Lingoflyхоћу
- хоћуhoćuI want
“хоћу” (hoću) — I want in Serbian. Verb, level A0, topic — verbs. Followed by da and a present tense: hoću da jedem — "I want to eat". Serbian does not put an infinitive after "want" the way English does. In a live sentence: “Хоћу једну кафу” (Hoću jednu kafu) — I want one coffee. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters х, о (o), ћ, у (u). One of 23 words in the set “verbs” in the Serbian course.
In short
| Written in Serbian | хоћу (hoću) |
| Read in Latin letters | hoću |
| Translation | I want |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Followed by da and a present tense: hoću da jedem — "I want to eat". Serbian does not put an infinitive after "want" the way English does.
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.
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. The verb holds a sentence together: a few of the most frequent ones cover more everyday talk than a long list of nouns.
- волимvolimI loveWorks for coffee and for people alike: volim kafu, volim te. One verb covers "like", "love" and "be fond of".
- ићиićito goOn foot or by transport — one verb. The present looks nothing like the infinitive: idem, ideš, ide.
- јестиjestito eatAbout food only. "There is" in the sense of "exists" is a different word entirely — ima.
- питиpitito drinkThe present grows a j: pijem, piješ, pije. Popiti is "to drink up" — finish the glass.
- читатиčitatito readA perfectly regular present: čitam, čitaš, čita. Pročitati is to read through to the end.
- говоритиgovoritito speakAbout languages with no preposition: govorim srpski — "I speak Serbian". The chatty synonym is pričati.
- радитиraditito workIts second job is "to do": šta radiš? — literally "what do you do?" — the everyday "how are you doing?".
- живетиživetito liveBosnia and Montenegro: živjeti. And Živeli! — the Serbian toast — is literally "may we live!".
- иматиimatito haveSerbian has no "I have got" — just imam: imam dvoje dece — "I have two children". The possessor is the subject.
- имаimathere isImpersonal "there is, there are": ima vode? — "is there any water?" The negative is nema. Do not cross it with jesti — eating is another verb.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “I want” in Serbian?
Followed by da and a present tense: hoću da jedem — "I want to eat". Serbian does not put an infinitive after "want" the way English does.
- How do you say “to work” in Serbian?
Its second job is "to do": šta radiš? — literally "what do you do?" — the everyday "how are you doing?".
- How do you say “to eat” in Serbian?
About food only. "There is" in the sense of "exists" is a different word entirely — ima.
- How do you say “there is” in Serbian?
Impersonal "there is, there are": ima vode? — "is there any water?" The negative is nema. Do not cross it with jesti — eating is another verb.
- How do you say “to speak” in Serbian?
About languages with no preposition: govorim srpski — "I speak Serbian". The chatty synonym is pričati.
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 “I want” in Serbian?
«хоћу» (hoću), read “hoću”. In a live sentence: “Хоћу једну кафу” (Hoću jednu kafu) — I want one coffee. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A0, from the set “verbs”; written with the characters х, о (o), ћ, у (u).
How is “хоћу” (hoću) written in Latin letters?
hoću. 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?
Followed by da and a present tense: hoću da jedem — "I want to eat". Serbian does not put an infinitive after "want" the way English does. 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 this 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.