Ovaj gospodin je moj komšija.

Ovaj means this, and it has to agree with the noun it describes.

Here, gospodin is masculine singular nominative, so the correct form is ovaj.

Compare:

• ovaj gospodin = this gentleman
• ova žena = this woman
• ovo dete = this child

So the form of this changes depending on the gender, number, and case of the noun.

Gospodin is a polite word meaning gentleman, sir, or sometimes Mr. depending on context.

In this sentence, it most naturally means gentleman:

• Ovaj gospodin = this gentleman

It is more formal and polite than čovek, which simply means man or person in many contexts.

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

So:

• je = is

The sentence structure is:

• Ovaj gospodin = this gentleman
• je = is
• moj komšija = my neighbor

Unlike some other Slavic languages, Serbian normally does use the present-tense form of to be in sentences like this:

• On je student. = He is a student.
• Ona je lekar. = She is a doctor.

So je cannot normally be omitted in a standard sentence like this.

Because moj has to agree with komšija, not with the speaker.

This is very important for English speakers: the possessive word agrees with the thing/person possessed, not with the person who owns it.

Here:

• komšija is masculine singular
• so you use moj

Compare:

• moj komšija = my male neighbor
• moja komšinica = my female neighbor
• moje dete = my child

So even if the speaker is a woman, she would still say moj komšija if the neighbor is male.

Because some Serbian masculine nouns end in -a. That is normal.

Komšija is one of those masculine nouns. Even though the ending looks feminine to an English learner, its grammatical gender here is masculine.

You can tell from:

• moj komšija — masculine possessive
• the meaning — it refers back to gospodin, which is male

Other masculine nouns with -a endings include words like:

• sudija = judge
• tata = dad
• gazda = boss/owner

So the ending -a does not always mean feminine.

The sentence is in the nominative singular.

More specifically:

• ovaj gospodin is the subject, so it is in the nominative
• moj komšija is also in the nominative here, because it is a predicate noun after je

So the main forms are:

• ovaj — masculine singular nominative
• gospodin — masculine singular nominative
• moj — masculine singular nominative
• komšija — masculine singular nominative

If the case changed, the forms would change too. For example:

• Vidim ovog gospodina. = I see this gentleman.
• Poznajem mog komšiju. = I know my neighbor.

Not completely. Serbian word order is more flexible than English word order because case endings help show grammatical relationships.

The neutral order here is:

• Ovaj gospodin je moj komšija.

But you could also say:

• Moj komšija je ovaj gospodin.

That version means the same basic thing, but the emphasis changes:

• Ovaj gospodin je moj komšija focuses first on this gentleman
• Moj komšija je ovaj gospodin focuses first on my neighbor

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

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

Instead, Serbian shows definiteness through:

• context
• demonstratives like ovaj = this
• words like jedan when needed for a/an

So:

• ovaj gospodin already clearly means this gentleman
• if you just said gospodin, the exact English translation could be the gentleman or sometimes just gentleman, depending on context
• jedan gospodin can mean a gentleman when you want that idea explicitly

No. A very common alternative is sused.

So you could also say:

• Ovaj gospodin je moj sused.

Both komšija and sused mean neighbor. In everyday speech, komšija is extremely common. Sused is also standard and may sound a bit more neutral depending on region and context.

For a female neighbor, you would often hear:

• komšinica
• suseda in some usage patterns, though komšinica is often clearer for learners

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

• ovaj ≈ OH-vai
• gospodin ≈ gos-po-DEEN
• je ≈ yeh
• moj ≈ moy
• komšija ≈ KOM-shee-ya

A few useful spelling notes:

• j is pronounced like English y
• š is pronounced like English sh

So komšija is not pronounced with an English j sound. It is kom-shi-ya.

In Cyrillic, it is:

Овај господин је мој комшија.

Serbian uses both:

• Latin script: Ovaj gospodin je moj komšija.
• Cyrillic script: Овај господин је мој комшија.

They represent the same sentence, and Serbian spelling is very regular, so it is useful to learn both scripts early.