Daljinski je na stolu, pored knjige.

to be

Breakdown of Daljinski je na stolu, pored knjige.

• knjiga: book
• sto: table
• na: on

Questions & Answers about Daljinski je na stolu, pored knjige.

Why is daljinski used by itself? Doesn’t it literally mean remote as an adjective?

Yes. Daljinski originally means something like remote or distance-related as an adjective, but in everyday Serbian it is very commonly used on its own to mean remote control.

The full phrase is daljinski upravljač, but native speakers often shorten it to just daljinski.

So in this sentence, daljinski is a noun in practical use, even though historically it comes from an adjective.

Why is the verb je in the second position?

This is because je is a clitic form of biti (to be), and Serbian clitics typically go in second position in the sentence or clause.

So:

• Daljinski je na stolu.
• not normally Daljinski na stolu je.

The first element here is Daljinski, and the clitic je comes right after it.

This second-position rule is very common in Serbian and affects short forms like:

• je
• sam
• si
• ga
• se
• mi, etc.

Why is it na stolu and not na sto?

Because na can take different cases depending on whether you are talking about: