Advokat je korisnik biblioteke.

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

• advokat = lawyer
• je = is
• korisnik biblioteke = user of the library / library user

So the basic sentence pattern is:

Advokat je korisnik biblioteke.
= The lawyer is a user of the library.

Serbian normally has no articles, so there is no direct equivalent of English the or a/an in most sentences.

That means:

• advokat can mean a lawyer or the lawyer
• korisnik can mean a user or the user

You understand which one is meant from context, not from an article.

If needed, Serbian can add other words to make the meaning more specific, but in a simple sentence like this, no article is used.

Because this is a sentence with to be (biti), where one noun is identified as another noun.

Both advokat and korisnik are in the nominative singular:

• advokat = nominative singular
• korisnik = nominative singular

This is normal in Serbian with this kind of sentence:

• Marko je student.
• Ana je doktorka.
• Advokat je korisnik biblioteke.

So Serbian is saying that the subject is something, and the predicate noun usually stays in the nominative.

Because korisnik usually takes the genitive to show user of something.

So:

• biblioteka = library (nominative)
• biblioteke = of the library (genitive singular)

That means:

• korisnik biblioteke = user of the library

This is a very common Serbian pattern:

• vlasnik kuće = owner of the house
• direktor škole = director of the school
• korisnik biblioteke = user of the library

In this sentence, biblioteke is most naturally understood as genitive singular of biblioteka.

Why?

Because korisnik biblioteke normally means user of the library.
If you wanted user of libraries, you would usually rely on context, and often the phrase would be understood differently.

So here:

• biblioteka = library
• biblioteke = of the library

Even though some Serbian noun forms can look identical across cases or numbers, context usually makes the meaning clear.

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

The neutral order here is:

Advokat je korisnik biblioteke.

But you could also hear:

• Korisnik biblioteke je advokat.
• Advokat korisnik biblioteke je... (less natural here unless part of a larger phrase)
• Je li advokat korisnik biblioteke? = Is the lawyer a user of the library?

Changing the order can change focus or emphasis, but not necessarily the basic meaning.

Yes, advokat is grammatically masculine.

In a sentence like this, it normally refers to a male lawyer unless the context says otherwise.

For a female lawyer, Serbian often uses:

• advokatica

So you could say:

Advokatica je korisnica biblioteke.

Here both nouns change to feminine:

• advokatica = female lawyer
• korisnica = female user

Because Serbian often prefers a compact noun like korisnik when English might also use user, member, or patron, depending on context.

• korisnik literally means user
• korisnik biblioteke = user of the library / library user

A longer phrase such as:

osoba koja koristi biblioteku
= a person who uses the library

is possible, but it is less compact and less natural if you just want to state the role simply.

Its most literal meaning is user of the library.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• library user
• library patron
• sometimes even library member

But grammatically, Serbian is simply saying that the person is someone who uses the library. The exact English wording depends on the situation.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

Advokat je korisnik biblioteke
approx. AHD-vo-kaht yeh KO-ree-sneek bee-blee-oh-TEH-keh

A few helpful points:

• j in Serbian sounds like English y in yes
• je sounds roughly like ye
• r in Serbian is usually a rolled or tapped r
• stress can vary by dialect and speech style, but the guide above is close enough for a learner

In standard Serbian, no—you normally keep je in the present tense.

So you say:

Advokat je korisnik biblioteke.

not:

Advokat korisnik biblioteke.

Without je, it no longer sounds like a normal complete sentence of the same type. It starts to sound like a compressed label or heading rather than a full statement.

You make it negative by changing je to nije:

Advokat nije korisnik biblioteke.
= The lawyer is not a user of the library.

So:

• je = is
• nije = is not

This is one of the most common negative patterns in Serbian.