Cev je u zidu.

Because u means in/inside, and when it shows a location in Serbian, it takes the locative case.

• base form: zid = wall
• locative singular: zidu
• so: u zidu = in the wall

If there were movement into the wall, Serbian would normally use the accusative instead:

• Cev je u zidu. = The pipe is in the wall.
• Stavljam cev u zid. = I am putting the pipe into the wall.

Serbian uses u for something being inside or within something, and na for something being on a surface or at a place understood as a surface/spot.

So:

• u zidu = in the wall / inside the wall
• na zidu = on the wall

That is an important contrast:

• Slika je na zidu. = The picture is on the wall.
• Cev je u zidu. = The pipe is in the wall.

Je is the 3rd person singular form of biti = to be, and in Serbian it is a clitic. Clitics usually come in the second position of the sentence or clause.

So in a neutral sentence:

• Cev je u zidu.

Here, Cev is the first element, so je comes right after it.

This is very normal Serbian word order. English speakers often expect the verb to behave more like English is, but Serbian short forms of to be follow clitic placement rules.

It can mean either. Serbian does not have articles like a and the.

So cev can be understood as:

• a pipe
• the pipe

The exact meaning depends on context. If the meaning was already given to you, that context is doing the job that articles do in English.

Cev is feminine.

This can be confusing because many Serbian nouns ending in a consonant are masculine, but cev is one of the nouns you simply have to memorize as feminine.

That matters for agreement in longer sentences, for example with adjectives:

• Nova cev je u zidu. = The new pipe is in the wall.

Here nova is feminine singular because cev is feminine.

Yes, basically. Cev and cijev are regional/standard variants.

• cev is the usual Serbian Ekavian form
• cijev is the Ijekavian form, common in Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, and also some Serbian varieties

So for standard Serbian from Serbia, cev is completely normal.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

tsev yeh oo ZEE-doo

A few sound notes:

• c = ts as in cats
• j = y as in yes
• u = oo as in food
• zid starts with a normal z sound

So:

• Cev → tsev
• je → yeh
• u → oo
• zidu → zee-doo

Yes. Serbian word order is more flexible than English word order, although the clitic je still has to stay in second position.

For example:

• Cev je u zidu. = neutral
• U zidu je cev. = emphasizes the location, in the wall
• U zidu je ta cev. = That pipe is in the wall

So the order can change for emphasis, but it is not random.

It can mean both, depending on context. In everyday building or plumbing context, cev is usually best translated as pipe.

In other contexts, English might prefer tube, but in this sentence, with u zidu, a learner will usually understand it as a pipe inside the wall.

They are:

• cev = pipe
• biti = to be
• zid = wall

In the sentence:

• cev is already in its dictionary form
• je is a present-tense form of biti
• zidu is a case form of zid after u for location