Bankomat je pored banke.

Because pored requires the genitive case in Serbian.

The basic dictionary form is banka = bank.
After pored (next to / beside), it changes to the genitive singular:

• banka → nominative
• banke → genitive

So:

• pored banke = next to the bank

This is one of the first important Serbian patterns to learn: many prepositions force a specific case.

Je is the 3rd person singular present tense of biti (to be).

So in this sentence:

• bankomat = ATM
• je = is
• pored banke = next to the bank

So je is simply the word is.

Bankomat is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence structure is:

• Bankomat = subject
• je = verb
• pored banke = location phrase

So bankomat stays in its basic form here.

Yes, in this meaning, pored is normally followed by the genitive.

Examples:

• pored banke = next to the bank
• pored škole = next to the school
• pored kuće = next to the house

So when you see pored, you should usually expect the next noun to be in the genitive.

Most commonly, pored means next to or beside.

So Bankomat je pored banke most naturally means:

• The ATM is next to the bank
• The ATM is beside the bank

It usually suggests fairly close physical position.
For a looser idea like near, Serbian often uses other expressions too, depending on context.

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

So:

• bankomat can mean an ATM or the ATM
• banka can mean a bank or the bank

The exact meaning depends on context.

That is why Bankomat je pored banke can be translated as:

• The ATM is next to the bank
• An ATM is next to the bank

Context tells you which is more natural.

No, Serbian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Bankomat je pored banke.

But you could also say:

• Pored banke je bankomat.

That version puts more focus on the location, roughly like:

• Next to the bank, there is an ATM.

Both are grammatical, but the first one is the most straightforward for a beginner.

Yes. Bankomat is a masculine noun.

You can tell because it ends in a consonant, which is a very common pattern for masculine nouns in Serbian.

That is why in the present tense you get:

• Bankomat je... = The ATM is...

If you later learn adjectives, they will agree with bankomat as masculine.

Yes. Serbian uses both Latin and Cyrillic scripts.

In Cyrillic, the sentence is:

Банкомат је поред банке.

It means exactly the same thing.
Both scripts are standard in Serbian.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

Bankomat je pored banke
≈ bahn-ko-maht yeh paw-red bahn-keh

A few useful points:

• j in Serbian sounds like English y
• e is usually pronounced like e in met, but a bit cleaner and shorter
• r is rolled or tapped
• Serbian spelling is very phonetic, so words are usually pronounced much like they are written

So je sounds like yeh, not like English jee.

Sometimes, but it is not exactly the same.

• pored banke = next to / beside the bank
• kod banke = by / near the bank, often less exact

So if you mean the ATM is physically right beside the bank building, pored banke is better.

If you only mean it is somewhere in the area of the bank, kod banke might work in conversation.

Literally, it is:

• Bankomat = ATM
• je = is
• pored = beside / next to
• banke = of the bank

So the location phrase is literally something like beside of the bank, but in natural English we simply say next to the bank.

That kind of literal structure is very common when learning Serbian cases: the English translation is natural, but the Serbian grammar works through case endings.