Questions & Answers about Ovo je važan sastanak.
Why is it ovo, not ovaj, if sastanak is a masculine noun?
Because ovo here means this in the sense of this thing / this here. In Serbian, when you point something out and identify it with to be, you often use ovo even if the noun that follows is masculine, feminine, or plural.
So:
- Ovo je važan sastanak. = This is an important meeting.
- Ovo je moj brat. = This is my brother.
By contrast, ovaj usually directly modifies a masculine noun:
- ovaj sastanak = this meeting
So:
- Ovo je važan sastanak. = a full sentence
- ovaj važan sastanak = a noun phrase, not a complete sentence by itself
What does je mean here?
Je is the 3rd person singular present tense of biti = to be.
So:
- ja sam = I am
- ti si = you are
- on/ona/ono je = he/she/it is
In Ovo je važan sastanak, je simply means is.
Why is the adjective važan and not važna or važno?