Stan je stvarno velik.

to be

Breakdown of Stan je stvarno velik.

• velik: big
• stan: apartment
• stvarno: really; in fact

Questions & Answers about Stan je stvarno velik.

What is the grammatical role of each word in Stan je stvarno velik?

• Stan = a noun, the subject of the sentence. It is masculine singular nominative.
• je = is, the 3rd person singular present of biti meaning to be.
• stvarno = an adverb, meaning something like really or truly here. It modifies velik.
• velik = an adjective meaning big/large. Here it is used as the predicate adjective after je.

So structurally, it is very close to:

subject + is + adverb + adjective

Why is there no word for the or a?

Serbian has no articles. Unlike English, it normally does not use separate words for a/an or the.

So stan can mean:

• an apartment
• the apartment
• just apartment in a general sense

Which one is meant depends on the context, not on an article.

What exactly is je, and why not jeste?

Je is the normal unstressed form of is in Serbian.