истина
“истина” (istina) — truth in Serbian. Noun, level B1. The card istina in the sense of the truth already stood, and it is the same word: the English split of fact and truth is alien to Serbian. In speech istina is also a hedge: istina, bio je umoran means true, he was tired. In a live sentence: “Истина се увек на крају сазна” — The truth always comes out in the end. You can hear how it sounds right here.
In short
| Written in Serbian | истина |
| Read in Latin letters | istina |
| Translation | truth |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
- истинаistinatruth
Why it looks that way
The card istina in the sense of the truth already stood, and it is the same word: the English split of fact and truth is alien to Serbian. In speech istina is also a hedge: istina, bio je umoran means true, he was tired.
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.
- Истина се увек на крају сазнаIstina se uvek na kraju saznaThe truth always comes out in the end
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 “truth” in Serbian?
«истина», read “istina”. In a live sentence: “Истина се увек на крају сазна” — The truth always comes out in the end. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters и, с, т, и, н, а.
How is “истина” written in Latin letters?
istina. 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?
The card istina in the sense of the truth already stood, and it is the same word: the English split of fact and truth is alien to Serbian. In speech istina is also a hedge: istina, bio je umoran means true, he was tired. 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.