Odlaganje počinje posle skladištenja.

Because the subject of the sentence is odlaganje, and that is a singular neuter noun.

• odlaganje = the subject
• počinje = begins / starts

In Serbian, the verb agrees with the subject in number and often clearly shows person. Since odlaganje is singular, the verb is also singular: počinje.

A rough breakdown:

• odlaganje počinje = the postponing / storing away begins

Even though an English speaker may feel that a word ending in -anje looks abstract or “mass-like,” grammatically it still behaves as a normal singular noun here.

Skladištenja is in the genitive case.

That happens because the preposition posle means after, and posle normally requires the genitive in Serbian.

So:

• posle
  • genitive
• skladištenje → skladištenja

Examples:

• posle ručka = after lunch
• posle sastanka = after the meeting
• posle skladištenja = after storage / after warehousing

So the ending changes because the noun is not standing alone—it is controlled by the preposition posle.

These are very common Serbian verbal nouns. They are nouns made from verbs and often correspond to English forms like:

• storing
• processing
• delaying
• packaging

Here:

• odlaganje comes from a verb related to putting aside / delaying / depositing, depending on context
• skladištenje comes from skladištiti = to store / warehouse

These nouns are very common in formal, technical, administrative, and instructional language.

For learners, it helps to recognize that:

• -anje / -enje often signals the act/process of doing something
• such nouns are usually neuter singular

No. A very common alternative is nakon.

So you could also say:

• Odlaganje počinje nakon skladištenja.

Both posle and nakon mean after and are followed by the genitive.

A rough difference:

• posle is very common in everyday language
• nakon can sound a bit more formal or written, though both are normal

So in this sentence, either one works well.

Yes, they can seem similar, and the exact difference depends a lot on context.

In general:

• skladištenje is specifically storage / warehousing, especially placing goods in storage
• odlaganje can mean putting aside, setting down, depositing, disposal, or even postponement, depending on context

So the sentence uses two different process nouns:

• one process happens first: skladištenje
• another process begins after it: odlaganje

A native English speaker often wants a one-to-one translation, but Serbian nouns like these can be a bit broader and more context-dependent.

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

So:

• odlaganje can mean storage, the storage, a storage process, depending on context
• skladištenja can mean of storage / of the storage, again depending on context

English requires articles much more often than Serbian does. Serbian usually expresses definiteness through context, not through separate words.

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

The original sentence:

• Odlaganje počinje posle skladištenja.

A possible alternative:

• Posle skladištenja počinje odlaganje.

Both are grammatical. The difference is mostly about focus or style:

• starting with Odlaganje puts emphasis on what is beginning
• starting with Posle skladištenja puts emphasis on the time sequence

Even though Serbian allows flexibility, the original order is very natural and neutral.

Počinje comes from the imperfective verb počinjati / počinjati? More standardly, the common pair is:

• počinjati = to be beginning / to begin repeatedly or over time
• početi = to begin (perfective)

In the present tense, Serbian often uses the imperfective form for general statements like this:

• Odlaganje počinje... = Storage begins...

Why this matters:

• a perfective present often refers to the future in Serbian
• an imperfective present can describe a general fact, process, schedule, or ongoing situation

So počinje is exactly what you would expect in a neutral statement like this.

In a way, yes. It is similar in function to an English gerund or process noun, but grammatically it is a full noun in Serbian.

Compare:

• English: Storing begins after warehousing.
• Serbian: Odlaganje počinje posle skladištenja.

The Serbian form behaves like a noun:

• it has gender: neuter
• it has number: singular here
• it can change by case
• it can be the subject of a sentence

So the comparison with an English gerund is useful, but it is best to think of it as a real noun derived from a verb.

Normally, no—in this meaning, both posle and nakon take the genitive.

So you get:

• posle skladištenja
• nakon skladištenja

A learner should memorize them as:

• posle + genitive
• nakon + genitive

That is the standard pattern.

The dictionary form is skladištenje.

A good way to recognize it:

• many neuter nouns end in -e in the dictionary form
• in the genitive singular, many of them change to -a

So:

• nominative singular: skladištenje
• genitive singular: skladištenja

The same pattern appears with many other neuter nouns:

• pitanje → pitanja
• pakovanje → pakovanja
• rešenje → rešenja

So if you see skladištenja after posle, it is natural to identify the base form as skladištenje.

Yes, but it sounds somewhat formal, technical, or procedural because of the abstract nouns odlaganje and skladištenje.

That style is very common in:

• instructions
• regulations
• technical documentation
• process descriptions
• administrative language

In everyday conversation, speakers might sometimes choose a more verb-based sentence if the context allows it. But as a process statement, this sentence is completely natural.