хронична болест
“хронична болест” (hronična bolest) — a chronic illness in Serbian. Noun, level B1. With h, like hemija, hirurg, hiljada: the Greek chi is always h in Serbian, never k. In a live sentence: “Са хроничном болешћу иде се на редовне контроле” — People with a chronic illness go for regular check-ups. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters х, р, о, н, и, ч, н, а, б, о, л, е. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | хронична болест |
| Read in Latin letters | hronična bolest |
| Translation | a chronic illness |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
- хронична болестhronična bolesta chronic illness
Why it looks that way
With h, like hemija, hirurg, hiljada: the Greek chi is always h in Serbian, never k.
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.
- Са хроничном болешћу иде се на редовне контролеSa hroničnom bolešću ide se na redovne kontrolePeople with a chronic illness go for regular check-ups
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 “a chronic illness” in Serbian?
«хронична болест», read “hronična bolest”. In a live sentence: “Са хроничном болешћу иде се на редовне контроле” — People with a chronic illness go for regular check-ups. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters х, р, о, н, и, ч, н, а, б, о, л, е.
How is “хронична болест” written in Latin letters?
hronična bolest. 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?
With h, like hemija, hirurg, hiljada: the Greek chi is always h in Serbian, never k. 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.