Evanitious Triglot Newbie France Joined 4520 days ago 36 posts - 39 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1, Italian
| Message 1 of 5 28 September 2014 at 8:16pm | IP Logged |
Hi !
I know that in Croatian/Serbian "gdje si ?" or "gde si ?" means "where are you" ?
Sometimes I even read and hear "de si ?"
But lately I've encountered it and it seems to mean something like "what's up ?" or "what's going on ?"
Is it correct ?
What do people usually reply to that in Serbian/Croatian ? xD
I mean, most of the time when people ask me "what's up ?" I usually say "nothing much".
_Gde si ?
_pa, ništa... ništa novo
on google they translate "nothing much" by "ništa puno" but I'm not sure if it's correct, it sounds like a literal translation.
Thanks in advance.
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Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4584 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
| Message 2 of 5 28 September 2014 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
As far as I understand, "Gdje si?" is sometimes used as an informal greeting. I've never
heard it said in real life but I've seen it on TV and I got the impression that it just
means "Hey, how are you?". I'm not sure what the correct response is but if in doubt I
would probably just smile and say it back :)
More often for "What's up?" I have heard people say "šta ima?" to which a fairly frequent
response seems to be "nema ništa". I'm guessing that's the equivalent of saying "nothing
much", in response to that question at least.
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nikolic993 Diglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 3781 days ago 106 posts - 205 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian
| Message 3 of 5 25 January 2015 at 2:59pm | IP Logged |
In Serbia we usually say "'de si?", and the most common(and I believe the only logical) response for it is "Evo me"(Here I am)+ a smile/disappointed facial expression depending on your mood. The question "Šta ima?"("What's up?" lit. What does he/she/it have.) usually comes right after it. This is of course a very colloquial register.
Edited by nikolic993 on 25 January 2015 at 3:01pm
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Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4456 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian
| Message 4 of 5 26 January 2015 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
I don't know Serbian, but I speak Greek, which shares many idiomatic expressions with its neighbor (i.e. both are
part of the Balkan Sprachbund). Greek uses the exact corresponding expression, Που είσαι; with the standard
response, Εδώ είμαι. In these expressions, as far as I understand it, the verb "to be" really is meant as the equivalent
of the present perfect tense in English, since Greek (and, I would guess, Serbian) lacks a perfect for "to be." So really,
these mean, "Where have you been?" and "I've been right here," and conversationally function more like, "Long time,
no see. What have you been up to lately." "Not much."
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carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3990 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 5 of 5 26 January 2015 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
Here I hear "Što radiš" that I've always understand meant "what's going on." Maybe it's a regional thing?
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