прљав
“прљав” (prljav) — dirty in Serbian. Adjective, level A2, topic — the city and its places. A syllabic r between two consonants: pr-ljav. In a live sentence: “Прозори су прљави од прашине” — The windows are dirty from the dust. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters п, р, љ, а, в. One of 89 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Serbian course.
In short
| Written in Serbian | прљав |
| Read in Latin letters | prljav |
| Translation | dirty |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | A2 |
- прљавprljavdirty
How to pronounce it
A syllabic r between two consonants: pr-ljav.
Why it looks that way
From prljati, to make dirty. Mud on the road is blato, and prljav ves is dirty laundry.
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.
- Прозори су прљави од прашинеProzori su prljavi od prašineThe windows are dirty from the dust
Nearby words: the city and its places
Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.
- градgradcityThe same word means "hail" — both senses are fully alive, and only context says whether the sky is falling.
- улицаulicastreetAddresses drop the word: Knez Mihailova 5 — no "street" on the sign. In speech it comes back: zivim u tihoj ulici — "I live on a quiet street".
- банкаbankabankA false friend to note: banka is the bank. The glass jar is tegla — the household never confuses the two.
- апотекаapotekapharmacyThe all-night one is dezurna apoteka — the "on-duty" pharmacy. The person behind the counter is a farmaceut.
- редredqueueAlso "row" and "order". From it: u redu je — "it is all right, in order" — the phrase you hear constantly.
- отвореноotvorenoopen (sign on the door)The sign on the door; the verb behind it is otvoriti.
- затвореноzatvorenoclosed (sign on the door)Related to the verb "to shut away". On Sundays half the markets say zatvoreno.
- гомилаgomilacrowdGomila ljudi — a crowd of people; without ljudi the same word is just "a pile". The crush and the squeeze is another word: gužva.
- семафорsemafortraffic lightThe headline trap of the lesson: the traffic light is semafor. The same word names the scoreboard at a stadium.
- бициклbiciklbicycleBicikl, not "velosiped". To ride it: voziti bicikl.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “the city and its places”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “dirty” in Serbian?
From prljati, to make dirty. Mud on the road is blato, and prljav ves is dirty laundry.
- How do you say “closed (sign on the door)” in Serbian?
Related to the verb "to shut away". On Sundays half the markets say zatvoreno.
- How do you say “bank” in Serbian?
A false friend to note: banka is the bank. The glass jar is tegla — the household never confuses the two.
- How do you say “bicycle” in Serbian?
Bicikl, not "velosiped". To ride it: voziti bicikl.
- How do you say “open (sign on the door)” in Serbian?
The sign on the door; the verb behind it is otvoriti.
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 “dirty” in Serbian?
«прљав», read “prljav”. A syllabic r between two consonants: pr-ljav. In a live sentence: “Прозори су прљави од прашине” — The windows are dirty from the dust. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adjective, level A2, from the set “the city and its places”; written with the characters п, р, љ, а, в.
How is “прљав” written in Latin letters?
prljav. 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 prljati, to make dirty. Mud on the road is blato, and prljav ves is dirty laundry. 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.