Lekar me pregleda zbog kašlja.

doctor

Breakdown of Lekar me pregleda zbog kašlja.

• me: me
• zbog: because of
• kašalj: cough

Questions & Answers about Lekar me pregleda zbog kašlja.

Why is it me and not ja or mene?

Me is the unstressed accusative form of ja (I).

• ja = nominative, used for the subject
• me / mene = accusative, used for the direct object

In this sentence, the doctor is doing the action to me, so Serbian uses the object form.

Why not mene?
Because me is the short clitic form, which is the normal choice in an unmarked sentence. Mene is the full/stressed form and is used for emphasis or after certain prepositions.

So:

• Lekar me pregleda... = neutral
• Lekar mene pregleda... = more emphatic, like The doctor examines me

Why does me come right after lekar?

Because me is a clitic, and Serbian clitics usually go in second position in the sentence or clause.

So in:

Lekar me pregleda zbog kašlja.

the first element is Lekar, and the clitic me comes right after it.

This is very typical in Serbian. You will often see short pronouns and short auxiliary forms placed this way.

Why is it kašlja and not kašalj?

Because zbog requires the genitive case, and the genitive singular of is .