Asking Questions in Serbian

An interview is one of the best things you can drop into a language lesson. It moves fast, it has two voices, and - because someone is asking and someone is answering - every question word gets a real workout in a real context. This short exchange features a young tennis player talking about the shots she loves, practice at night, and what happens when an opponent beats her. Read it through once for the story, then go back and try to fill the gaps before you scroll to the answers.

The verb voleti (to love, to like) is one of the first verbs every Serbian learner meets, and it turns up here in its familiar second-person singular form. Tennis vocabulary - forhend, bekend, volej - is wonderfully close to English, so the Serbian will feel far less foreign than you expect. Enjoy it.

The interview gap-fill (popuni prazna mesta) - fill in the missing words

Each blank ___ is followed by a bracketed English hint. Try to write in the Serbian word before reading on. The grammar note beside each blank tells you what form you need.

Q: Zdravo! Koliko imaš godina?
A: Imam dvanaest godina.

Q: A ___ (what) najviše ___ (you like / voliš) u tenisu?
A: Pa, najviše volim forhend, bekend i volej.

Q: A da ___ (whether / li) se protivnici ljute ___ (when / kada) ih pobediš?
A: Ne, ne ljute se.

Q: A ti ___ (when / kada) te ___ (they / oni) pobede - da li se ti ljutis?
A: Malo. Ali samo malo.

Q: Znamo da si ___ (real / pravi) fer-plej igrac. Dobro, a ___ (when / kada) ___ (you play / ti igras)?
A: Igram ___ (in the afternoon / posle podne), igram se ___ (at night / uveče). Pošto ___ (during the day / tokom dana) ___ (I have / imam) školu i treninge.

Q: A ___ (after / posle) skole, šta radiš?
A: ___ (I play / Igram) tenis, ili trciim, ili me mama ___ (takes / vozi) na trening.

Q: Šta ___ (what) ćeš postati kad porasteš - da li ćeš postati teniserka ___ (or / ili) ćeš uraditi nešto drugo?
A: Želim da postanem teniserka. Tenis mi je sve!

Hint: the bracketed words show meaning and sometimes the dictionary form. Your job is to pick the right form for the sentence - watch person, number, and case.

Hear it (carried forward)

The original recording that went with this exercise has been carried forward below. Listen first without looking at the text, then listen again while you follow along - you will be surprised how much you catch the second time.

What this practises

Every gap in the exercise points to something specific. The question words - šta (what), kada (when), gde (where) - are the skeleton of every Serbian question, and seeing them inside a real conversation fixes them far more firmly than a vocabulary list ever could. The present tense of voleti (volim, voliš, voli...) and igrati (igram, igras, igra...) both appear here in natural speech, giving you two full conjugation patterns to absorb without noticing you are drilling.

The little pattern da li + present tense (used to form yes/no questions) also runs through the dialogue. It is one of the first structures that trips up beginners, and this dialogue gives you four clear examples in a row. Once you have heard it in the recording, it will stop feeling foreign.

Frequently asked questions

Is this too advanced for a beginner?

Not at all. The vocabulary is close to English (forhend, tenis, fer-plej), the sentences are short, and the bracketed hints carry you through every gap. If you have done even a few lessons on question words and basic present-tense verbs, you have everything you need. Treat the gaps you cannot fill as new words to look up - that is how vocabulary grows naturally.

Where do I find the answers?

Listen to the recording above - the answers are spoken aloud in the original interview. You can also check the bracketed hints: the italic form in each bracket is the dictionary or citation form, and the answer is simply that form conjugated for the sentence. If you want a full answer key, drop a comment below and I will post one.

Is the tennis vocabulary going to be hard to remember?

Almost certainly not. Serbian borrowed these words directly from English: forhend is forehand, bekend is backhand, volej is volley. You already know them. The exercise uses them as friendly anchors - familiar words in an unfamiliar grammatical structure - which is exactly the right way to ease into a new language.

Keep practising and you will be amazed how quickly the question words become second nature. - Marina Petrovic

Ready for more? Head over to More asking practice and work through the full question-word collection.