купити
“купити” (kupiti) — to buy in Serbian. Verb, level A1, topic — shopping and money. A famous one-letter trap: kupiti is "to buy", kupati se is "to bathe". Check the vowel before you promise someone a swim. In a live sentence: “Желим да купим хлеб и млеко” — I want to buy bread and milk. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters к, у, п, и, т, и.
In short
| Written in Serbian | купити |
| Read in Latin letters | kupiti |
| Translation | to buy |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
- купитиkupitito buy
Why it looks that way
A famous one-letter trap: kupiti is "to buy", kupati se is "to bathe". Check the vowel before you promise someone a swim.
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.
- Желим да купим хлеб и млекоŽelim da kupim hleb i mlekoI want to buy bread and milk
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- колико кошта?koliko košta?how much does it cost?For several items the verb agrees with the goods: koliko kostaju? — the tomatoes cost, not you.
- динарdinardinarFrom the Roman denarius — the same coin that gave several European currencies their name. After numbers: sto dinara, "one hundred dinars".
- продавницаprodavnicashopFrom prodavati, "to sell". The corner shop is prodavnica or, colloquially, radnja — two names, same shelves.
- пијацаpijacamarketFrom Italian piazza — the market really does take the square. One word, market and plaza at once.
- тезгаtezgamarket stallThe counter at a pijaca. A Turkish loanword — like half the market vocabulary.
- продавацprodavacvendorThe fleeting a survives only in this form: prodavac, but prodavca, prodavcu.
- купацkupaccustomerFrom kupiti, "to buy". The grand old word for a merchant shares the root, but here it is simply the buyer.
- вагаvagascaleSingular in Serbian, unlike the English pair of scales: vaga je tu — "the scale is here".
- килограмkilogramkilogramIn speech usually just kilo: dva kila paradajza — "two kilos of tomatoes".
- свежsvežfreshGenders: sveža, sveže. About weather, sveže has drifted to mean "cool, chilly".
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to buy” in Serbian?
A famous one-letter trap: kupiti is "to buy", kupati se is "to bathe". Check the vowel before you promise someone a swim.
- How do you say “customer” in Serbian?
From kupiti, "to buy". The grand old word for a merchant shares the root, but here it is simply the buyer.
- How do you say “shop” in Serbian?
From prodavati, "to sell". The corner shop is prodavnica or, colloquially, radnja — two names, same shelves.
- How do you say “fresh” in Serbian?
Genders: sveža, sveže. About weather, sveže has drifted to mean "cool, chilly".
- How do you say “vendor” in Serbian?
From prodavati, "to sell". The woman behind the stall is prodavačica.
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 buy” in Serbian?
«купити», read “kupiti”. In a live sentence: “Желим да купим хлеб и млеко” — I want to buy bread and milk. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters к, у, п, и, т, и.
How is “купити” written in Latin letters?
kupiti. 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?
A famous one-letter trap: kupiti is "to buy", kupati se is "to bathe". Check the vowel before you promise someone a swim. 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.