Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Serbian: Kakav posao želite? - What kind of job do you want?

Hardcore Serbian
/Making weekend plans with friends
/Kakav posao želite?

Kakav posao želite?

Word

Kakav posao želite?

Meaning

What kind of job do you want?

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Serbian

Lesson

Making weekend plans with friends

Breakdown of Kakav posao želite?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Serbian grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Serbian now

Questions & Answers about Kakav posao želite?

What does kakav mean here?

Kakav means what kind of or what sort of.

So Kakav posao želite? is asking about the type of job someone wants, not about one specific job from a list.

A useful comparison:

Kakav posao želite? = What kind of job do you want?
Koji posao želite? = Which job do you want?

So kakav asks about the nature or qualities of something.

Why is it posao? What case is it in?

Posao is the noun meaning job.

In this sentence, it is the direct object of želite (you want), so it should be in the accusative case.

For this noun, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular:

nominative: posao
accusative: posao

That happens because posao is a masculine inanimate noun. In Serbian, masculine inanimate nouns usually have the same form in nominative and accusative singular.

What form is želite?

Želite is the 2nd person plural form of the verb želeti (to want).

It can mean:

you want — when speaking to more than one person
you want — when speaking politely/formally to one person

So in this sentence, želite is either:

plural you
or polite singular you

That is very common in Serbian.

How would I say this to one person informally?

You would say:

Kakav posao želiš?

Here, želiš is the informal singular form, used with one person you address as ti.

So compare:

Kakav posao želiš? = informal, one person
Kakav posao želite? = polite to one person, or plural

Why doesn’t Serbian use a word like do in questions, as English does?

Because Serbian does not form questions the way English does.

In English, you often need do:

What kind of job do you want?

In Serbian, you simply use the question word plus normal verb forms:

Kakav posao želite?

There is no equivalent of English do-support here. The question is clear because of:

the question word kakav
normal sentence structure
intonation in speech
the question mark in writing

Is the word order fixed?

The most natural order here is:

Kakav posao želite?

But Serbian word order is more flexible than English word order.

You may also hear:

Kakav želite posao?

This can sound slightly different in emphasis, but it means essentially the same thing.

For a learner, Kakav posao želite? is the safest and most standard version to use.

What is the difference between kakav and koji?

This is a very common question.

kakav = what kind / what sort
koji = which one

Examples:

Kakav posao želite? = asking about the type of job
Maybe: office work, remote work, part-time work, creative work
Koji posao želite? = asking you to choose one specific job
Maybe from a list of available positions

So if the focus is on category or characteristics, use kakav.

Why doesn’t Serbian have a or the here?

Because Serbian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So posao can mean:

a job
the job

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English usually translates it as:

What kind of job do you want?

But Serbian itself does not mark a versus the with a separate word.

Does posao mean the same thing as work?

Not exactly.

Posao usually means:

job
occupation
sometimes task/business depending on context

It is often more concrete than English work.

For example:

Tražim posao. = I’m looking for a job.
Imam puno posla. = I have a lot of work / a lot to do.

Notice that Serbian also has posla, another form of the same noun, in different grammar contexts.

So in Kakav posao želite?, posao is best understood as job.

Is this sentence formal?

Yes, it is usually polite or formal if addressed to one person, because of želite.

You might hear it:

in a job agency
in an interview-related conversation
in customer service
when speaking respectfully to someone you do not know well

If you are speaking casually to a friend, želiš would be more natural:

Kakav posao želiš?

How is ž pronounced in želite?

The letter ž is pronounced like the s in measure or the g in genre for many English speakers.

So želite sounds roughly like:

zhe-lee-te

That is only an approximation, but it helps.

Also:

ž is always written clearly in Serbian Latin script
it is a separate letter, not just a decorated z

So želite should not be pronounced like zelite with a plain English z.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io