бојим се да не
“бојим се да не” (bojim se da ne) — I am afraid not in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. Bojati se is to fear, always with se. The refusal is softened exactly this way; a bare ne sounds ruder than in English. In a live sentence: “Бојим се да не, тог дана сам заузет” — I am afraid not, I am busy that day. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | бојим се да не |
| Read in Latin letters | bojim se da ne |
| Translation | I am afraid not |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- бојим се да неbojim se da neI am afraid not
Why it looks that way
Bojati se is to fear, always with se. The refusal is softened exactly this way; a bare ne sounds ruder than in English.
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.
- Бојим се да не, тог дана сам заузетBojim se da ne, tog dana sam zauzetI am afraid not, I am busy that day
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 “I am afraid not” in Serbian?
«бојим се да не», read “bojim se da ne”. In a live sentence: “Бојим се да не, тог дана сам заузет” — I am afraid not, I am busy that day. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters б, о, ј, и, м, с, е, д, а, н, е.
How is “бојим се да не” written in Latin letters?
bojim se da ne. 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?
Bojati se is to fear, always with se. The refusal is softened exactly this way; a bare ne sounds ruder than in English. 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.