Pacijent čeka pregled.

Serbian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So Pacijent čeka pregled can mean:

• A patient is waiting for an examination
• The patient is waiting for the examination
• The patient is waiting for an examination

The exact meaning depends on context.

In Serbian, čekati takes a direct object. You do not need a preposition equivalent to for.

So:

• čeka pregled = is waiting for an examination
• literally: waits examination

This is very common with Serbian verbs: they do not always match English preposition patterns.

Pacijent is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

Pregled is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of čeka.

So the structure is:

• Pacijent = subject, nominative
• čeka = verb
• pregled = object, accusative

Because pregled is a masculine inanimate noun.

In Serbian, masculine inanimate nouns often have:

• nominative singular = pregled
• accusative singular = pregled

So even though pregled is the object here, its form does not change.

This is different from masculine animate nouns, where the accusative usually changes. For example:

• student (nominative)
• vidim studenta (accusative)

The dictionary form is čekati, which means to wait.

Čeka is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense

So it means:

• he waits
• she waits
• it waits
• or, depending on context, is waiting

It can mean both.

Serbian present tense often covers both:

• the simple present (waits)
• the present continuous (is waiting)

So Pacijent čeka pregled may mean:

• The patient waits for an examination
• The patient is waiting for an examination

In real usage, the second translation is often more natural in English.

Here pregled means a medical examination, checkup, or exam.

Because the subject is pacijent, the medical meaning is the natural one.

In other contexts, pregled can also mean things like:

• inspection
• review
• overview

But in this sentence, it clearly means a medical examination.

Yes, Serbian word order is more flexible than English, because case endings help show grammatical roles.

The neutral, straightforward order is:

• Pacijent čeka pregled.

You could also change the order for emphasis, for example:

• Pregled čeka pacijent.
• Pregled pacijent čeka.

But these sound marked or emphatic. For a learner, the basic sentence order subject + verb + object is the safest choice.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• pacijent: pa-tsi-yent
• čeka: CHEH-ka
• pregled: PREG-led

A few useful sound notes:

• c = ts as in cats
• č = ch as in church, but usually a bit firmer
• j = y as in yes

So the full sentence is roughly:

pa-tsi-yent CHEH-ka PREG-led

Often, yes.

A specifically female form is pacijentkinja.

So you could say:

• Pacijentkinja čeka pregled. = The female patient is waiting for an examination.

However, in some contexts people may still use pacijent more generally, especially in broader or institutional language. But if you want to be explicitly feminine, pacijentkinja is the clear form.

Yes, čekati is imperfective.

That matters because imperfective verbs are the normal choice for:

• ongoing actions
• repeated actions
• general present-time statements

So in this sentence, čeka naturally describes the action of waiting as something in progress.

A perfective verb would not normally be used the same way for a simple ongoing present action. This is a more advanced point, but it helps explain why čeka is the expected form here.