U stanu nema struje.

to have

Breakdown of U stanu nema struje.

• u: in
• stan: apartment
• struja: electricity

Questions & Answers about U stanu nema struje.

Why is it u stanu and not u stan?

Because u can take two different cases:

• Locative for location: u stanu = in the apartment
• Accusative for movement toward something: u stan = into the apartment

So in U stanu nema struje, we are talking about where something is or is not, not motion, so Serbian uses the locative.

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What case is stanu?

Stanu is the locative singular of stan.

• stan = apartment / flat
• u stanu = in the apartment

This is a very common pattern:

• u gradu = in the city
• u školi = in the school
• u autu = in the car

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What exactly does nema mean here?

Here nema means there is no or there isn’t any.

So the sentence is literally something like:

• U stanu nema struje.
• In the apartment, there is no electricity.

In natural English, that often becomes: