спаваћа кола
“спаваћа кола” (spavaća kola) — sleeper car in Serbian. Noun, level A1. Kola is neuter and plural only, hence spaća — as in spaća soba, the bedroom. In a live sentence: “Резервисали смо спаваћа кола” — We booked the sleeper car. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters с, п, а, в, а, ћ, а, к, о, л, а. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | спаваћа кола |
| Read in Latin letters | spavaća kola |
| Translation | sleeper car |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- спаваћа колаspavaća kolasleeper car
Why it looks that way
Kola is neuter and plural only, hence spaća — as in spaća soba, the bedroom.
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.
- Резервисали смо спаваћа колаRezervisali smo spavaća kolaWe booked the sleeper car
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 “sleeper car” in Serbian?
«спаваћа кола», read “spavaća kola”. In a live sentence: “Резервисали смо спаваћа кола” — We booked the sleeper car. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1; written with the characters с, п, а, в, а, ћ, а, к, о, л, а.
How is “спаваћа кола” written in Latin letters?
spavaća kola. 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?
Kola is neuter and plural only, hence spaća — as in spaća soba, the bedroom. 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.