Bosnian differs slightly in both form and content from both the Croatian and the Serbian variants of what was once called Serbo-Croat. It uses the Latin alphabet, (while Serbian uses the Cyrillic alphabet)
Reading Bosnian can be slightly misleading, because although it looks as if all the letters sound like ours - they don’t. But once you have learnt to swap sounds, eg ts for c, the words are pronounced as they are written.a is nearly always long as in bar
e is always ea (as in ‘bear’)
i as in ‘machine’
o as in ’shore’
u as in ‘flute’
c without an accent is ts
ć is tch (as the ‘tu’ in ‘future’)
č is ch (as the ‘ch’ in ‘chop’)
a is nearly always long as in bar
j is always y
đ is similar to ‘du’ as in ‘dune’
dž is j (as in ‘just’)
š is sh
and ž is the “zh” sound as in camouflage
and that’s about it, for a beginner.
The other difficult thing is how to accent the words. The best rule I have found is to say the word exactly how you wouldn’t say it in English. We say sara-JE-vo, but they say SA-rajevo.
If you are travelling around a bit while you are in the Balkans, Lonely Planet do a very useful (though not hugely extensive) phrasebook (Eastern Europe) which has all the local languages in.
Essential things to know
Bosnian |
English |
| da | yes |
| ne | no |
| hvala | thank you |
| ne, hvala | no, thank you |
| molim | please, (and/or thank you) |
| dobar dan | hello (good day) |
| dobro jutro | good morning |
| dobro vece | good evening |
| Ja se zovem (…) | my name is (…) |
| Kako se vi zovete? | what is your name? (polite form) |
| Govorite li Engleski? | do you speak English? |
| govorim Engleski | I speak English |
| ne govorim Bosanski | I don’t speak Bosnian |
| ne razumijem | I don’t understand |
| Ja sam Englez/Engleza (m/f) | I am English |
| mogu li dobiti jedno pivo? | I’d like a beer, please |
| Pivo! | Beer! |
| Dovi denja | goodbye |
| Izvinite | please excuse me |
| Kako ste? | How’s it going? (plural, or more polite) |
| Kako si? | How’s it going? (to friends and children) |
| Dobro! | Great! |
Very useful words
| samo | only |
| malo | a little |
| samo malo | just a bit |
| mali | little children |
| zasto? | why? |
| kako? | how? |
| kado? | when? |
| koji? | which? |
| tko? | who? |
| Gdje je …? | Where is …? |
| Posto he …? | How much is …? |
| Sir | Cheese |
| Mlijeko | Milk |
| Kafa | Coffee |
| Hleb (Serbian Hlijeb) | Bread |
| Secer | Sugar |
| Pizza | Pizza |
| Čaj | Herbal Tea |
| Indianski Čaj | Recognisable tea (no milk though) |
| i | and |
| sta? | (yer)what? (not polite) |
| molim? | what? (polite) |
| jucer | yesterday |
| danas | today |
| sutra | tomorrow |
| sada | now |
| ovdje | here |
| tamo | there |
| ovo | this |
| ono | that |
| Molim vas… | please… |
Directions
| Gdje je …? | Where is? |
| prvo | first |
| onda | then |
| lijevo | left |
| desno | right |
| pravo | straight on |
| okolo | around |
| ispred | in front of |
| iza | behind |
| semafor | traffic lights |
| trg | square |
| ulica | street |
| grad | city |
| zgrada | building |
| kuča | house |
| Embassija Britanska | British Embassy |
Numbers
| jedan/jedna/jedno (m/f/n) | one |
| dva | two |
| tri | three |
| četriri | four |
| pet | five |
| šest | six |
| sedam | seven |
| osam | eight |
| devet | nine |
| desset | ten |
| jedanaest | eleven |
| dvanaest | twelve |
| trinaest | thirteen |
| četrnaest | fourteen |
| petnaest | fifteen |
| šestnaest | sixteen |
| sedamnaest | seventeen |
| osemnaest | eighteen |
| devetnaest | nineteen |
| dvadeset | twenty |
| dvadeset i jedno | twenty-one |
| dvadeset dva | twenty-two |
| etc. | etc. |
| trideset | thirty |
| četrdeset | forty |
| pedeset | fifty |
| šezdeset | sixty |
| sedamdeset | seventy |
| osamdeset | eighty |
| devedeset | ninety |
| sto | one hundred |
Basic Grammar
TO BE - BITI
ja sam I am
ti si you are
on/ona/ono je he/she/it is
mi smo we are
vi ste you are
oni/one/ona they are
for NOT to be, just put ni in the middle:
ja nisam, ti nisi, on/ona/one nije, mi mismo, vi niste, oni/one/ona nisu
TO HAVE - IMATI
imam I have
imas you have
ima he/she/it has
imamo we have
imate you have
imaju they have
To make a verb negative stick “ne” in front.
The pronoun (e.g. ja, si, on mi, vi, oni) isn’t essential (see imati above), but is used for emphasis.
There are four kinds of verbs, all similar. The endings are the same, but the vowels are different.
1) like probati (try) 2) like govoriti (speak) 3) like razumijeti (understand) 4) like zvati (call)
probam govorim razumijem se zovem
probas govoris razumijes se zoves
proba govori razumije se zove
probamo govorimo razumijemo se zovemo
probate govorite razumijete se zovete
probaju govore razumiju se zovu
If in doubt just use the infinitive. People will understand on the whole.
Useful verbs (which all follow these patterns) are:
Help pomoci
Buy kupiti
Know znati
Act glumiti
Sleep spavati
Agree dogovoriti
Eat jesti
Drink piti
Take uzeti
Give dati
Carry nositi
Go ici
Wash prati
Last updated: December 1st, 2007