There is something special about learning a language through the voices of people who genuinely live it - and few Serbian voices are as internationally recognisable as Novak Djoković's. Whether you follow tennis or not, his interviews are wonderful listening material: he speaks clearly, uses natural everyday Serbian, and his vocabulary around determination, health, and goals is both motivating and very learnable. Today we use a real interview excerpt as a grammar exercise - specifically, practising present-tense verb forms.
The interview (fill the verb forms)
Read the excerpt below. The blanks mark verb forms that have been removed. Use the English hints in brackets to fill them in. Pay close attention to person and number - Serbian verbs agree with their subject, so you will need the first-person singular for most of these.
"Ne ___ [I don't want] da se ___ [stop / cease] ovde.
___ [I want] da budem zdrav,
da ___ [I feel] dobro fizicki i mentalno.
Mislim da ___ [I am] tek sada mentalno ojačao,
da ___ [I am able / can] da se nosim sa svim pritiskom
koji ___ [comes / arrives] sa ovim poslom.
Nadam se da ___ [I will be able] da igram još dugo."- Novak Djoković
Answer guide: Ne želim da se zaustavljam / zaustavim ovde. Želim da budem zdrav, da se osecam dobro... Mislim da sam tek sada mentalno ojacao, da mogu da se nosim sa svim pritiskom koji dolazi sa ovim poslom. Nadam se da ću moci da igram još dugo.
Note the correct diacritics in Djoković's name: Djoković is spelled Đoković in Serbian Latin script. The Đ/đ is a single letter, not a combination.
Key vocabulary from the excerpt: zdrav = healthy; mentalno = mentally; ojačao = strengthened (past participle, masculine); pritisak = pressure; nositi se sa = to cope with, to deal with; posao = job, work.
Hear it (carried forward)
Now listen to the original interview. Even if the clip moves quickly, try to catch at least the words zdrav, mentalno, and mogu - they are some of the clearest moments in the audio.
What you practise
This exercise works particularly well for drilling the first-person singular present tense - the "I" forms. The verbs in Djoković's excerpt include ne želim (I don't want), osecam se (I feel - note the reflexive particle se), and mogu (I can / I am able), which is one of the most important and slightly irregular verbs in Serbian. Getting comfortable with mogu, možeš, može, možemo, možete, mogu will unlock a huge range of sentences very quickly.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the verb "moći" irregular?
The verb moći (to be able to / can) belongs to a group of verbs whose stem changes in conjugation. The first-person singular is mogu - notice there is no obvious connection to the infinitive stem. This is one of a handful of high-frequency irregular verbs (alongside biti, hteti, and ići) that are worth memorising as early as possible precisely because they come up in almost every conversation.
Is Đoković's Serbian standard, or does he use a regional dialect?
Đoković speaks a fairly standard Belgrade Serbian, which is close to the literary standard. You may occasionally hear very slight Belgrade informal features, but his speech is an excellent model for learners - clear, measured, and close to what you will find in textbooks. He is also very articulate in interviews, which makes him unusually good listening material compared to rapid casual speech.
Learning Serbian through someone as inspiring as Đoković makes the grammar feel far less abstract - these are real words about real goals, and now they are part of your active vocabulary too. Keep at it, and remember: možete! (You can!)
- Marina Petrovic