Lingoflyустати
- устатиustatito get up
“устати” (ustati) — to get up in Serbian. Verb, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. Present: ustanem. Waking and getting up are two different deeds with two different verbs. In a live sentence: “Устајем пола сата касније” (Ustajem pola sata kasnije) — I get up half an hour later. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters у (u), с (s), т, а (a), т, и (i). One of 12 words in the set “everyday life and routine” in the Serbian course.
In short
| Written in Serbian | устати (ustati) |
| Read in Latin letters | ustati |
| Translation | to get up |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Present: ustanem. Waking and getting up are two different deeds with two different verbs.
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: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- посаоposaojobWork, a job — the everyday word for both. It changes oddly: posao gives posla, the a vanishing.
- радитиraditito workIts second job is "to do": šta radiš? — literally "what do you do?" — the everyday "how are you doing?".
- пробудити сеprobuditi seto wake upWithout se it means "to wake someone else up" — the particle flips the roles.
- умити сеumiti seto wash upFace only. Washing the whole body is okupati se; washing dishes is prati.
- чешљати сеčešljati seto comb one's hairFrom češalj, "a comb". The letter lj is one soft sound, not two letters' worth.
- бријати сеbrijati seto shaveWithout se — "to shave someone". Present: brijem se.
- обући сеobući seto get dressedPresent: obučem se. The trap: obučiti, with č and -iti, is "to train" — a completely different job.
- свући сеsvući seto get undressedThe partner of obući se, built with the same prefix logic: s- takes off what ob- put on.
- сестиsestito sit downPresent: sednem. The trap: sedeti, without the n, is "to sit" — a state, not an action.
- лећиlećito lie downA short infinitive; the present is legnem. Ležati is "to lie" — the state after the action.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “everyday life and routine”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to get up” in Serbian?
Present: ustanem. Waking and getting up are two different deeds with two different verbs.
- How do you say “to get dressed” in Serbian?
Present: obučem se. The trap: obučiti, with č and -iti, is "to train" — a completely different job.
- How do you say “to wake up” in Serbian?
Without se it means "to wake someone else up" — the particle flips the roles.
- How do you say “to lie down” in Serbian?
A short infinitive; the present is legnem. Ležati is "to lie" — the state after the action.
- How do you say “to shave” in Serbian?
Without se — "to shave someone". Present: brijem se.
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 get up” in Serbian?
«устати» (ustati), read “ustati”. In a live sentence: “Устајем пола сата касније” (Ustajem pola sata kasnije) — I get up half an hour later. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”; written with the characters у (u), с (s), т, а (a), т, и (i).
How is “устати” (ustati) written in Latin letters?
ustati. 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?
Present: ustanem. Waking and getting up are two different deeds with two different verbs. 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.