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How Serbian works, where it came from, and what is worth knowing about it before the first lesson.

Comparisons

One future tense for every verb: what Serbian built that Russian never needed to

Neither Serbian nor Russian kept a single inherited future-tense form from Common Slavic - both had to solve the same missing piece some other way. Serbian's solution is one auxiliary that works on every verb regardless of aspect. Russian's solution is not a solution at all in the same sense: it split the job in two and let the aspect system itself do most of the work. A Russian speaker's instinct to let aspect decide the construction is exactly right at home and exactly wrong in Serbian.

Jul 31, 20263 min read

Study tips

Verbal aspect transfers almost for free from Russian - except for these two things

If you already think in perfective and imperfective, Serbian aspect is the smoothest part of the whole language for you. Two places still catch Russian speakers out: motion verbs, where Russian keeps a distinction Serbian gave up, and the handful of verbs where both languages use an unrelated word for the other half of the pair.

Jul 30, 20266 min read

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