нестало је струје
“нестало је струје” (nestalo je struje) — the power went out in Serbian. Phrase, level A1. An impersonal turn with the genitive struje: literally "the current has run out". About a single lamp they say ugasilo se svetlo. In a live sentence: “Нестало је струје у целој улици” — The power went out on the whole street. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters н, е, с, т, а, л, о, ј, е, с, т, р.
In short
| Written in Serbian | нестало је струје |
| Read in Latin letters | nestalo je struje |
| Translation | the power went out |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
- нестало је струјеnestalo je strujethe power went out
Why it looks that way
An impersonal turn with the genitive struje: literally "the current has run out". About a single lamp they say ugasilo se svetlo.
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.
- Нестало је струје у целој улициNestalo je struje u celoj uliciThe power went out on the whole street
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 “the power went out” in Serbian?
«нестало је струје», read “nestalo je struje”. In a live sentence: “Нестало је струје у целој улици” — The power went out on the whole street. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters н, е, с, т, а, л, о, ј, е, с, т, р.
How is “нестало је струје” written in Latin letters?
nestalo je struje. 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?
An impersonal turn with the genitive struje: literally "the current has run out". About a single lamp they say ugasilo se svetlo. 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.