Zaposleni je stigao prekasno.

It is originally an adjective meaning employed, but here it is being used as a noun, meaning employee or employed person. This is very common in Serbian.

In this sentence, zaposleni is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

A feminine version would be zaposlena.

Serbian does not have articles like the or a/an. Whether something is definite or indefinite is usually understood from context.

So zaposleni could mean:

• the employee
• an employee

The English translation chooses whichever fits the context best.

Je is the 3rd person singular form of biti = to be, but here it is not acting like the main verb is. It is an auxiliary used to form the past tense.

So:

• je stigao = arrived / has arrived

Stigao is the masculine singular past participle of stići = to arrive. It agrees with zaposleni, which is masculine singular here.

Compare:

• Zaposleni je stigao — a male employee arrived
• Zaposlena je stigla — a female employee arrived

Yes, stići is a perfective verb. That means it describes a completed action: the person successfully arrived.

That fits this sentence well, because it talks about one finished event.

Its imperfective partner is stizati, which is used for repeated, habitual, or ongoing arrival situations.

• kasno = late
• prekasno = too late

The prefix pre- often adds the meaning too or excessively.

For example:

• skupo — expensive
• preskupo — too expensive

So prekasno is stronger than kasno.

In Serbian, short unstressed words like je usually go in the second position in the sentence or clause. This is a very important pattern.

So this order is natural:

• Zaposleni je stigao prekasno.

This is also possible:

• Stigao je prekasno.

But starting a neutral statement with je would normally sound wrong.

Not in this sentence. The verb shows that the subject is singular:

• je stigao = singular masculine

So here zaposleni refers to one employee, not a group.

If it were plural, you would expect:

• Zaposleni su stigli prekasno. — The employees arrived too late.

The auxiliary and the participle must match the subject.

Examples:

• Zaposlena je stigla prekasno. — a female employee arrived too late
• Zaposleni su stigli prekasno. — male or mixed group of employees arrived too late
• Zaposlene su stigle prekasno. — female employees arrived too late

A rough pronunciation for an English speaker is:

zah-pohs-LEH-nee yeh STEE-gah-oh preh-KAHS-noh

A few helpful points:

• z sounds like z in zoo
• j in je sounds like y in yes
• g is always a hard g, as in go
• Serbian pronunciation is usually quite phonetic, so words are mostly pronounced as written