чешљати се
“чешљати се” (češljati se) — to comb one's hair in Serbian. Verb, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. From češalj, "a comb". The letter lj is one soft sound, not two letters' worth. In a live sentence: “Чешља се испред огледала” — She combs her hair in front of the mirror. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ч, е, ш, љ, а, т, и, с, е.
In short
| Written in Serbian | чешљати се |
| Read in Latin letters | češljati se |
| Translation | to comb one's hair |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
- чешљати сеčešljati seto comb one's hair
Why it looks that way
From češalj, "a comb". The letter lj is one soft sound, not two letters' worth.
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.
- Чешља се испред огледалаČešlja se ispred ogledalaShe combs her hair in front of the mirror
Nearby words: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- посаоposaojobNothing diplomatic about it — it is "work, a job". It changes oddly: posao gives posla, the a vanishing.
- радитиraditito workIts second job is "to do": šta radiš? — literally "what do you do?" — the everyday "how are you doing?".
- пробудити сеprobuditi seto wake upWithout se it means "to wake someone else up" — the particle flips the roles.
- устатиustatito get upPresent: ustanem. Waking and getting up are two different deeds with two different verbs.
- умити сеumiti seto wash upFace only. Washing the whole body is okupati se; washing dishes is prati.
- бријати сеbrijati seto shaveWithout se — "to shave someone". Present: brijem se.
- обући сеobući seto get dressedPresent: obučem se. The trap: obučiti with a plain u is "to teach" — a completely different job.
- свући сеsvući seto get undressedThe partner of obući se, built with the same prefix logic: s- takes off what ob- put on.
- сестиsestito sit downPresent: sednem. The trap: sedeti, without the n, is "to sit" — a state, not an action.
- лећиlećito lie downA short infinitive; the present is legnem. Ležati is "to lie" — the state after the action.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “everyday life and routine”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to comb one's hair” in Serbian?
From češalj, "a comb". The letter lj is one soft sound, not two letters' worth.
- How do you say “to get dressed” in Serbian?
Present: obučem se. The trap: obučiti with a plain u is "to teach" — a completely different job.
- How do you say “to wake up” in Serbian?
Without se it means "to wake someone else up" — the particle flips the roles.
- How do you say “to lie down” in Serbian?
A short infinitive; the present is legnem. Ležati is "to lie" — the state after the action.
- How do you say “to shave” in Serbian?
Without se — "to shave someone". Present: brijem se.
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 “to comb one's hair” in Serbian?
«чешљати се», read “češljati se”. In a live sentence: “Чешља се испред огледала” — She combs her hair in front of the mirror. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”; written with the characters ч, е, ш, љ, а, т, и, с, е.
How is “чешљати се” written in Latin letters?
češljati se. 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?
From češalj, "a comb". The letter lj is one soft sound, not two letters' worth. 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.