зар је могуће?
“зар је могуће?” (zar je moguće?) — can it be? in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. Zar is the particle of disbelief, exactly the English really: zar stvarno?, zar vec? On its own it sounds sharp, so it comes with a continuation. In a live sentence: “Зар је могуће да нико није дошао?” — Did nobody really come? You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters з, а, р, ј, е, м, о, г, у, ћ, е.
In short
| Written in Serbian | зар је могуће? |
| Read in Latin letters | zar je moguće? |
| Translation | can it be? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- зар је могуће?zar je moguće?can it be?
Why it looks that way
Zar is the particle of disbelief, exactly the English really: zar stvarno?, zar vec? On its own it sounds sharp, so it comes with a continuation.
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.
- Зар је могуће да нико није дошао?Zar je moguće da niko nije došao?Did nobody really come?
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 “can it be?” in Serbian?
«зар је могуће?», read “zar je moguće?”. In a live sentence: “Зар је могуће да нико није дошао?” — Did nobody really come? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters з, а, р, ј, е, м, о, г, у, ћ, е.
How is “зар је могуће?” written in Latin letters?
zar je moguće?. 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?
Zar is the particle of disbelief, exactly the English really: zar stvarno?, zar vec? On its own it sounds sharp, so it comes with a continuation. 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.