Pronunciation of Serbian letters

 

When you start to learn Serbian, some letters might be difficult for pronunciation, because you don't have them in your own language. I am primarily referring to the following: Č, Ć, DŽ, Đ, LJ, NJ, Š, Z, Ž. Serbian teacher online will give you many exercises to practice and improve your pronunciation of Serbian letters.
But first, read the description below, and try to pronounce every letter separately.

Č      ČOVEK, ČAJ    (tongue is touching upper palate; hard letter; č as in English words chalk, chain, charge)

Ć      ĆUP, ĆUTATI   (soft letter; top of the tongue is touching bottom of the lower teeth; middle part of the tounge is mildly touching upper palate and upper teeth; no equivalent in English)

DŽ     DŽEP, DŽIP (hard letter; similar tounge position as č, but you are also moving forward lower lip; many equivalents in English - dž as in gin, and in many names Jerry, John, Jack)

Đ      ĐAK, ĐUBRE (soft letter; the sound is formed when tounge is leaned on upper and lower teeth; no equivalent in English; similar tongue position as Ć)

LJ      LJUBAV, LJULJAŠKA (soft letter, as soft L; no real equivalent in English, but similar to L in milion; tongue is down, touching lower teeth; mouth is half open)

NJ    NJIVA, NJEN (soft letter, as soft N; no real equivalent in English, but similar to N in New York or in news; both lips forward, tongue linned on low teeth)

Š      ŠUMA, ŠAMAR (the sound like when you want to make a silence - shhhhh; as in English shark, shame, Sean Connery)

Z      ZVONO, ZUB (the sound like when bees is buzzing, zzzzzzzz; like in English zest, zen, zone) 

Ž      ŽENA, ŽIVOT (the sound similar to Z, but stronger; both lips are moving; similar to the sound in English word pleasure)


For everything else you want to know about this topic, or how to learn Serbian online with a help of a Serbian teacher, send me an email to kratkeprice@gmail.com.

Ako želite da unapredite svoje znanje srpskog jezika, ili znate nekoga ko želi da počne da uči "od nule" naš lepi jezik, pišite mi na navedenu adresu.