Čovek čeka autobus.

A simple English-friendly pronunciation is:

• Čovek ≈ CHO-vek
• čeka ≈ CHE-ka
• autobus ≈ OW-to-boos

A few useful notes:

• č is like ch in chocolate
• e is usually like e in met
• Serbian spelling is very phonetic, so words are usually pronounced as written

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:

CHO-vek CHE-ka OW-to-boos

Čovek means man or sometimes human being/person, depending on context.

In this sentence, it is usually understood as a man or the man.

Grammatically, čovek is:

• masculine
• singular
• in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence

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

So Čovek čeka autobus can mean:

• A man is waiting for a bus
• The man is waiting for the bus
• A man is waiting for the bus
• The man is waiting for a bus

The exact meaning depends on context.

If you need to make it clearer, Serbian usually does that through:

• context
• word order
• intonation
• extra words like taj (that) or jedan (one/a certain)

Because in Serbian, the verb čekati takes a direct object.

In English, we say:

• wait for the bus

But in Serbian, you simply say:

• čekati autobus

So there is no preposition equivalent to for here.

This is very common for English speakers to notice, because Serbian and English structure this idea differently.

Čeka is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb čekati (to wait).

That means it matches a subject like:

• on = he
• ona = she
• ono = it
• or any singular noun, such as čovek

So:

• ja čekam = I wait / I am waiting
• ti čekaš = you wait / you are waiting
• on/ona čeka = he/she is waiting
• čovek čeka = the man is waiting

It can mean both, depending on context.

The Serbian present tense often covers both:

• The man waits for the bus
• The man is waiting for the bus

In real life, with this sentence by itself, most people will usually understand it as:

• The man is waiting for the bus

But grammatically, Serbian present tense can express either a general action or an action happening now.

Yes, the object is in the accusative case here, but autobus happens to look the same in the accusative and nominative.

That is because:

• autobus is a masculine inanimate noun
• for many masculine inanimate nouns, nominative = accusative

So:

• nominative: autobus
• accusative: autobus

That is why the form does not visibly change.

This is different from some other nouns. For example, with a masculine animate noun, the accusative often changes form.

Because čovek is the subject of the sentence, so it stays in the nominative case.

Compare:

• Čovek čeka autobus. = The man is waiting for the bus.
• Vidim čoveka. = I see the man.

In the second sentence, čoveka is the direct object, so it is in the accusative.

A very important pattern in Serbian is:

• subject → usually nominative
• direct object → often accusative

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

The neutral, basic order is:

• Čovek čeka autobus.

But depending on emphasis, you might also hear:

• Autobus čeka čovek.
• Čeka čovek autobus.

These can sound marked or stylistically different, because Serbian uses word order to show emphasis, topic, and focus.

For a learner, the safest default is:

• subject + verb + object

So Čovek čeka autobus is the best basic version to learn first.

Čekati is imperfective.

That means it usually describes:

• an ongoing action
• a repeated action
• a general process

So in this sentence, čeka naturally fits the idea of is waiting.

Serbian often has aspect pairs, and learners should know that aspect is very important. Here, čekati is the normal verb you would expect for an ongoing action like waiting.

Yes, sometimes čovek can mean person or human being, not only man in the narrow male sense.

However, in a simple sentence like this, many learners first read it as:

• a man

Whether it means man or person depends on context.

So the sentence could be understood as:

• A man is waiting for the bus
• or, in some contexts, A person is waiting for the bus

You would change all the parts that need to agree:

• Čovek čeka autobus. = The man is waiting for the bus.
• Ljudi čekaju autobus. = The people are waiting for the bus.

Notice:

• čovek becomes ljudi in the plural
• čeka becomes čekaju

This is useful because čovek has an irregular plural:

• singular: čovek
• plural: ljudi

So you cannot simply guess the plural from the singular form.