чај
“чај” (čaj) — tea in Serbian. Noun, level A0, topic — food and drink. Herbal by default: order caj in Serbia and you will likely get chamomile or mint. Black tea must be asked for: crni caj — "black tea". In a live sentence: “Пијем чај без шећера” — I drink tea without sugar. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ч, а, ј. One of 188 words in the set “food and drink” in the Serbian course.
In short
| Written in Serbian | чај |
| Read in Latin letters | čaj |
| Translation | tea |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A0 |
- чајčajtea
Why it looks that way
Herbal by default: order caj in Serbia and you will likely get chamomile or mint. Black tea must be asked for: crni caj — "black tea".
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.
- Пијем чај без шећераPijem čaj bez šećeraI drink tea without sugar
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- кафаkafacoffeeFeminine — jedna kafa. Domaca kafa is the kind boiled in a small pot, Turkish-style; ordering just kafa gets you exactly that.
- водаvodawaterStress on the first syllable. The menu trap: kisela voda is not sour — it is sparkling mineral water.
- хлебhlebbreadIn Croatia and Bosnia the same loaf is kruh. At the bakery specify the color: beli — white, or crni — dark.
- сирsircheeseSpelled and pronounced almost as simply as it looks — one of the friendliest words in the course. Beli sir is the soft white kind.
- месоmesomeatFirst-syllable stress: ME-so. Beef is junetina, pork svinjetina, lamb jagnjetina — the animal plus -etina.
- рибаribafishOn the menu it is always fish. In street talk riba can also mean "a girl" — mildly rude, often heard, never formal.
- салатаsalatasaladSrpska salata is tomatoes and onions; sopska adds white cheese on top. The word also means the lettuce plant itself.
- супаsupasoupA clear broth. A thick, roux-based soup is corba — on the menu they are two different lines, so order the right one.
- соsosaltOne short syllable and masculine: so, soli. Posoli — "add salt" — is the verb you will meet at the stove.
- воћеvoćefruitA false friend to guard: it is "fruit", not "vegetables". Vegetables are povrce — the two words even rhyme a little.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “tea” in Serbian?
Herbal by default: order caj in Serbia and you will likely get chamomile or mint. Black tea must be asked for: crni caj — "black tea".
- How do you say “salad” in Serbian?
Srpska salata is tomatoes and onions; sopska adds white cheese on top. The word also means the lettuce plant itself.
- How do you say “bread” in Serbian?
In Croatia and Bosnia the same loaf is kruh. At the bakery specify the color: beli — white, or crni — dark.
- How do you say “fruit” in Serbian?
A false friend to guard: it is "fruit", not "vegetables". Vegetables are povrce — the two words even rhyme a little.
- How do you say “fish” in Serbian?
On the menu it is always fish. In street talk riba can also mean "a girl" — mildly rude, often heard, never formal.
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 “tea” in Serbian?
«чај», read “čaj”. In a live sentence: “Пијем чај без шећера” — I drink tea without sugar. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A0, from the set “food and drink”; written with the characters ч, а, ј.
How is “чај” written in Latin letters?
čaj. 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?
Herbal by default: order caj in Serbia and you will likely get chamomile or mint. Black tea must be asked for: crni caj — "black tea". 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.