Ona pažljivo gleda mapu, jer ne zna gde je muzej.

She is looking at the map carefully, because she does not know where the museum is.

Breakdown of Ona pažljivo gleda mapu, jer ne zna gde je muzej.

• biti: to be
• ona: she
• ne: not
• gde: where

Questions & Answers about Ona pažljivo gleda mapu, jer ne zna gde je muzej.

Why is it mapu and not mapa?

Because mapu is in the accusative case. The verb gledati (to look at / watch) usually takes a direct object, and direct objects are often in the accusative.

• nominative: mapa = a map
• accusative: mapu = a map (as the thing being looked at)

So:

• Ona gleda mapu. = She is looking at the map.

This is one of the most common things English speakers need to get used to in Serbian: nouns change form depending on their role in the sentence.

Why is muzej not changing form?

In gde je muzej, muzej is the subject of the clause where the museum is, so it stays in the nominative form.

Compare:

• Muzej je ovde. = The museum is here.
• Ne zna gde je muzej. = She doesn’t know where the museum is.

Even though English uses where the museum is, Serbian still keeps muzej in the basic subject form, because it is the thing that is somewhere.

What does pažljivo mean grammatically?

Pažljivo is an adverb. It describes she is looking.