The Latin alphabet

Lesson opening

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

Latinica: the Serbian alphabet

Serbian is written in two equal alphabets — Latin (latinica) and Cyrillic (ćirilica). This course writes in the Latin one, but both are built the same way and match each other letter for letter. The core principle of Serbian writing is simple and honest: it reads exactly as it is written — one letter stands for exactly one sound, with no exceptions, no silent letters, no surprises.

That removes everything we usually fear in an unfamiliar writing system: no guessing where a letter suddenly goes quiet, where one symbol hides two sounds, or where the spelling says one thing and the mouth does another. Learn the table of thirty letters — and you can read any sign, ticket, receipt or text message out loud, even before you understand what it means. Meaning will come with vocabulary later; the reading itself is yours today.

A quick eye test. Does Beograd ("Belgrade") have seven letters or eight? Seven: b-e-o-g-r-a-d, and every one is pronounced. And konj ("horse") — four letters or three? Three sounds and three letters of the alphabet: k-o-nj, because nj is one letter. Getting used to counting a digraph as a single character is half the battle already.

All 30 letters

Below is the full alphabet: the Latin letter, its Cyrillic counterpart, an approximate English sound and an example word. Read the examples out loud — many of them are international words you will recognize at once.

Notice how many words you understood before learning any vocabulary: banka, lampa, torta, fudbal, evro, ulica. Serbian is full of international words and near-cognates you will recognize on sight. Your job right now is not to memorize them — it is to get confident at turning letters into sounds.

Letters you already know

Good news for anyone reading the Latin alphabet: most Serbian letters are the familiar characters with their steady "continental" values — the ones you may know from Spanish, Italian or German. The bulk of the alphabet asks nothing new of you; only a handful of letters need real attention.

Cheat sheet

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

Latinica: the Serbian alphabet

Two alphabets — latinica and ćirilica — match letter for letter; this course writes in Latin. The principle: it reads as it is written — one letter = one sound, no silent letters, no exceptions. In total 30 letters: 5 vowels (a e i o u) + 25 consonants.

All 30 letters: Latin · Cyrillic · sound · example

Capital letters