лоша навика
“лоша навика” (loša navika) — a bad habit in Serbian. Noun, level B1. From naviknuti se, to get used to. A good one is dobra navika, and navika on its own is neutral. In a live sentence: “Гризење ноктију је лоша навика” — Biting nails is a bad habit. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters л, о, ш, а, н, а, в, и, к, а. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | лоша навика |
| Read in Latin letters | loša navika |
| Translation | a bad habit |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
- лоша навикаloša navikaa bad habit
Why it looks that way
From naviknuti se, to get used to. A good one is dobra navika, and navika on its own is neutral.
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.
- Гризење ноктију је лоша навикаGrizenje noktiju je loša navikaBiting nails is a bad habit
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 bad habit” in Serbian?
«лоша навика», read “loša navika”. In a live sentence: “Гризење ноктију је лоша навика” — Biting nails is a bad habit. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters л, о, ш, а, н, а, в, и, к, а.
How is “лоша навика” written in Latin letters?
loša navika. 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?
From naviknuti se, to get used to. A good one is dobra navika, and navika on its own is neutral. 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.