Cyrillic print

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Cyrillic: Serbian’s second alphabet

You already know the thirty letters of Serbian Latin. Serbian Cyrillic writes exactly the same thirty sounds, one letter for each, only in different clothes. Serbs use both scripts and read either without a second thought. The goal of this lesson is to read a Cyrillic sign, price tag or form as calmly as a Latin one; writing by hand comes later, in the lesson “Cyrillic handwriting”.

Cyrillic looks harder than it is. You are not learning new sounds, only new shapes for sounds you already know, and many shapes are not even new: some letters look and sound Latin, some look Latin but stand for something else (the “false friends”), and the rest are new faces. In half an hour you will read Београд and Нови Сад as quickly as Beograd and Novi Sad.

The whole azbuka at once

Here are all 30 letters in azbuka order, with their Latin twins and an English anchor for each sound. Don’t memorise the table in one go — the sections below split it into four easy groups. The six bold rows are Serbian’s own letters.

Four groups instead of thirty letters

Twenty-four letters of the azbuka are the Cyrillic shapes for sounds you already know. Here they are in one line:

To a Latin eye they fall into three groups; Serbian’s own six letters are the fourth group, below.

Group 1 costs you nothing: А, Е, К, М, О, Т are read just as they look. In small print they are а, е, к, м, о, т — the last three are small copies of the capitals rather than the Latin k, m, t, but you will recognise them at once.

Group 2 is the one to watch. В is v, Н is n, Р is r, С is s, У is u (“oo”), Х is h. The small letters play the same trick: в, н, р, с, у, х look like a small B, a small H, p, c, y and x. Expect your eyes to offer the Latin reading for a while; the warning below helps.

Group 3 are new shapes, but several are old acquaintances if you know Greek letters from maths: Г (g) is gamma, Д (d) is delta, Л (l) is lambda, П (p) is pi, Ф (f) is phi. For the rest, a picture helps: З (z) looks like the digit 3; И (i) is a backwards N; Ж (ž) is a little beetle; Ш (š) is a comb; Ч (č) is an upside-down h; Ц (c, “ts”) is a cup with a tail; Б (b) is a B whose top loop has been pulled out straight.

Whatever the shape, the sounds are the Serbian ones you have already practised: е is always the e of bed (лепо — “LEH-po”), и is always “ee” (риба — “REE-ba”), о is always a full, pure o (Београд — “Be-o-grad”, three clear syllables), and г is always the hard g of go, even before е and и, where English often softens it (gem, giraffe). New shapes, the same honest sound system.

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

Cyrillic: Serbian’s second alphabet

Azbuka (Cyrillic) and abeceda (Latin) are two ways of writing one alphabet: 30 letters, letter for letter, one letter = one sound. The digraphs lj, nj, dž are single Cyrillic letters: љ, њ, џ. Azbuka order is its own (А Б В Г Д… — ђ after д, ј after и), so Cyrillic lists sort differently.

The whole azbuka

Four groups

• Same look, same sound: А Е К М О Т.
• False friends: В = v, Н = n, Р = r, С = s, У = u, Х = h (small: в н р с у х).
• New shapes, familiar sounds: Б Г Д Ж З И Л П Ф Ц Ч Ш = b g d ž z i l p f c č š (Г Д Л П Ф are Greek gamma, delta, lambda, pi, phi).
• Serbian’s own (adopted in Vuk Karadžić’s reform): ј љ њ ђ ћ џ = j lj nj đ ć dž.

Sounds stay Serbian: lepo — лепо “LEH-po”, riba — риба “REE-ba”, Beograd — Београд “Be-o-grad”; г is hard even before е, и.

The six new letters

• Ј ј = j = “y”, a Cyrillic letter that looks exactly like Latin j and the azbuka’s only “y” letter: jedan — један (one), maj — мај (May).
• Љ љ = lj, Њ њ = nj: л and н with a loop on the right: ljubav — љубав, njiva — њива, knjiga — књига.
• Ћ ћ = ć and Ђ ђ = đ: crossbar twins, voiceless / voiced; ђ ends in a hanging hook: noć — ноћ, voće — воће, đak — ђак, rođendan — рођендан.
• Џ џ = dž: like Ц, but the tail is in the middle: džep — џеп, džem — џем.

ј + vowel; no q, w, x, y

“ya ye yu yo” = ја је ју јо: Jana — Јана, jug — југ (south), jod — јод (iodine); ја (“I”) = ј + а, two sounds. Neither script has q, w, x, y: такси (taxi), викенд (weekend).

Signs, documents, places

Places: БЕОГРАД — Beograd (Be-o-grad), НОВИ САД — Novi Sad, НИШ — Niš, СУБОТИЦА — Subotica, КРАГУЈЕВАЦ — Kragujevac (-gu-ye-), ВРБАС — Vrbas (the r carries the syllable), ЂАКОВИЦА — Đakovica.