Lingoflyпола сата
- пола сатаpola satahalf an hour
“пола сата” (pola sata) — half an hour in Serbian. Noun, level A2, topic — time, days and hours. Literally "half of an hour". Pola never declines, and the word after it stands in the of-form: pola sata, pola godine, pola hleba. In a live sentence: “Ручак траје пола сата” (Ručak traje pola sata) — Lunch lasts half an hour. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters п, о (o), л, а (a), с (s), а (a), т, а (a).
In short
| Written in Serbian | пола сата (pola sata) |
| Read in Latin letters | pola sata |
| Translation | half an hour |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "half of an hour". Pola never declines, and the word after it stands in the of-form: pola sata, pola godine, pola hleba.
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: time, days and hours
Today, tomorrow, in the morning, at six. You cannot arrange to meet without these — let alone understand the answer.
- сатsathourAlso the watch on your wrist: dva sata — "two hours" and "two o'clock" alike; ručni sat is a wristwatch. One word, three time jobs.
- данdandayThe plural splits: dani in free use, but after numbers dana — pet dana, "five days". Danas is literally "this day".
- данасdanastodayDan ("day") plus -as: "in this day". The same -s sits in jutros, "this morning", and večeras, "this evening".
- сутраsutratomorrowRelated to jutro, "morning", by origin, but it means only "tomorrow" — jutro stays morning.
- јучеjučeyesterdayThe variant jučer belongs further west, in Croatia; Belgrade says juče. The day before yesterday is prekjuče.
- вечеvečeeveningNeuter, but its other cases use forms in -eri: do večeri. Uveče means "in the evening". Do not confuse it with već — "already".
- ноћnoćnightFeminine on a consonant: u noći, preko noći — "overnight". Noćas means "tonight, in the night just passed".
- времеvremeweatherOne word for weather and for time: kakvo je vreme? asks about the sky; nemam vremena about the clock.
- у колико сати?u koliko sati?at what time?Literally "at how many hours". Sati is the plural of sat.
- већ је касноveć je kasnoit is already lateVeć is "already". Do not cross it with veče, "the evening": that one has č and a final vowel.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “time, days and hours”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “half an hour” in Serbian?
Literally "half of an hour". Pola never declines, and the word after it stands in the of-form: pola sata, pola godine, pola hleba.
- How do you say “night” in Serbian?
Feminine on a consonant: u noći, preko noći — "overnight". Noćas means "tonight, in the night just passed".
- How do you say “today” in Serbian?
Dan ("day") plus -as: "in this day". The same -s sits in jutros, "this morning", and večeras, "this evening".
- How do you say “it is already late” in Serbian?
Već is "already". Do not cross it with veče, "the evening": that one has č and a final vowel.
- How do you say “evening” in Serbian?
Neuter, but its other cases use forms in -eri: do večeri. Uveče means "in the evening". Do not confuse it with već — "already".
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 “half an hour” in Serbian?
«пола сата» (pola sata), read “pola sata”. In a live sentence: “Ручак траје пола сата” (Ručak traje pola sata) — Lunch lasts half an hour. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2, from the set “time, days and hours”; written with the characters п, о (o), л, а (a), с (s), а (a), т, а (a).
How is “пола сата” (pola sata) written in Latin letters?
pola sata. 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?
Literally "half of an hour". Pola never declines, and the word after it stands in the of-form: pola sata, pola godine, pola hleba. 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.