How Hard Is It To Learn Serbian?

“Slavic languages are unlearnable and unprounceable.”

That’s what I often had to hear before learning Serbian. I was quite intimidated by Slavic languages – and, if I am, I’m sure that others are too.

Now, after quite some time of deep-diving into Serbian, I could draw my own picture, and what I learned are two things: yes, it has it’s difficulties. And no, it’s not impossible. So, let’s answer the question: How hard is it to learn Serbian? We’re going to rate each component of the language from ⬤ (very easy) to ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ (very hard) – to hopefully create a more realistic and less intimidating picture of what to expect.

1. Pronunciation ⬤

Each letter is pronounced in only one way. There are more consonants than in other languages and some words can be a bit tricky, but the great majority is absolutely doable.

2. Sentence Order ⬤⬤⬤

The function of a word is determined by its case, not by its position. Therefore, the Serbian word order is pretty free. However, it does have some difficulties:

• You can’t begin a sentence with certain words, such as auxiliary verbs or the verb “to be”.
• The sentence order changes a little bit in subordinate clauses, and it can take a while to figure out how it exactly works.

3. Verbs ⬤⬤

If you’ve ever learned a Romance language with its endless verb tables, you’ll be suprised how easy the Serbian verb system is in comparison to that. Here’s what makes it special:

Aspects

In order to express if an action is done constantly (imperfect) or once (perfect), Serbian uses so-called “aspects”. That means that, each verb exists twice in Serbian, in a perfect and in an imperfect form. For example:
• to give = davati/ dati
• to take = uzeti/ uzimati

You’ll have to learn these by heart, but after a while, you’ll get a feel for it

Compound Tenses

As there is already a separate verb for each aspect, there is no need for a lot of tenses in Serbian. In spoken Serbian, there are only two past tenses, one future tense and one conditional – all of which are compound forms and therefore follow the same principle.

Exceptions

Verbs are classified into -ati, -iti, -eti- or -jeti verbs and are genearlly conjugated according to that. For example:
• to read = čitati – I read = čitam
• to watch = gledati – I watch = gledam
But: there are also a lot of exceptions. Often, the ending of the infinitive doesn’t match the letter used in the conjugation. For example:

• to drink = piti – I drink = pijem
• to write = pisati – pišem

4. The Case System: Nouns, Adjectives & Pronouns ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤

Nouns

In Serbian, there are 3 grammatical genders: feminine, masculine and neuter. Each of them has their own ending in singular and in plural, making 6 endings.
Those 6 endings can be put in 7 different cases, according to a word’s function in a sentence. That makes 63 possible noun endings (not counting exceptions here).
For example:
• house (feminine singular nominative) = kuća
• the owner of the house (feminine singular genitive) = vlasnik kuće

Pronouns & Adjectives

Just as nouns, adjectives and pronouns have to be put in different genders, numbers and cases, according to the noun they refer to.
But: The Serbian adjective and pronoun system has different endings than the noun system. Meaning that there are another 63 possible endings.
For example:
• The house of my brother = kuća mog brata
(House + “my” in sing. masc. gen. + “brother” in sing. masc. gen.)

This makes it pretty complicated to do simple things that pretty easy in other languages, such as ordering something in a restaurant. For instance, if you order a pizza with mushrooms and without cheese and a bottle of red wine, you basically need to know the whole Serbian grammar (if you want to do it correctly). Like that:
Pica (noun fem. sing. nom.) sa (with) pečurkama (noun fem. plu. instr.) bez (without) sira (noun masc. sing. gen.) i (and) jedna (adj. fem. sing. acc.) flaša (noun fem. sing. nom.) crnog (adj. neut. sing. gen.) vina (noun neut. sing. gen.).

On top of that, different cases are used for different numbers. If you order, for example, 4 pizzas, you will have to say “4 pice“, but if you order 5, it’s “5 pica“.

But: Even though the case system might seem pretty overwhelming at the beginning, it’s something that is doable if you approach it step by step – and, unlike in other languages, Serbian actually gets easier as you advance.

So, how hard is it to learn Serbian? It’s certainly a bit harder than Romance languages because its main difficulty, the case system, is spread all over the sentence – unlike in Romance languages, where the hurdle is mostly restricted to the verbs.

So, is it worth learning it? Absolutely. Read here why I think Serbian is the most underrated European language.