On dolazi u grad.

On means he.

In Serbian, subject pronouns are often left out because the verb ending already shows who the subject is. So:

• On dolazi u grad. = He is coming into town / He comes to town.
• Dolazi u grad. can also mean the same thing, if the context already makes it clear who he is.

You include on when you want to:

• emphasize he
• contrast him with someone else
• make the subject extra clear

For example:

• On dolazi u grad, a ona ostaje kod kuće.
  He is coming into town, and she is staying at home.

Dolazi is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb dolaziti.

That means it matches:

• on = he
• ona = she
• ono = it

Some present-tense forms of dolaziti are:

• ja dolazim = I come / I am coming
• ti dolaziš = you come / you are coming
• on/ona/ono dolazi = he/she/it comes / is coming
• mi dolazimo = we come / are coming
• vi dolazite = you come / are coming
• oni/one/ona dolaze = they come / are coming

Because u can take different cases depending on movement vs. location.

In this sentence, u grad shows movement into the city, so grad is in the accusative:

• u grad = into town / to the city

If you were talking about being in the city, with no movement, you would use the locative:

• u gradu = in the city / in town

So compare:

• On dolazi u grad. = He is coming into town
• On je u gradu. = He is in town

This is a very important pattern in Serbian:

• u + accusative = motion toward/into
• u + locative = position in

Yes, grad is in the accusative singular here.

For masculine inanimate nouns like grad, the accusative singular is usually the same as the nominative singular. So:

• nominative: grad
• accusative: grad

That is why you do not see a visible change here.

But in the locative, it changes:

• u gradu

So even though u grad looks simple, it is still a case form.

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

So grad can mean:

• a city
• the city
• town
• the town

The exact meaning depends on context.

In many everyday situations, u grad often means something like:

• to town
• into town
• to the city

English needs an article, but Serbian usually does not.

It can mean both, depending on context.

The Serbian present tense often covers meanings that in English may be expressed by either:

• the simple present: he comes
• the present continuous: he is coming

So On dolazi u grad. could mean:

• He comes to town
• He is coming into town
• He is coming to the city

The broader context tells you which one is most natural.

It can also sometimes have a future-like meaning when talking about scheduled or expected events:

• Sutra dolazi u grad. = He is coming into town tomorrow.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Serbian.

• dolaziti = imperfective
• doći = perfective

Dolaziti focuses on the process, repetition, or general action of coming:

• On dolazi u grad. = He is coming / He comes to town.

Doći focuses on a completed arrival:

• On će doći u grad. = He will come to town.
• Došao je u grad. = He came to town / He has arrived in town.

A useful rough contrast:

• dolaziti = coming, being on the way, coming regularly
• doći = to arrive, to come as a completed event

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

The neutral order here is:

• On dolazi u grad.

But other orders are possible, depending on emphasis:

• Dolazi u grad.
  Neutral, with omitted subject.

• U grad dolazi.
  Puts more focus on into town.

• Dolazi on u grad.
  Can sound contrastive or expressive, depending on context.

Even though word order can change, not every order sounds equally natural in every situation. For a learner, On dolazi u grad. is a good standard pattern.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• On ≈ ohn
• dolazi ≈ doh-LAH-zee
• u ≈ oo
• grad ≈ grahd

A rough full pronunciation:

• ohn doh-LAH-zee oo grahd

A few notes:

• r in grad is a trilled or tapped r
• z in dolazi sounds like z in zoo
• Serbian spelling is very phonetic, so words are usually pronounced close to how they are written

U usually means in, into, to, depending on the case and context.

Here it means movement into or to a place:

• u grad = into town / to town

This is different from:

• u gradu = in town

So u is the normal preposition for movement into an enclosed space or place understood as being entered.

In many cases:

• u školu = to school / into school
• u kuću = into the house
• u grad = into town

Yes, it can.

Because dolaziti is imperfective, it can describe:

• something happening now
• a repeated action
• a general habit

So depending on context, On dolazi u grad. could mean:

• He is coming to town now
• He comes to town
• He comes into town regularly

If you want to make the habitual meaning clearer, you can add words like:

• često = often
• svake nedelje = every week

For example:

• On često dolazi u grad. = He often comes to town.

Yes, very often.

In everyday speech, ići u grad or doći u grad can mean going or coming to town, often especially from a village, suburb, or outskirts into the main urban center.

So grad does not always need to mean a large city in a formal sense. It can also simply mean town in the practical, everyday sense.

That is why u grad is a very common and natural expression.

The three biggest points are:

1. The pronoun is optional
   On can be omitted if the subject is clear.

2. The verb ending shows the person
   dolazi tells you it is he/she/it.

3. Movement vs. location changes the case

   • u grad = into town, motion, accusative
   • u gradu = in town, location, locative

If you understand those three things, you are learning some very central Serbian grammar from this one short sentence.