Questions & Answers about Nekada je ova ruta bila laka.
Here nekada means once, formerly, at one time, or in the past.
So Nekada je ova ruta bila laka means something like:
- This route used to be easy
- This route was once easy
- At one time, this route was easy
A useful warning: nekada can sometimes also mean sometimes in other contexts, so you have to rely on context. In this sentence, with the past tense, the meaning is clearly about an earlier time.
Because je is a clitic in Serbian. Clitics are short unstressed words that usually come in the second position in a clause.
So in:
- Nekada je ova ruta bila laka
the first element is Nekada, and je comes right after it.
This is very normal in Serbian. English speakers often expect the verb to stay together as one unit, but Serbian often splits things up because of clitic placement.
You could also say:
- Ova ruta je nekada bila laka
That is also natural. In that version, Ova ruta is the first phrase, and je still comes after it.