ћутати
“ћутати” (ćutati) — to keep silent in Serbian. Verb, level A2. The soft ch, closer to ty than to ch: chu-ta-ti. In a live sentence: “Ћутао је цело вече и није ништа објаснио” — He kept silent the whole evening and explained nothing. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ћ, у, т, а, т, и. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Serbian | ћутати |
| Read in Latin letters | ćutati |
| Translation | to keep silent |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
- ћутатиćutatito keep silent
How to pronounce it
The soft ch, closer to ty than to ch: chu-ta-ti.
Why it looks that way
Related neither to the English cut nor to cuti, to hear, though it looks like it. Cuti! means be quiet.
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.
- Ћутао је цело вече и није ништа објасниоĆutao je celo veče i nije ništa objasnioHe kept silent the whole evening and explained nothing
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 keep silent” in Serbian?
«ћутати», read “ćutati”. The soft ch, closer to ty than to ch: chu-ta-ti. In a live sentence: “Ћутао је цело вече и није ништа објаснио” — He kept silent the whole evening and explained nothing. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A2; written with the characters ћ, у, т, а, т, и.
How is “ћутати” written in Latin letters?
ćutati. 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?
Related neither to the English cut nor to cuti, to hear, though it looks like it. Cuti! means be quiet. 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.