питала је где
“питала је где” (pitala je gde) — she asked where in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. The form on the card is the short one. In a live phrase a short pronoun comes between the participle and je: pitala ME je gde sam bio. A bare pitala je you will rarely hear. In a live sentence: “Питала је где смо оставили кључеве” — She asked where we left the keys. You can hear how it sounds right here.
In short
| Written in Serbian | питала је где |
| Read in Latin letters | pitala je gde |
| Translation | she asked where |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- питала је гдеpitala je gdeshe asked where
Why it looks that way
The form on the card is the short one. In a live phrase a short pronoun comes between the participle and je: pitala ME je gde sam bio. A bare pitala je you will rarely hear.
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.
- Питала је где смо оставили кључевеPitala je gde smo ostavili ključeveShe asked where we left the keys
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 “she asked where” in Serbian?
«питала је где», read “pitala je gde”. In a live sentence: “Питала је где смо оставили кључеве” — She asked where we left the keys. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters п, и, т, а, л, а, ј, е, г, д, е.
How is “питала је где” written in Latin letters?
pitala je gde. 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 form on the card is the short one. In a live phrase a short pronoun comes between the participle and je: pitala ME je gde sam bio. A bare pitala je you will rarely hear. 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.