Learn Cyrillic

The modern Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was formed by Vuk Karadžić (Вук Караџић), who reformed the alphabet by taking out and adding various letters. Letters like "Ю" (Pronounced 'Yu') and "Я" (Pronounced 'Ya') were removed, and replaced instead with the letter "J". In Serbian, the "J" makes the same sound as a "Y" in English, and with the addition of one letter, you could still keep the sounds of the letters he removed. Now you could pronounce "Я" with "Ja", simplifying the language. Vuk followed a simple principle with his new alphabet: "write as you speak and read as it is written".

Unlike most languages, Serbian is phonetic, meaning there is only one way you can pronounce each letter. You can't mispronounce a word nearly as bad as you can in English.

Serbian also has an extremely intuitive LATIN alphabet, which they use interchangeably in Serbia. Serbian Latin (or "Latinica") is quite easy to understand and it's a very good stepping stone for quickly getting the pronunciation of Serbian words.

Cyrillic looks daunting, but some letters directly overlap with English, and since each letter only has one sound, you can start speaking remarkably fast.

The Letters

The Serbian alphabet has 30 letters:

Аа  Бб  Вв  Гг  Дд  Ђђ Ее Жж

Зз  Ии  Јј  Кк  Лл  Љљ  Мм  Нн

Њњ  Оо  Пп  Рр  Сс  Тт  Ћћ  Уу

Фф  Хх  Цц  Чч  Џџ  Шш

Cyrillic to Latin conversion

Cyr - Lat
Аа - Aa	Бб - Bb	Вв - Vv	Гг - Gg	Дд - Dd	Ђђ - Đđ	Ее - Ee	Жж - Žž
Зз - Zz	Ии - Ii	Јј - Jj	Кк - Kk	Лл - Ll	Љљ - LJ lj	Мм - Mm	Нн - Nn
Њњ - NJ nj	Оо - Oo	Пп - Pp	Рр - Rr	Сс - Ss	Тт - Tt	Ћћ - Ćć	Уу - Uu
Фф - Ff	Хх - Hh	Цц - Cc	Чч - Čč	Џџ - DŽ dž	Шш - Šš

Pronunciation

Here's a table of the letters with approximate pronunciations in English:

Cyrillic	Latin	English equivalent pronunciation
Аа	Aa	A (simply 'ah')
Бб	Bb	B
Вв	Vv	V
Гг	Gg	G (like in 'Graph')
Дд	Dd	D
Ђђ	Đđ	J (like in "Jay")
Ее	Ee	E (similar to 'eh', or the French é)
Жж	Žž	Zh (like the G in 'Deluge')
Зз	Zz	Z
Ии	Ii	EE (like in 'Speed')
Јј	Jj	Y (like in 'Yellow')
Кк	Kk	K
Лл	Ll	L
Љљ	Lj lj	Compound of L and J
Мм	Mm	M
Нн	Nn	N
Њњ	Nj nj	Compound of N and J (sounding like the Spanish Ñ)
Оо	Oo	O (simply 'oh')
Пп	Pp	P
Рр	Rr	R (rolled the same way in Russian)
Сс	Ss	S
Тт	Tt	T
Ћћ	Ćć	Tch (like in 'Switch' sometimes mistaken for Č)
Уу	Uu	Oo (like in 'Food')
Фф	Ff	F
Хх	Hh	H
Цц	Cc	Ts (like in 'Cats')
Чч	Čč	Ch (like in 'Children')
Џџ	Dž dž	Compound of D and Ž (sometimes sounds like Đ)
Шш	Šš	Sh (like in 'Shush')

Perhaps the most striking difference between Latin and Cyrillic is the appearance of "Compound letters". "Љ", "Њ", and "Џ" are just two letters put together, much the same compound words in English. These can be tricky, because you technically don't need them, and if you hear the sound for "Љ" in a word, you might forget to write its dedicated letter. While writing "Љ" as separate letters 'Л' and 'Ј' wouldn't change the pronunciation of the word, it's proper to write the compound letter. In addition, be warned that "Џ" and "Ђ" can sound very similar, and may take time to properly distinguish them in Serbian speech. "Ч" and "Ћ" will also sound similar at first.

If you take the time to study these letters, and consult this page when reading your first few sentences in Cyrillic, it's quite easy to memorize the alphabet.

For getting the proper pronunciation, and keeping with the theme of this site, a way to learn is by listening to Serbian music. You can find the lyrics for some songs online quite easily, and some YouTube videos may even have them in closed captions (CC), along with translations. If you ever need to search for them, the Serbian word for "Lyrics" is "Текст" or "Tekst". If you search for the lyrics using the Cyrillic "Текст" you're more likely to get Cyrillic results, as opposed to searching with Serbian Latin letters. Be aware that it's extremely rare for Bosnian songs to have Cyrillic text because Bosnians exclusively use the Serbian Latin alphabet, except for their Bosnian-Serb population.

Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian have slight differences but they can understand each other perfectly fine, they're nearly identical. It would take some time before a new speaker could understand the differences.

It may be tempting to use an obvious or stereotypical Russian accent when first speaking, but it's really not needed. English has nearly every sound a Serbian letter can make, with the exception of the "rolling R". The rest can just be spoken like you're speaking Serbian words with your normal accent for English. It might seem small, but it's really wasted effort when you actually start speaking.

Good luck learning Serbian.