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Learn Hardcore Serbian: Druga soba je mala. - The second room is small.

Hardcore Serbian
/Shopping for groceries
/Druga soba je mala.

Druga soba je mala.

Word

Druga soba je mala.

Meaning

The second room is small.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Serbian

Lesson

Shopping for groceries

Breakdown of Druga soba je mala.

Questions & Answers about Druga soba je mala.

Why do druga and mala both end in -a?

Because soba is a feminine singular noun, and Serbian adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

So here:

druga = feminine singular
soba = feminine singular
mala = feminine singular

That is why all three match.

Compare:

drugi sto je mali = the second table is small
drugo selo je malo = the second village is small

What is je?

Je means is. It is the 3rd person singular present form of biti = to be.

So:

ja sam = I am
ti si = you are
on/ona/ono je = he/she/it is

In Druga soba je mala, je links the subject druga soba with the description mala, just like is in English.

Why is je placed after Druga soba and not right after druga?

Because je is a clitic in Serbian. Clitics usually go in the second position of the sentence or clause, not necessarily after the first single word.

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Here, Druga soba acts as the first unit, so je comes after that whole phrase:

Druga soba je mala.

This is normal Serbian word order.

Does druga mean second or other/another?

It can mean either, depending on context.

Common meanings of drugi/druga/drugo include:

second
other
another

So druga soba can mean:

the second room
the other room
another room

The exact meaning depends on the situation. Since the learner already has the sentence meaning, this is just a useful thing to know about the word druga.

Why is there no word for the or a?

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

So soba can mean:

a room
the room

The listener understands which one is meant from context.

That is why Druga soba je mala has no separate word for the.

What case is soba in here?

It is in the nominative singular.

Why?

soba is the subject of the sentence
subjects are normally in the nominative

The adjectives druga and mala also appear in nominative singular because they agree with soba.

Can the word order change?

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

The sentence:

Druga soba je mala.

is a neutral, natural way to say it.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

Mala je druga soba.
Druga je soba mala.

These versions are more marked and may sound emphatic, contrastive, or stylistically different. A beginner should usually stick with:

Druga soba je mala.

How is this sentence pronounced?

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

DROO-ga SO-ba ye MA-la

A few helpful notes:

j in Serbian sounds like English y
so je sounds like ye
every written letter is normally pronounced
Serbian spelling is quite phonetic

So Druga soba je mala is pronounced very close to the way it is written.

Is soba a feminine noun just because it ends in -a?

Usually, yes: nouns ending in -a are often feminine in Serbian, and soba is feminine.

That is why the adjectives take feminine forms:

druga
mala

But it is good to remember that -a does not guarantee femininity in every single case in Serbian. It is a strong pattern, not an absolute rule. Here, though, soba is definitely feminine.

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