Na šalteru mi kažu da ovde popunim obrazac.

It means at the counter / at the service window.

In Serbian, šalter is the kind of counter or window you find in places like a bank, post office, government office, or clinic.

The preposition na with the locative case often means at or on a place:

• na šalteru = at the counter
• na stolu = on the table

So Na šalteru mi kažu... means something like At the counter, they tell me...

Because after na in the sense of location, Serbian uses the locative case.

So:

• nominative: šalter
• locative: šalteru

That is why you get:

• na šalteru = at the counter

This is very common:

• u gradu = in the city
• na poslu = at work
• na fakultetu = at the faculty / university

Mi means to me.

It is the unstressed dative form of ja:

• ja = I
• meni / mi = to me

So:

• mi kažu = they tell me

The full sentence literally works like:

• At the counter, they tell me that I should fill out the form here.

Kažu is 3rd person plural: they say / they tell.

Here it often has an impersonal feel. Serbian frequently uses they in situations where English might say:

• they told me
• someone told me
• I was told

So Na šalteru mi kažu... does not necessarily emphasize who exactly said it. It just means the people at the counter tell me.

Compare:

• kaže = he/she says
• kažu = they say

In this sentence, it is best understood as tell.

That is because it has:

• an indirect object: mi = to me
• a clause explaining what they told me: da ovde popunim obrazac

So:

• mi kažu da... = they tell me that... / they tell me to...

In English, say is possible in a literal sense, but tell sounds more natural here.

Because Serbian very often uses da + present-tense verb where English uses an infinitive.

So instead of something like:

• they tell me to fill out the form

Serbian says:

• mi kažu da popunim obrazac
• literally: they tell me that I fill out the form

But the real meaning is they tell me to fill out the form.

This da + present structure is extremely common in Serbian.

Popunim is the 1st person singular present form of the perfective verb popuniti.

Here it means:

• that I fill out
• more naturally: that I should fill out / to fill out

Why perfective? Because the action is viewed as a single completed task:

• fill out the form and finish it

This is very natural when someone gives an instruction.

Compare the aspect:

• popuniti = to fill out completely, finish filling out
• popunjavati / popunjati or similar imperfective forms = to be filling out / fill out repeatedly or as a process

In this sentence, the perfective form fits best because the speaker is being told to complete the form.

That is because after da, Serbian present-tense forms often do not correspond directly to plain English present tense.

In a clause like this, da popunim can express:

• intention
• instruction
• command
• expected action

So although it is formally a present-tense verb form, the meaning here is closer to:

• that I should fill it out
• to fill it out

This is normal Serbian grammar.

It is accusative singular, because it is the direct object of popunim.

You are filling out what?

• obrazac = the form

For this masculine inanimate noun, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular:

• nominative: obrazac
• accusative: obrazac

So the form does not change here, even though the case function does.

Because Serbian has no articles.

There is no separate word for a/an or the.

So obrazac can mean:

• a form
• the form

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, English would usually say the form, because a specific form is probably meant.

Ovde means here.

It tells you the place where the action should happen:

• da ovde popunim obrazac = that I fill out the form here

In other words, they are telling the speaker to complete the form at this location, not somewhere else.

Serbian word order is fairly flexible, so ovde could move around for emphasis, but here it naturally goes before the verb:

• da ovde popunim obrazac

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

This sentence could also appear as:

• Mi kažu na šalteru da ovde popunim obrazac.
• Na šalteru kažu mi da ovde popunim obrazac. (less natural because clitics like *mi usually want second position)*
• Kažu mi na šalteru da ovde popunim obrazac.

The original:

• Na šalteru mi kažu da ovde popunim obrazac.

sounds very natural and puts na šalteru first, setting the scene: At the counter...

Because mi is a clitic, and clitics in Serbian tend to go in the second position of the clause.

In:

• Na šalteru mi kažu...

the first unit is Na šalteru, and then the clitic mi comes right after it.

This is a very important Serbian word-order pattern:

• first element
• then clitics
• then the rest

So mi kažu is not random placement; it follows a normal Serbian rule.

It can be understood as either, depending on context, but most naturally it sounds like a specific narrated situation in the present:

• At the counter they tell me to fill out the form here.

Serbian often uses the present tense in storytelling or when describing what is happening in a situation.

Without more context, it does not strongly suggest repetition. It just reports what happens in that moment.

Yes, depending on the standard or regional variety.

• ovde is standard in Serbian
• ovdje is more typical in some other Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian varieties or regional speech

In standard Serbian, ovde is the expected form.

Literally, yes, but in normal usage that is not the best interpretation.

Because of the structure mi kažu da + verb, the sentence is most naturally understood as:

• They tell me to fill out the form here
• or They tell me that I should fill out the form here

So even though English say might appear in a literal word-for-word gloss, the actual meaning is closer to tell/instruct.