Going to Serbia anytime soon? It’s not too late to find out the local festivities and events that you should plan ahead. Now it’s time to learn some date and time vocabulary in Serbian. This blog post will help you learn how the days of the week, months, seasons, and times of day are called in Serbian. If you’re ready to learn more about this amazing language, then tune in and start reading!
Date And Time In Serbian
While in English, we are familiar with the words from Monday to Sunday and other terms for the week like weekends or weekdays. Writing the date and time in Serbian doesn’t just mention the common Monday to Sunday in the calendar. Serbian also uses both the Serbian Cyrillic and the Latin equivalents when writing or speaking the language. So if you’re having trouble writing the Cyrillic version, just try memorizing the Latin words first! Take a look at the days of the week and start practicing them with your Serbian friends.
Days Of The Week
Months In Serbian
Similar to other countries, Serbia also starts with January as its first month.
Date And Time In Serbian: Seasons
How about the seasons in Serbian? You’ll have to prepare your clothes if you’re not used to having four seasons in a year. Here is the complete list of seasons in Serbian:
| English Translation | Serbian Cyrillic | Latin | Pronunciation | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | пролеће | proleće | proh-leh-tse | |
| Summer | лето | leto | leh-toh | |
| Autumn / Fall | јесен | jesen | jeh-sehn | |
| Winter | зима | zima | zee-mah |
Times Of The Day In Serbian
Firstly, it’s important to note that Serbia follows the Central European Time (CET) zone, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+1). This means that when it is 12:00 pm UTC, it is 1:00 pm in Serbia. However, Serbia also observes Daylight Savings Time, which means that during the summer time (usually from late March to late October), the clocks are set one hour ahead of CET, making it UTC+2. CET was adopted by Belgrade in 1884, and the observation of Daylight Saving Time in Serbia is initiated from the last Sunday in March through to the last Sunday in October.
It can be confusing is regular to write “poslepodne” or “posle podne”. We use both in the Serbian language. When used as a noun denoting the time of day, it is written in conjunction:
- Celo poslepodne pada kiša (It rained all afternoon).
- Proveli smo lepo poslepodne (We spent a nice afternoon).
When used as an adverbial clause for time, it is written separately:
- Otići ćeš posle podne (You will leave in the afternoon).
- Videćemo se u nedelju posle podne (I’ll see you on Sunday afternoon).
The same goes for the popodne, po podne i prepodne, pre podne
Other Words Related To Date And Time In Serbian
Ready to learn more Serbian words for date and time? You’ll need to equip yourself with these phrases
How To Write Dates In Serbian
Writing dates in Serbian can be pretty confusing. So, I will give my best to make it more clear. Let’s get started. You can write the date in several ways in Serbian.
- jul(i) 2020. (or without the noun for the month, as it is implied)
- 7. 2020.
- VII 2020.
While reading this, you will notice that after each point there is a space (whiteness).
What to do if there is a comma in the sentence after the date?
For example Pišući ovaj dnevnik danas, 6. jula 2011, video sam… (While writing this diary today, July 6, 2011, I saw…).
Did you notice that after a year there is no full stop? This is because it is followed by a comma in the sentence and so that punctuation marks do not accumulate, forget the full stop only in that case).
You also noticed that there is no full stop in the third way of writing the date, where the month is written in Roman numerals. Why? Because Roman numbers are read as ordinal and there is no full stop after them in the Serbian language. And there are, of course, exceptions. For example, in the contents of books whose chapters are marked with Roman numerals, so they have subgroups marked with Roman numerals as well… Stylistic recreation is allowed, but only in that case.
So spaces are a must, and dots are as well. It is also important to mention that writing zero on the date is wrong. It’s only allowed in business documents (to avoid fraud). So, it is incorrect to write 6. јul 2011, 06.07.2011. and something like that. I almost forgot to say the thing that you may already have figured out: names of months in Serbian are always written in lowercase which is the opposite of the English language.
Time Changes In Serbia
Time zones are always computed by their difference to UTC, the “Universal Time Coordinated“. In Serbia, there is only a single time zone at UTC+1. E.g. New York has Eastern Standard Time at UTC-5 and the time difference between NY and Serbia is 6 hours.
They have a nationwide clock change from standard time to daylight saving time, where the clocks are switched forward by 1 hour in summer.
Learn More About Serbian With The Ling App!
It would be great if you learn how to say and write words about dates and times in Serbian. Also, knowing emergency phrases can be very useful if you are planning to visit Serbia. It would be a bonus if you knew Family Vocabulary In Serbian. If you have a friend or family member who is from Serbia, that person would appreciate it very much. I hope that this blog post helped you with that. If you want to learn more Serbian words and phrases, you should consider using the Ling app and get some basic knowledge of this beautiful language while having fun.
Download the Ling app now on your Play Store or App Store, and start your journey with the Serbian language now! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
