било ми је драго
“било ми је драго” (bilo mi je drago) — it was nice talking in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. The same formula as at a first meeting, drago mi je, only in the past. The person is in the dative and there is no subject at all. In a live sentence: “Било ми је драго, чујемо се” — It was nice talking, we will be in touch. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | било ми је драго |
| Read in Latin letters | bilo mi je drago |
| Translation | it was nice talking |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- било ми је драгоbilo mi je dragoit was nice talking
Why it looks that way
The same formula as at a first meeting, drago mi je, only in the past. The person is in the dative and there is no subject at all.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Било ми је драго, чујемо сеBilo mi je drago, čujemo seIt was nice talking, we will be in touch
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “it was nice talking” in Serbian?
«било ми је драго», read “bilo mi je drago”. In a live sentence: “Било ми је драго, чујемо се” — It was nice talking, we will be in touch. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters б, и, л, о, м, и, ј, е, д, р, а, г.
How is “било ми је драго” written in Latin letters?
bilo mi je drago. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The same formula as at a first meeting, drago mi je, only in the past. The person is in the dative and there is no subject at all. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.