In this first lesson, John googles for 'learning Macedonian online', after finding out he could be stationed there next year. Let's imagine he used wikibooks, shall we?
Conversation
This morning, John's boss told him he might be stationed in Macedonia next year. So John said, why not learn some Macedonian?
- John: (to himself) OK, www.wikibooks.org, search for Macedonian, here we go! Click on 'Macedonian for beginners', then 'lesson numero uno'... Oh wait, what's this? Is it Chinese? LOL, no, it's Cyrillic, I better learn the alphabet first! Oh, no need to right now, there's transcription, and phonetic approximation available. Nice! Here we go...
| Cyrillic | Transcription | Approximation |
| Петар: Здраво Марија! | Petar: Zdravo Marija! | PEH-tar: ZDRA-voh MAR-eeya! |
| Марија: Здраво Петар! Како си? | Marija: Zdravo Petar! Kako si? | MAR-eeya: ZDRA-voh PEH-tar! KAH-co sea? |
| Петар: Добро, благодарам! А ти? | Petar: Dobro, blagodaram! A ti? | PEH-tar: DOUGH-bro, blahg-O-dar-ahm! A tea? |
| Марија: И јас многу добро! | Marija: I jas mnogu dobro! | MAR-eeya: Ee yas MNO-goo DOUGH-bro! |
| Петар: Супер! Чао! | Petar: Super! Chao! | PEH-tar: Sooper! Chow! |
| Марија: Чао! | Marija: Chao! | MAR-eeya: Chow! |
- John: (aloud) Здраво!? Zdravo? Oh, it's pronounced ZDRA-voh. That first letter looks like the number three. Wow! And the 'V' looks like a 'B', not to mention that 'R' is actually 'P'. The 'A' is normal though! Thank goodness for that! Nice, now let's see what it says further down. She says 'Zdravo' too. Then tells him something about the sea. Oh wait, that's the verb to be. Then says something about some dough to his bro? I better read the grammar section and the vocabulary, this is not making any sense to me!
Grammar
This lesson briefly goes over the personal pronouns and the verb 'to be'.
Personal pronouns
Macedonian, like many other languages in the world, has three grammatical genders, which are masculine, feminine and neuter, and two grammatical numbers, which are singular and plural. Here is a table with all personal pronouns in Macedonian.
| singular | plural | |
| 1st | јас | ние |
| 2nd | ти | вие |
| 3rd (m) | тој | тие |
| 3rd (f) | таа | тие |
| 3rd (n) | тоа | тие |
To be
Probably just like in any other language in the world, the verb 'to be' is irregular, and is conjugated as follows:
| singular | plural | |
| 1st | јас сум | ние сме |
| 2nd | ти си | вие сте |
| 3rd (m) | тој е | тие се |
| 3rd (f) | таа е | тие се |
| 3rd (n) | тоа е | тие се |
Vocabulary
- Марија - Maria
- Петар - Peter
- здраво - hello
- добро - good
- како? - how?
- благодарам - I thank (thanks)
- многу - very, a lot
- супер - super
- чао - ciao, bye bye
Next lesson
In the next lesson, John goes to his first class in New Jersey, where he is taught by his new teacher Slavica.
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Learning Macedonian Lessons Intermediate level Advanced level Special level
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