Lingoflyподмазати шарке
- подмазати шаркеpodmazati šarketo oil the hinges
“подмазати шарке” (podmazati šarke) — to oil the hinges in Serbian. Phrase, level A1. Šarka is the door hinge; the Serbian petlja is a knot and a road interchange, not this. Podmazati, said of people, means "to bribe". In a live sentence: “Треба подмазати шарке да не шкрипе” (Treba podmazati šarke da ne škripe) — The hinges need oiling so they do not squeak. You can hear how it sounds right here.
In short
| Written in Serbian | подмазати шарке (podmazati šarke) |
| Read in Latin letters | podmazati šarke |
| Translation | to oil the hinges |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Šarka is the door hinge; the Serbian petlja is a knot and a road interchange, not this. Podmazati, said of people, means "to bribe".
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.
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 “to oil the hinges” in Serbian?
«подмазати шарке» (podmazati šarke), read “podmazati šarke”. In a live sentence: “Треба подмазати шарке да не шкрипе” (Treba podmazati šarke da ne škripe) — The hinges need oiling so they do not squeak. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters п, о (o), д, м, а (a), з, а (a), т, и (i), ш, а (a), р…
How is “подмазати шарке” (podmazati šarke) written in Latin letters?
podmazati šarke. 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?
Šarka is the door hinge; the Serbian petlja is a knot and a road interchange, not this. Podmazati, said of people, means "to bribe". 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.