Dete pije mleko.

A simple approximation is:

• Dete → DEH-teh
• pije → PEE-yeh
• mleko → MLEH-koh

A few useful notes:

• Serbian spelling is very phonetic: words are usually pronounced the way they are written.
• j is pronounced like English y in yes.
• e is usually like e in met.
• o is a clear o, like in more but shorter.

So pije is two syllables: pi-je, not one.

Both dete and mleko are neuter nouns.

• dete = child
• mleko = milk

In Serbian, grammatical gender is very important. Nouns can be:

• masculine
• feminine
• neuter

Many neuter nouns end in -o or -e, so these endings are a strong clue.

Important: grammatical gender is not the same as natural gender.
So dete is grammatically neuter even though a child is, in real life, a boy or a girl.

Pije is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb piti (to drink).

So:

• ja pijem = I drink / am drinking
• ti piješ = you drink / are drinking
• on/ona/ono pije = he/she/it drinks / is drinking

Since dete is singular, the verb must also be singular, so you get dete pije.

Mleko is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb pije.

• dete = subject → nominative
• mleko = object → accusative

But here is the key point: for many neuter inanimate nouns, the accusative looks the same as the nominative.

So:

• nominative: mleko
• accusative: mleko

That is why the form does not change in this sentence.

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

So Dete pije mleko can mean, depending on context:

• A child is drinking milk
• The child is drinking milk
• Child drinks milk in a more general sense

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

This is one of the biggest differences from English, and learners often need time to get used to it.

Yes. Serbian word order is more flexible than English word order, because cases help show what each word is doing.

The neutral, most basic order here is:

• Dete pije mleko.

That is the most natural way to say it in isolation.

Other orders are possible, but they usually add emphasis, contrast, or a special tone. For example, moving mleko earlier could emphasize milk. Still, for a beginner, it is best to learn and use the basic subject–verb–object order first.

Yes, very often.

Serbian often drops subject pronouns and sometimes even noun subjects when the meaning is clear from context.

• Pije mleko. = He/She/It is drinking milk or is drinking milk, depending on context

Because pije is 3rd person singular, you know the subject is singular, but you do not know from the verb alone whether it is he, she, it, or the child. Context supplies that information.

So if you specifically want to mention the child, you keep dete.

It can do both, depending on context.

Dete pije mleko can mean:

• The child is drinking milk right now
• The child drinks milk as a general habit

This is normal in Serbian present tense. English often distinguishes between is drinking and drinks, but Serbian present tense can cover both meanings.

If you want to make the meaning clearer, you usually add context words, such as:

• sada = now
• svako jutro = every morning

Because Serbian verbs do not form the present tense by simply adding one fixed ending to the infinitive. The stem can change.

For piti (to drink), the present tense is:

• pijem
• piješ
• pije
• pijemo
• pijete
• piju

So the j appears in the present-tense forms.

This is something you usually just learn as part of the verb’s conjugation.

The plural of dete is deca.

This is an important irregular noun:

• singular: dete = child
• plural: deca = children

So the plural version of the sentence would be:

• Deca piju mleko. = Children are drinking milk / Children drink milk

Notice that the verb also changes:

• dete pije
• deca piju

In Serbian Cyrillic, it is:

• Дете пије млеко.

Serbian officially uses both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, and they match very closely letter-for-letter.

So:

• Dete → Дете
• pije → пије
• mleko → млеко

If you learn one script, it becomes fairly easy to map it to the other.