Location, direction and source: u and na with the locative or accusative, and the place adverbs

In the last lesson you learned to say where something is: u gradu, na stanici. Now look at these two sentences: Radim u gradu (I work in the city) and Idem u grad (I am going to the city). Same preposition u, same noun grad — but the ending is different. That difference in ending is how Serbian tells being at a place apart from moving towards it. English does it with two prepositions (in / to); Serbian does it with one preposition and two cases.

Being there: u / na + locative

When nothing is moving towards the place — you are there, you work there, you wait there, you live there — u and na take the locative, exactly as in lesson 26. This answers the question gde? (where?).

Going there: u / na + accusative

When the verb expresses motion towards the place — going, travelling, arriving, coming — the same u and na take the accusative, the case you already use for the direct object (lesson 18). This answers the question kuda? (where to?). The choice of u or na does not change: a place that takes na for location takes na for direction too (na poslu → na posao, na moru → na more).

Feminine nouns in -a show the contrast most clearly: -i for being there, -u for going there (na stanici / na stanicu). Masculine and neuter nouns look the same in the accusative as in the nominative, so the only signal is the locative -u: u vozu means you are on the train, u voz means you are getting on it. Do not let u the preposition and -u the ending confuse you — u grad has no locative in it at all.

Which verbs mean motion?

• Motion → accusative: ići (idem — to go), putovati (putujem — to travel), stizati (stižem — to arrive), dolaziti (dolazim — to come), voziti se (vozim se — to ride, to drive).
• No motion → locative: biti (to be), raditi (to work), živeti (to live), čekati (to wait), sedeti (to sit), spavati (to sleep).

Ask yourself one question: does the subject end up somewhere it was not before? If yes, accusative. If it just stays where it is, locative. Čekam na stanici — I am already at the station, waiting. Idem na stanicu — I am not there yet.

Here, there and from there: the place adverbs

Very often you do not name the place at all — you just say here or there. Serbian has a small set of words for this, and they make the same three-way distinction as the cases, but with a fixed word instead of an ending. They never change form. Like ovaj / taj / onaj from lesson 9, they distinguish near me, near you, and over there.

• Location (gde?): ovde, tu, tamo — Čekam ovde. (I am waiting here.)
• Direction (kuda?): ovamo, tamo — Dođi ovamo! (Come here!) Idem tamo. (I am going there.)
• Source (odakle?): odavde, odatle — Voz polazi odavde. (The train leaves from here.)

Tamo does double duty: it means both there (location) and to there (direction), so Ona je tamo and Ona ide tamo both use it. The special direction word exists only for here: ovamo is where you go, ovde is where you are. English speakers say Dođi ovde — a Serb says Dođi ovamo.

The source adverbs are the one-word partners of iz and od + genitive from lesson 22. Odakle si? — Iz Beograda. names the place; Odavde. (from here) or Odatle. (from there) points at it. Same meaning, no case needed.