How to learn Serbian from scratch on your own

You can learn Serbian from scratch on your own. The key is consistency: 20–30 minutes every day beats three hours once a week. Here is a plan for your first months.

Week 1: the alphabet and reading

Learn the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets and the reading rules. Serbian spelling is phonetic, so within days you will be able to read signs and menus.

Month 1: survival phrases

Learn the 200–300 most common words and ready-made phrases: greetings, shopping, cafés, transport, asking for prices and directions. Say them out loud — every phrase in the phrasebook has audio.

Months 2–3: core grammar

The present tense and the verbs biti (to be) and imati (to have).
The accusative and locative — the two cases you need for simple sentences.
The past tense (perfekat) and the future tense with “ću”.
The “da” construction: Želim da kupim hleb — I want to buy bread.

Every day: practice

Build sentences from words to train word order and endings.
Listen to Serbian: podcasts, YouTube, TV series with subtitles.
Speak whenever you can — with neighbours, in shops, in a language exchange.
Review new words at spaced intervals instead of cramming lists.

How long does it take?

Roughly: A1 in 2–3 months of regular study, A2 in 6–9 months and B1 in about a year. Living in Serbia and hearing the language every day makes progress faster.

Which resources to use

A practice app with exercises and review — for example Live in Serbia in the browser or on Android.
A phrasebook with audio for everyday situations.
An explanatory dictionary to get used to explanations in Serbian.
University courses in Serbian as a foreign language if you need a certificate or a group class.