имао сам прилике
“имао сам прилике” (imao sam prilike) — I had the chance in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. Literally I had of-an-occasion. The genitive prilike after imati is compulsory in this turn. A woman says imala sam prilike. In a live sentence: “Имао сам прилике да радим у том погону” — I had the chance to work in that shop floor. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters и, м, а, о, с, а, м, п, р, и, л, и.
In short
| Written in Serbian | имао сам прилике |
| Read in Latin letters | imao sam prilike |
| Translation | I had the chance |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- имао сам приликеimao sam prilikeI had the chance
Why it looks that way
Literally I had of-an-occasion. The genitive prilike after imati is compulsory in this turn. A woman says imala sam prilike.
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.
- Имао сам прилике да радим у том погонуImao sam prilike da radim u tom pogonuI had the chance to work in that shop floor
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 had the chance” in Serbian?
«имао сам прилике», read “imao sam prilike”. In a live sentence: “Имао сам прилике да радим у том погону” — I had the chance to work in that shop floor. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters и, м, а, о, с, а, м, п, р, и, л, и.
How is “имао сам прилике” written in Latin letters?
imao sam prilike. 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?
Literally I had of-an-occasion. The genitive prilike after imati is compulsory in this turn. A woman says imala sam prilike. 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.