B1 — intermediate Lexical relations and competence
Synonyms & antonyms
Lesson opening
This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.
Synonyms and antonyms: choosing the right word
Your vocabulary is large by now, and it has brought a new problem. Where English has one word, Serbian often offers three or four, all of them “correct”: “house” and “home” are kuća , dom and, for a flat, stan ; “say”, “tell”, “speak” and “talk” are shared out among reći , kazati , govoriti and pričati . You know the grammar; what gives a foreigner away now is the wrong word.
Definition
Synonyms are words with close meanings (lep , divan , prelep ). Such a set usually has one core word: the most neutral and most frequent, the one that fits almost anywhere (here lep ). The others add a shade: force, warmth, a bookish tone. Antonyms are words with opposite meanings (dobar “good” and loš “bad”). The third link runs between a general word and a more specific one: voće “fruit” stands above jabuka “apple”.
The “beautiful” set: from neutral to delighted
Examples
Word Shade lep beautiful, nice, pretty (of people, things, the weather): the neutral core word of the set divan lovely, wonderful: warm and emotional prelep , predivan gorgeous, stunning: the prefix pre- intensifies zgodan good-looking, handsome (of a person); convenient, opportune (of a moment) simpatičan likeable, pleasant: about the impression someone makes, not their looks
Examples
Beograd je lep grad, ali Novi Sad je divan. Belgrade is a beautiful city, but Novi Sad is simply lovely.
Tip
The prefix pre- usually means “too” (preskup “too expensive”); it means “very” only in a few words learnt whole, such as prelep and predivan (the lesson “Prefixes on nouns and adjectives”). And beware of simpatičan : it is not English sympathetic (“understanding, compassionate”) but “likeable”. For looks, say lep or zgodan .
Deeper etymology
How lep came to mean beautiful Serbian lep goes back to Proto-Slavic *lěpŭ , which is tied to the verb *lěpiti “to stick, to glue”. The first sense was “sticking, fitting closely”; from there it became “well fitted, proper”, and only then “comely, beautiful”. The South Slavic languages took this road all the way. Serbian still has the verb beside the adjective: lepiti means “to glue”. English has a word that travelled a similar road: handsome first meant “easy to handle”, then “suitable, apt”, and only later “good-looking”.
Three “homes”: kuća , dom , stan
Examples
Word What it means and where you meet it kuća a house (the building) and “home” as the place where you live: Idem kući. “I’m going home.” stan a flat (US apartment): jednosoban stan “a one-room flat” zgrada a building, a block of flats dom home as hearth and belonging; also “home” in the names of institutions: dom zdravlja “health centre” (the local state clinic), studentski dom “student hall of residence”
The split is simple. A roof and walls: kuća , zgrada . Square metres: stan . Warmth and belonging: dom . Note, though, that “I’m at home” is kod kuće sam even for someone who lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats (see the lesson “Home & daily life”).
Examples
Živim u stanu, ali roditelji imaju kuću na selu. I live in a flat, but my parents have a house in the country.
Ovaj stan je konačno postao pravi dom. This flat has finally become a real home.
Deeper etymology
kuća from a “corner”, dom from Indo-European antiquitykuća goes back to Proto-Slavic *kǫtja , derived from *kǫtŭ “corner”: the image is not a building but a shelter, a nook. This etymology is given by the etymologist Petar Skok in his Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (Zagreb, 1971–1974). dom is far older: Proto-Slavic *domŭ continues an Indo-European root meaning “house, household”, and its direct relative is Latin domus , which English borrowed in domestic and domicile . Today the down-to-earth kuća covers daily life, while the lofty dom keeps the hearth and the signs over public institutions.
Verbs of speaking: reći , kazati , govoriti , pričati
English has four verbs here too (say, tell, speak, talk), but Serbian cuts the field by a different kind of act, and the borders do not match.
Examples
Verb What exactly it means reći (perfective)say, tell: deliver one specific message: Reci mi istinu. “Tell me the truth.” kazati (both aspects)say, tell: almost a synonym of reći , but both perfective and imperfective, so its present is the everyday one: Kako se kaže na srpskom? “How do you say it in Serbian?” govoriti (imperfective)speak: have command of a language, pronounce, address an audience: Govorim srpski. “I speak Serbian.” In conversation people also say Pričam srpski. pričati (imperfective)talk, chat; tell (a story): Pričali smo ceo dan. “We talked all day.” razgovarati (imperfective)have a conversation with someone: Razgovaram sa šefom. “I’m talking to my boss.” ispričati (perfective)tell to the end, tell the whole story: Ispričaj mi sve. “Tell me everything.”
Examples
Nemoj nikome da kažeš. Don’t tell anyone.
Baka nam je pričala priče o ratu. Grandma used to tell us stories about the war.
Watch out
The calque: English uses “speak” and “talk” almost interchangeably, so an English speaker reaches for govoriti everywhere: “Govorili smo dva sata” (we spoke for two hours) about a chat with a friend, “Kako se govori na srpskom?” (how is it spoken in Serbian?) about a word. Why it is wrong: govoriti is above all speech itself: having a language, pronouncing, addressing an audience. A chat or a conversation Serbs usually call pričati or razgovarati , and they ask about a word with kazati . The right form: Pričali smo dva sata , Hoću da razgovaram s tobom , and the question is Kako se kaže na srpskom?
Cheat sheet The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.
Synonyms & antonyms Set = core word + shades; antonym = own root or prefix. Specific → general: jabuka → voće → hrana .
The “beautiful” set Examples
word shade lep beautiful, nice: core word divan lovely, warm prelep , predivan gorgeous (pre- intensifies) zgodan good-looking (person); convenient (moment) simpatičan likeable: not looks, not “sympathetic”
“Home” and the verbs Choosing: four questions Examples
Register: novčana sredstva / novac / pare , lova ; otac / tata / ćale ; supruga / žena ; preminuti / umreti ; izvrsno / odlično / super ; speech / documents: komšija / sused , kompjuter / računar ; avlija (folksy) / dvorište . Collocation: napraviti grešku , jaka kafa strong coffee; star people, things, ostareo aged (person). Precision: znati know a fact, poznavati know people, places; velik — krupan — ogroman big, large, huge; jak — snažan — moćan strong, powerful, mighty; kupiti buy, nabaviti get hold of. Territory: Serbian hleb , voz , hiljada , fudbal , pozorište ; Croatian kruh , vlak , tisuća , nogomet , kazalište . Antonyms Examples
By meaning: izgubiti — naći find, dobiti win. ne- (one word), like un-/in-: nepoznat , nemoguć , nezadovoljan , nestrpljiv , nesrećan , neukusan , nepravda ; neprijatelj enemy.bez- “lacking”, like -less: bezbedan safe (bez + beda ), beskrajan , beskoristan , bespomoćan , bezobrazan rude (not “ugly”), bezukusan bland.General, specific Examples
general kinds voće fruitjabuka , kruška , šljiva povrće vegetablesparadajz , krastavac , krompir odeća / obuća clothes / footwearhaljina , pantalone / cipele , patike nameštaj furnituresto , krevet , orman posuđe dishestanjir , šolja , čaša prevoz transportautobus , tramvaj , voz
voće , povrće , posuđe : collectives, neuter singular.
Watch out
“Speak, talk” is not always govoriti : a chat is pričati or razgovarati ; ask Kako se kaže? ne- does not fit everything:loš , mali , nov or mlad .
Tip
Learn words as a network: core word + synonym + antonym + general word: “lep ↔ ružan , stronger: divan ”.