |
| a polite farewell | doviđenja | literally "until seeing" |
By example
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Zdravo vs dobar dan?
Dobar dan is what a stranger, a clerk or a shop assistant expects. Start there in an office or a shop. By the clock it has neighbours: dobro jutro and dobro veče.
How to say hello in Serbian?
Serbian zdravo is not the polite greeting it looks like. It is friendly and easy, the word for your own people, and it serves for hello and goodbye alike.
How to greet a stranger in Serbian?
Serbian zdravo is not the polite greeting it looks like. It is friendly and easy, the word for your own people, and it serves for hello and goodbye alike.
Is zdravo also used for goodbye?
Serbian zdravo is not the polite greeting it looks like. It is friendly and easy, the word for your own people, and it serves for hello and goodbye alike.
What does it look like in a Serbian example sentence?
“Добар дан (dobar dan), да (da) ли (li) говорите (govorite) енглески (engleski)?” (Dobar dan, da li govorite engleski?) — Good afternoon, do you speak English? A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.