Serbian (Bosnia & Herzegovina)→English

Translate Serbian (Bosnia & Herzegovina) to English the way locals mean it.

Serbian (Bosnia & Herzegovina) speakers often use particles, softened imperatives, and resigned idioms whose social force is easy to miss if you translate each word literally.

Going the other way? English to Serbian (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

474 local dialects

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What locals actually say

Ma jok, nije frka, stižem za pet minuta.

Nah, it’s fine, I’ll be there in five minutes.

“Ma jok” is an emphatic, casual dismissal, while “nije frka” means “no problem,” not literally that there is no panic.

Nemoj se brukati, čovječe.

Come on, don’t make a fool of yourself, man.

“Brukaj se” means to embarrass or disgrace yourself, and “čovječe” adds familiar exasperation rather than literally addressing someone as a man.

Jebi ga, tako je kako je.

It is what it is, nothing we can do.

“Jebi ga” is often a resigned profane filler expressing frustration or acceptance, not a literal command.

Nemam ti sad ni prebijene marke.

I haven't got a penny to my name right now.

Marka refers to the convertible mark, the everyday currency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while ni prebijene pojačava the idea of having nothing at all.

Đe ti je ona ulica, bolan, izgubih se k'o tele?

Where's that street, man? I'm lost as a calf.

Đe is a colloquial ijekavian form of gdje, and bolan is a strongly recognizable Bosnian vocative used to address someone informally.

Deder, naspi još malo čorbe, k'o Boga te molim.

Come on, give me a little more soup, please, I'm begging you.

Deder is a familiar Bosnian-Serb prompting particle used to soften or urge an imperative, while čorba is the everyday word for soup.

Djeca su mi već porasla, a k'o juče da su krenula u školu.

My kids have already grown up, but it feels like they only started school yesterday.

Djeca is the ijekavian form used in Serbian in Bosnia and Herzegovina, contrasting with ekavian deca and signaling the regional standard.

Baš mi je merak što si svratio.

I'm really pleased you dropped by.

Merak is a widely used Ottoman-era loanword in Bosnia meaning deep pleasure or contentment, giving the sentence a distinctly local emotional tone.

Notes like these come with every AIRTranslate translation, so you learn why locals phrase it that way as you go.

How Serbian (Bosnia & Herzegovina) differs

Bosnian-Serb standard: write EVERY reply in Cyrillic (ћирилица), never Latin; ijekavian; ti informal, Vi formal.

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Localization Notes explaining why locals say it that way