семафор
“семафор” (semafor) — traffic light in Serbian. Noun, level A1, topic — the city and its places. The headline trap of the lesson: the traffic light is semafor. The same word names the scoreboard at a stadium. In a live sentence: “Скрени лево код семафора” — Turn left at the traffic light. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters с, е, м, а, ф, о, р.
In short
| Written in Serbian | семафор |
| Read in Latin letters | semafor |
| Translation | traffic light |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- семафорsemafortraffic light
Why it looks that way
The headline trap of the lesson: the traffic light is semafor. The same word names the scoreboard at a stadium.
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.
- Скрени лево код семафораSkreni levo kod semaforaTurn left at the traffic light
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.
- бициклbiciklbicycleBicikl, not "velosiped". To ride it: voziti bicikl.
- аутобуска станицаautobuska stanicabus stopIn speech stanica covers both the station and the stop. The strict word for a stop is stajaliste.
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 “traffic light” in Serbian?
The headline trap of the lesson: the traffic light is semafor. The same word names the scoreboard at a stadium.
- 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 “bus stop” in Serbian?
In speech stanica covers both the station and the stop. The strict word for a stop is stajaliste.
- 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 “traffic light” in Serbian?
«семафор», read “semafor”. In a live sentence: “Скрени лево код семафора” — Turn left at the traffic light. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “the city and its places”; written with the characters с, е, м, а, ф, о, р.
How is “семафор” written in Latin letters?
semafor. 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 headline trap of the lesson: the traffic light is semafor. The same word names the scoreboard at a stadium. 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.