Daska je pored zida.

Daska is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence: the thing that is somewhere.

The basic dictionary form is also daska. It is a feminine noun.

So here:

• daska = subject
• nominative singular
• feminine

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

So:

• ja sam = I am
• ti si = you are
• on/ona/ono je = he/she/it is

In this sentence, je means is:

• Daska je pored zida.
• The board is next to the wall.

Because pored requires the genitive case.

The basic form is:

• zid = wall

After pored, it changes to:

• zida = of the wall / next to the wall

So:

• pored zida = next to the wall

This is very important in Serbian: many prepositions require a specific case, and pored takes the genitive.

Pored means next to, beside, or by.

It usually describes something being at the side of something else.

Examples:

• pored kuće = next to the house
• pored stola = next to the table
• pored zida = next to the wall

So in this sentence, it tells you the board’s location relative to the wall.

There is no separate word for the in Serbian.

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

So daska can mean:

• a board
• the board

and zid / zida can mean:

• a wall
• the wall

The exact meaning depends on the context.

So Daska je pored zida could be understood as:

• The board is next to the wall or
• A board is next to a/the wall

depending on the situation.

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

The neutral version is:

• Daska je pored zida.

You could also say:

• Pored zida je daska.

That still means basically the same thing, but the emphasis changes:

• Daska je pored zida. = neutral, starting with the board
• Pored zida je daska. = emphasis on the location

One important detail: je is a clitic, so it tends to appear near the second position in the sentence.

In the present tense, je does not change for gender.

So:

• On je ovde. = He is here.
• Ona je ovde. = She is here.
• Ono je ovde. = It is here.

Gender shows up more clearly in some other forms, especially the past tense:

• Daska je bila pored zida. = The board was next to the wall.

Here bila shows feminine gender.

So in your sentence, je is correct even though daska is feminine.

A rough English-style pronunciation is:

DAHS-kah yeh POH-red ZEE-dah

A few helpful points:

• j in Serbian is pronounced like English y
• z is always like z in zoo
• vowels are usually clear and short

Word by word:

• daska ≈ DAHS-kah
• je ≈ yeh
• pored ≈ POH-red
• zida ≈ ZEE-dah

Sometimes yes, but they are not always identical.

• pored = next to, beside
• kraj = by, beside, next to
• uz = along, up against, beside

Examples:

• Daska je pored zida. = The board is next to the wall.
• Daska je kraj zida. = very similar; also next to the wall
• Daska je uz zid. = more like against the wall or right by the wall

So if the board is simply near the wall, pored zida is very natural. If it is leaning directly against the wall, uz zid may be even better.

Not always exactly. Daska can mean things like:

• board
• plank
• a flat wooden piece

The best English translation depends on context.

For example, in some situations daska sounds more like plank, while in others board is better.

So in your sentence, the exact image depends on the larger context:

• a wooden board
• a plank
• some flat piece of wood

You usually learn the noun together with its gender.

In this case:

• daska is feminine
• zid is masculine

A useful pattern is:

• many nouns ending in -a are feminine, like daska
• many nouns ending in a consonant are masculine, like zid

This pattern is very common, though not every noun follows it perfectly.

If you want boards instead of board, you would say:

• Daske su pored zida.

Changes:

• daska → daske = boards
• je → su = are

But zida stays the same here, because it is still after pored, which still requires the genitive singular of zid.

So:

• Daska je pored zida. = The board is next to the wall.
• Daske su pored zida. = The boards are next to the wall.

In standard Serbian, for a full sentence like this, you normally keep the verb:

• Daska je pored zida.

Leaving out je here would sound incomplete or nonstandard in ordinary usage.

Serbian sometimes omits forms of to be in special styles, headlines, notes, or very informal speech, but for normal learning purposes, you should use je.