Brak je važan.

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

So the sentence is built like:

• Brak = subject
• je = is
• važan = adjective describing the subject

Literally, it is Marriage is important.

Unlike in some other Slavic languages, Serbian normally uses the present-tense form of to be in this kind of sentence.

Brak is in the nominative singular.

It is the subject of the sentence, so nominative is the expected case.

Basic breakdown:

• brak = nominative singular
• grammatical gender: masculine
• meaning: marriage

Because važan has to agree with brak.

In Serbian, adjectives agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Since brak is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative:

• masculine: važan
• feminine: važna
• neuter: važno

So:

• brak je važan
• knjiga je važna
• pitanje je važno

Yes. Serbian adjectives change form depending on the noun they describe.

For važan, some common forms are:

• važan = masculine singular
• važna = feminine singular
• važno = neuter singular
• važni / važne / važna = plural, depending on gender and pattern

It can also change by case, not just by gender and number.

So in this sentence, važan is just the form that matches brak.

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

So brak can mean marriage in a general sense, and the exact interpretation depends on context.

In Brak je važan, the meaning is usually general: Marriage is important.

English needs an article or a zero-article structure, but Serbian simply uses the noun without one.

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

The neutral, straightforward version is:

• Brak je važan.

But you could also say:

• Važan je brak.

That alternative word order gives more emphasis or contrast, something like It is marriage that is important or Marriage is what is important, depending on context.

So the original sentence is the most neutral and natural basic order.

Usually, no in standard Serbian for this kind of present-tense sentence.

You normally say:

• Brak je važan.

Leaving out je would sound incomplete in standard usage.

Serbian sometimes drops forms of to be in special styles, headlines, poetry, or very informal contexts, but for normal learning purposes you should keep je here.

The letter ž is pronounced like the s in measure or the g in genre for many English speakers.

So važan sounds approximately like:

• VAH-zhan

with stress typically on the first syllable: vȁžan.

A rough guide:

• va = like va in father
• ž = like the sound in measure
• an = simple ahn

Yes. In Serbian, grammatical gender is not the same as natural gender.

Brak means marriage, which is not a person, but the noun is still grammatically masculine. That is why the adjective is važan, not važna or važno.

This is very common in Serbian:

• a noun has a grammatical gender
• adjectives and some other words must match that gender

Važan is an adjective.

It describes the noun brak and tells you a quality of it: that it is important.

In this sentence, it works as a predicate adjective, because it comes after je:

• Brak = subject
• je = linking verb
• važan = predicate adjective

This is similar to English Marriage is important, where important describes the subject through the verb is.