Feelings & relationships

Lesson opening

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

Feelings & relationships: kako se osećaš?

In Serbia people talk about people readily and at length: who fell out with whom, who fell in love, who is hard to live with. Here is the language for that conversation.

Kako se osećaš? How you feel, and the dative

The key question of the topic is Kako se osećaš? “How are you feeling?” (formal or plural: Kako se osećate?). You ask it after the flu and after a quarrel. More caring: Šta ti je? “What’s wrong?”; about mood, Kako si raspoložen? “What sort of mood are you in?” A feeling is osećanje. Where English says “I feel tired” with an adjective, Serbian answers with an adverb, the neuter form, mostly in -o.

The second way is impersonal. The person goes into the dative, the “to/for” case, and the feeling happens to them, like English “it seems to me” (see the lesson “Dative impersonals”).

Careful with “I’m bored”: Dosadan sam means “I’m boring”.

Žao mi je continues in three ways: što + a clause gives the reason; zbog + genitive (the “of” case) names the occasion; and the genitive with no preposition means pity for a person: Žao mi je te devojke. I feel sorry for that girl.

Naming an emotion: the feeling and the person

An emotion usually comes as a pair: a noun for the feeling and an adjective for the person who has it. The adjective agrees with the speaker’s gender: Srećan sam “I’m happy” is said by a man, Srećna sam by a woman. So too umoran — umorna “tired” and nervozan — nervozna “nervous, on edge”, with the fleeting a of “Adjective agreement”, found only in the masculine.

Cheat sheet

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

Feelings & relationships

Kako se osećaš? “How are you feeling?” / Šta ti je? “What’s wrong?” / Kako si raspoložen? “How’s your mood?” Answer with an adverb: Osećam se dobro / loše / umorno.

States: dative and accusative

Žao mi je što kasnim (reason), zbog toga (occasion), Žao mi je te devojke (pity + genitive).

Emotions

Agreement: srećan / srećna, umoran / umorna “tired”, nervozan / nervozna “nervous”.

Verbs of feeling

Character: Kakav je on po karakteru?

People

prijatelj close friend, drug pal, classmate, poznanik acquaintance; group: društvo, ekipa, raja; prijateljstvo, poverenje friendship, trust.

With sa + instrumental: družiti se, slagati se, posvađati se, pomiriti se, dopisivati se, čuti se: be friends, get along, fall out, make up, text, phone each other. Slažem se sa tobom: “I agree”.

Love: veza relationship, izlaziti sa, zabavljati se sa date, zaljubiti se fall in love, raskinuti, prevariti break up, cheat on. Partners: dečko, momak boyfriend, devojka girlfriend, verenik, verenica fiancé(e), muž, žena husband, wife; venčanje, svadba wedding.

From liking to love

Simpatičan mi je (nice, neutral), Sviđaš mi se (usually romantic), Drag si mi (dear to me), Volim te (love). I miss you: Nedostaješ mi, casually Fališ mi.

Sympathy and support

Primite moje saučešće. Ne brini, biće sve u redu. Drži se! Glavu gore! Tu sam za tebe. Šta te muči? Čestitam! Svaka čast! My condolences. Don’t worry, it’ll be all right. Hang in there! Chin up! I’m here for you. What’s bothering you? Congratulations! Well done!