Autobus još nije stigao, ali će uskoro doći.

In this sentence, još is used with a negative verb, so još nije stigao means hasn’t arrived yet.

A useful shortcut:

• još
  • affirmative often means still / more
• još
  • negative often means yet

Examples:

• Još čekam. = I’m still waiting.
• Još nije stigao. = He/it hasn’t arrived yet.

So here još is not more; it is the natural Serbian way to express yet.

Nije stigao is the Serbian perfect tense:

• nije = negative form of je (is/has) from biti = to be
• stigao = past participle of stići = to arrive

So literally, Serbian forms this with:

• auxiliary verb
  • past participle

In English, this often corresponds to either:

• didn’t arrive, or
• hasn’t arrived

depending on context.

Here, because the arrival is relevant now, English naturally uses hasn’t arrived.

Because in Serbian, when this tense is negated, the auxiliary is negated:

• je stigao = has arrived
• nije stigao = has not arrived

You do not negate the participle itself.

This is the normal pattern in Serbian perfect-tense negatives.

Because the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

The subject is autobus, which is:

• masculine
• singular

So the correct form is:

• stigao

Compare:

• Autobus je stigao. = masculine singular
• Pošta je stigla. = feminine singular
• Pismo je stiglo. = neuter singular
• Autobusi su stigli. = masculine plural

In Serbian, nouns have grammatical gender. Autobus is a masculine noun, which is typical for many nouns ending in a consonant.

That matters because adjectives and past participles must agree with it:

• nov autobus
• autobus je stigao

So stigao is masculine because autobus is masculine.

Yes, they overlap, but they are not exactly the same.

• stići often emphasizes reaching the destination / arriving
• doći means to come, but in many contexts it also works as to arrive

In transport situations, both can sound natural.

So:

• još nije stigao = hasn’t arrived yet
• uskoro će doći = it will come soon

This mix sounds natural in Serbian. A speaker is not necessarily trying to make a strong contrast between the two verbs.

Yes. For example:

• Autobus još nije došao, ali će uskoro doći.
• Autobus još nije stigao, ali će uskoro stići.

Both are possible.

Still, the original version sounds very natural because Serbian often varies near-synonyms like this. It avoids repetition and sounds smoother.

This is Future I in Serbian:

• će = auxiliary from hteti (will)
• doći = infinitive to come

So:

• će doći = will come

With a full pronoun, you could say:

• On će doći. = He will come.

Serbian future commonly uses:

• ću/ćeš/će/ćemo/ćete/će
  • infinitive

Because će is a clitic, and Serbian clitics tend to appear near the beginning of the clause.

In ali će uskoro doći:

• ali = but
• će comes immediately after that clause opener

This is very normal Serbian word order.

You may also hear other orders depending on emphasis, but the original is standard and natural.

Uskoro is an adverb meaning soon.

It modifies the future action:

• će uskoro doći = will come soon

Like many Serbian adverbs, it can move around somewhat depending on style or emphasis, but in this sentence its placement is perfectly natural.

Because Serbian often omits repeated subjects when they are already clear from context.

The second clause:

• ali će uskoro doći

still refers to autobus.

English usually repeats the subject:

• but it will come soon

Serbian often does not need to.

Because Serbian has no articles like the or a/an.

So autobus can mean:

• a bus
• the bus

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, context makes it clear that it means the bus.

Because that would not be the most natural way to say hasn’t arrived yet.

Još nije stigao refers to a completed arrival that has not happened up to now. That is exactly what English expresses with hasn’t arrived yet.

By contrast:

• ne stiže
• or ne dolazi

can suggest things like:

• it isn’t arriving
• it’s not coming
• it isn’t making it
• habitual or ongoing non-arrival

So for this exact meaning, još nije stigao is the best standard choice.

Both stići and doći are perfective verbs.

That means they present the action as a single whole event, with a clear endpoint:

• reaching the destination
• arriving
• coming

That fits this sentence perfectly, because the speaker is talking about one specific arrival.

If you used imperfective verbs like:

• stizati
• dolaziti

the meaning would shift toward:

• repeated action
• ongoing process
• habit
• a less bounded event

So the perfective verbs are the natural choice here.

Because ali means but and joins two independent clauses:

• Autobus još nije stigao
• ali će uskoro doći

In Serbian, as in English, a comma is normally used before ali in this kind of sentence.