Pobednik je moj saigrač.

to be

Breakdown of Pobednik je moj saigrač.

• moj: my
• pobednik: the winner
• saigrač: a teammate

Questions & Answers about Pobednik je moj saigrač.

Why is je in the middle of the sentence?

Je is the 3rd person singular present form of biti (to be) — so it means is.

In Serbian, short forms like je are clitics, and clitics usually go in second position in the sentence or clause. That is why you get:

Pobednik je moj saigrač.

Not usually:

Pobednik moj saigrač je.

So even though English puts is between subject and complement in a more fixed way, Serbian is also following a special clitic-placement rule here.

What case are pobednik and saigrač in?

Both are in the nominative singular.

This sentence is an equational sentence: one noun is being identified as another noun.

• pobednik = nominative singular
• saigrač = nominative singular

So the structure is basically:

[Nominative noun] + je + [nominative noun phrase]

That is normal with biti when you are saying that one person or thing is another person or thing.

Why is it moj saigrač, not moja saigrač or moje saigrač?

Because saigrač is a masculine singular noun, and the possessive adjective moj has to agree with it.