In this post, we’ll analyze the current news in Serbia. Protests are taking place all around the country against corruption in the Serbian government.
The railway station accident in Novi Sad on November 1st, 2024, when 15 people passed away, was the trigger for protests of the Serbian students but also students in some Croatian universities, who showed support for their Serbian colleagues.
Here is the article by kurir.rs who are going to analyze.
When you open the article, you can listen to it by clicking the button “Slušaj vest”, just below the first picture.
Now, let’s analyze it!
Translation: A tribute to the victims of the canopy roof collapse at the Railway Station in Novi Sad was paid today at gatherings in several cities across Serbia.
The first word – pošta – normally means “post, mail”. The official company for delivering mail in Serbia is Pošta Srbije (Пошта Србије), just like in Croatia, there is Hrvatska pošta.
However, in this context, the word pošta means tribute to the victims. The Croatian version of this word is – počast. The verb that usually comes with pošta/počast is odati.
Odati poštu (SRB) or odati počast (CRO) is the term that refers to the action of paying tribute to someone or something. In the present tense, we use its imperfective form – odavati and its present form sounds like this:
ja odajem, ti odaješ, on, ona, ono odaje, mi odajemo, vi odajete, oni, one odaju
The past tense is regular, just like in the article: Pošta nastradalima… odata je danas…
Since “pošta” is a feminine gender word, the verb odati must be in feminine form.
In everyday life, the verb odati has one more meaning. It is connected with tajna – secret. Odati tajnu in both Serbian and Croatian means to tell someone’s secret. It is a phrase so you can say “reći tajnu”, it’s understandable, but to sound like a native, use the phrase “odati tajnu” – Nemoj odati moju tajnu! (Don’t tell my secret); Neću odati tvoju tajnu (I will not tell your truth).
The next word is nastadalima. The basic form is nastradao, which is an adjective (feminine: nastradala; neutral: nastradalo; plural: nastradali, nastradale).
This adjective doesn’t have a direct English translation but refers to the living being hurt in some way. Not necessarily physically hurt – injured. There is one different word for injured – ozleđen (SRB) / ozlijeđen (CRO).
NASTRADAO, NASTRADALA
Nastradao can be someone who was part of an accident or happening with a bad outcome. He or she can come out injured or dead, but also, this word is used to describe bad luck. For example:
SRB: Kad se desilo ubivstvo, ona se jedina našla na mestu zločina pa je jadna nastradala – bila je optužena za ubivstvo.
CRO: Kad se dogodilo ubojstvo, ona se jedina našla na mjestu zločina pa je jadna nastradala – bila je optužena za ubojstvo.
Translation: When the murder happened, she was the only one who was found on the crime scene so poor her, she was of bad luck – she was accused of the murder.
Next, there is a word pad – u padu nadstrešnice. Pad is a noun from the verb pasti /padati – to fall. In a political context, these words are also used for government failure – pad vlade; vlada je pala; vlada pada…
Nadsrešnica is a canopy roof, not necessarily a railway station canopy (nadsrešnica na Železničkoj stanici (SRB) / na Željezničkom kolodvoru (CRO)). This word is used for any building thing whose purpose is to ensure a dry place, against rain or snow.
Skup is a gathering of many people with the same goal.
Let’s see the next paragraph:
Translation: Residents of Ustanička Street, Lekino Brdo, Denkova Bašta, Učiteljsko Naselje, Šumice, and Konjarnik gathered this evening in front of the “Šumice” Sports Center in Belgrade to show support for students at all state universities and education workers.
Stanovnici are people who live somewhere, like citizens: stanovnici Srbije, stanovnici Beograda, stanovnici Ustaničke ulice…
This word comes from the verb stanovati which means to live at a certain place: Prije smo stanovali u Ustaničkoj ulici, sada stanujemo u Učiteljskom naselju.
Next term is dati podršku. – to give support. There is a verb podržati – to support, which can be used as a synonym for this term: …da bi podržali studente…
Conditional tense – bi dali podršku – is used here in the function of explaining the reason. It is always used when someone wants to sound “formal”, “professional”. But instead of this, you can use the present tense normally: …da daju podršku studentima…
Let’s see more examples when you can use conditional tense to sound more professional:
Predsjednik (CRO) / Predsednik (SRB) je pozvao ministre da bi razgovarali o trenutnim problemima u državi. – The president invited the ministers to talk about the current problems in the country.
Udruga žena je donirala novac bolnici kako bi nabavili nove lijekove. – The women’s association donated to the hospital to purchase new medicaments.
Prosvetni radnici is a term that refers to teachers and professors at universities and schools.
Translation: A column of several thousand citizens came by foot and blocked the intersection of Vojislava Ilića and Ustanička streets.
Translation: During the blockade, a 15-minute tribute was paid to those who lost their lives at the Novi Sad Railway Station on November 1.
The adjective poginuli refers to people who passed away in an accident. We can use it in the context of car crash, accident at work, weather disasters and any kind of accident.
Translation: Also, the informal initiative “Culture in Blockade” organized a protest in front of the Ministry of Culture, named “0.67% Demand in Culture.”
Organizovati (SRB) /organizirati (CRO) is used for any kind of organizations. Note that Serbian verb version – organizovati – is -vati group so its present is:
ja organizujem, ti organizuješ, on, ona, ono organizuje, mi organizujemo, vi organizujete, oni, one oganizuju
Pod nazivom is a term used to say – koji se zove, koji ima time. Naziv is “name” but not a personal name. It is the name of an organization, a book, a project, a company, a song, a movie, and more.
Literally, pod nazivom means “under the name” but consider it like a term, a phrase.
Translation: Participants of the gathering blocked Vlajkovićeva Street, displaying banners that read: “Culture Branch,” “We Won’t Give Up the General Staff,” “Culture in Blockade,” and “All Power to the Plenums.”
The protesters concluded their march in front of the Belgrade Cultural Center (KCB) in Kolarčeva Street.
Besides Belgrade, gatherings to honor the victims of the tragedy were also held in Leskovac, Vranje, Šabac, Čačak, Lazarevac, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, and other cities.
One participant in Serbian is učesnik. When making plural, k changes to c before i – sibilarizacija (vocal change). That’s why the plural is učesnici. It comes from the verb – učestvovati (in the present tense it sounds: ja učestvujem, ti učestvuješ…)
Croatian word is different – sudionik – but in the plural, the same vocal change occurs – sudionici. It comes from the verb sudjelovati, and it’s conjugated in the present tense also according the rule for -vati verbs (ja sudjelujem, ti sudjeluješ…)
Note that in the names of the towns or places that end with -ac, the last “a” is removed when declining:
Leskovac — u Leskovcu
Šabac — u Šapcu (here one more vocal change occurs: jednačenje po zvučnosti (assimilation by voicing) – when the voiced consonant “b” becomes its voiceless neighboring consonant “p”)
Lazarevac — u Lazarevcu
Kragujevac — U Kragujevcu
The same is with Croatian places with -ec in the end:
Čakovec — u Čakovcu
Ivanec — u Ivancu