Locale Sr 001

Reference data for the Serbian locale — endonym Српски, written in the Cyrillic script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: sr-001
• ISO 639-1: sr
• ISO 639-3: srp
• Script: Cyrl (Cyrillic)
• Region: 001 (World)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 8,200,000
• L2 (additional): 3,800,000
• L1+L2 (total): 12,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Serbian. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

• Locale Sr Ba (Serbian (Bosnia and Herzegovina))
• Locale Sr Me (Serbian (Montenegro))
• Locale Sr Rs (Serbian (Serbia))

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, few, other (3 forms).

• one — v = 0 and i % 10 = 1 and i % 100 != 11 or f % 10 = 1 and f % 100 != 11 (e.g. 1, 21, 31, 41, …)
• few — v = 0 and i % 10 = 2..4 and i % 100 != 12..14 or f % 10 = 2..4 and f % 100 != 12..14 (e.g. 2~4, 22~24, 32~34, 42~44, …)
• other — everything else (e.g. 0, 5~19, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Serbian is a South Slavic language written in both Cyrillic and Latin script; both are official in Serbia and used in everyday life. It has ekavian (Serbia) and ijekavian (Bosnia, Montenegro, parts of Serbia) pronunciation and spelling variants. Choose the script and the variant before translating. See Locale Sr Rs, Locale Sr Ba, and Locale Sr Me.

Translate ideas, not words.

• Serbian is highly inflected, with seven cases and three genders. Restructure English sentences; do not translate word for word.
• Serbian uses the future tense with "ћу" (ću) plus infinitive or "da" plus present: Нећу сачувати or Нећу да сачувам; the "da" construction is common in Serbian, whereas Croatian prefers the infinitive.
• Re-express idioms by meaning.

Grammar that trips translators.

• Plurals: one, few, and other categories (1 датотека, 2 датотеке, 5 датотека); genitive plural after five. See Unicode Messageformat.
• Verbs have aspect; clitics occupy second position in the clause.
• Adjectives and nouns agree in gender, number, and case.

Register.

• "Ти" is informal and "Ви" is formal (capitalized in letters to one person). UI and public text use "Ви" or an impersonal style.
• UI commands use the imperative (Сачувајте) or the infinitive (Сачувати).

Orthography and typography.

• Cyrillic and Latin map one to one (digraphs lj, nj, dž correspond to љ, њ, џ). Provide both scripts when the audience uses both, and convert with a reliable one-to-one transliterator; do not mix scripts in one text.
• Ekavian: лепо, млеко, река; ijekavian: лијепо, млијеко, ријека. Choose one variant for the whole text.
• Quotation marks „…“; dates 17. октобар 2026. (with periods after the day and year); decimal comma; space or period for thousands; currency dinar (дин. or RSD).
• Follow the Matica srpska orthography (Правопис српскога језика).

Common pitfalls

• Mixing Cyrillic and Latin script in one text.
• Mixing ekavian and ijekavian forms.
• Using Croatian vocabulary or the infinitive-only future.
• Missing the period after ordinal dates.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Matica srpska, Правопис српскога језика
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Serbian (Cyrillic and Latin) (https://aka.ms/serbian-cyrillic-styleguide, https://aka.ms/serbian-latin-styleguide)