Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ chángcháng zài gōngyuán gēn tāmen wán.

我在公园常常跟它们玩。 – Slightly stronger focus on 在公园 (it’s at the park that I often play with them).
常常我在公园跟它们玩。 – Grammatically okay, but sounds marked / poetic or like contrast (e.g., “As for often, it’s in the park that I play with them.”). Not the most natural everyday choice.

So the original 我常常在公园跟它们玩 is the most neutral, natural order.

What’s the difference between 常常 and 经常? Could I say 我经常在公园跟它们玩 instead?

常常 (chángcháng) and 经常 (jīngcháng) both mean “often / frequently.”

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
我经常在公园跟它们玩。

Both are correct and very natural. Nuance:

常常 – slightly more colloquial / everyday.
经常 – very common too; can sound a tiny bit more formal in some contexts, but in spoken Chinese people use both freely.

In many situations, you can treat them as interchangeable. There’s no meaning difference here.

What exactly is 在 doing here? Is it “at/in” or the progressive marker “be doing”?

In this sentence, 在 is a preposition meaning “at / in”, introducing a location:

在公园 = “at the park / in the park”

Structure:

我 (subject)
常常 (frequency adverb)
在公园 (location phrase, headed by 在)
跟它们玩 (verb phrase: play with them)

The progressive “be doing” 在 comes directly before a verb:

我在玩。 – I am playing.
我在公园玩。 – I am playing in the park. (Here 在公园 is place, 在 before 玩 is progressive.)

In your sentence, 在 is followed by 公园 (a noun), not directly by 玩, so it’s the location preposition, not the progressive marker.

Why is it 在公园 and not just 公园? Can I also say 去公园?

If you just say 公园, it’s just a noun: “park.”
在公园 is a prepositional phrase: “at the park / in the park.”

To say where you do something, Mandarin usually uses:

在 + place

So:

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
I often play with them at the park.

If you use 去公园, the focus shifts to going there:

我常常去公园跟它们玩。
I often go to the park to play with them.

Both are natural but slightly different:

在公园 emphasizes the location of the activity.
去公园 emphasizes the act of going there (movement).

What does 跟 mean in this sentence? Can I use 和 instead?

Here, 跟 (gēn) means “with.”

跟它们玩 = “play with them.”

跟 and 和 (hé) overlap in meaning:

Both can mean “and” when linking nouns:
- 我和他 = 我跟他 = he and I.
Both can mean “with (someone)” when used before a verb:
- 跟他说 / 和他说 = speak with him.

In this sentence you can say:

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
我常常在公园和它们玩。

Both are fine. 跟 sounds a bit more colloquial and is very common in spoken Mandarin. Many speakers prefer 跟 in patterns like 跟…说, 跟…玩, 跟…见面.

The order 跟它们玩 feels reversed compared to English “play with them”. Is this a general pattern?

Yes. The Mandarin pattern is:

跟 + person/thing + Verb
= Verb + with + person/thing (in English)

So:

跟它们玩 – play with them
跟朋友聊天 – chat with friends
跟老师说 – speak with the teacher
跟他一起去 – go together with him

So you can think of 跟 as a preposition (with) that comes before the object, then the verb comes at the end of the phrase.

Why is it 它们 and not 他们? What’s the difference?

Mandarin has three written forms for “they / them”:

他们 – they (masculine / mixed group of humans)
她们 – they (all female humans)
它们 – they (animals, things, abstract entities)

In 它们, the left part 它 is the pronoun “it” (non-human), so 它们 means “they / them (non‑human).”

So:

Talking about dogs, cats, birds, etc., as non‑human creatures → 它们 is standard.
Talking about a group of people → 他们 or 她们.

Note: in speech, all three are pronounced tāmen; the difference is only visible in writing.

With beloved pets, some people intentionally use 他们 (treating them like people), but the neutral, textbook‑correct choice is 它们.

There is no object after 玩. Doesn’t “play” need something, like a game or toy?

玩 (wán) can be:

Intransitive – “to play / to have fun / to hang out”
- 我们在这儿玩。 – We’re playing / hanging out here.
- 小孩儿在外面玩。 – The kids are playing outside.
Transitive – “to play (something)”
- 玩游戏 – play games
- 玩电脑 – play on the computer
- 玩手机 – play with the phone

In your sentence, 玩 is used without a specific object, so it just means “play / have fun / hang out.”

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
I often play / hang out with them in the park.

If you want to be more specific:

我常常在公园跟它们玩球。 – …play ball with them.
我常常在公园跟它们玩游戏。 – …play games with them.

How do I show past, present, or future with this sentence? Chinese here looks “tenseless.”

Chinese usually doesn’t mark tense the way English does. 我常常在公园跟它们玩 is neutral; context tells you if it’s about a present habit, a past habit, or even a future plan.

Some common ways to clarify time:

Past habit
- 以前我常常在公园跟它们玩。
  I used to often play with them in the park.
- 小时候我常常在公园跟它们玩。
  When I was little I often played with them in the park.
One specific past time
- 昨天我在公园跟它们玩了。
  Yesterday I played with them in the park.
  (了 shows completed action.)
Future
- 以后我会常常在公园跟它们玩。
  In the future I will often play with them in the park.
- 明天我打算在公园跟它们玩。
  Tomorrow I plan to play with them in the park.

So the base sentence expresses a general habit; adding time words or aspect markers (like 了, 过) gives more precise time information.

Where do time words like 昨天, 明天, 每天, or 周末 go in this kind of sentence?

A common word order template is:

Subject + (Time) + (Frequency) + (Place) + (Other) + Verb + Object

Using your sentence:

我 (subject)
昨天 / 明天 / 每天 / 周末 (time)
常常 (frequency)
在公园 (place)
跟它们 (other / companion)
玩 (verb)

Examples:

我每天常常在公园跟它们玩。 – Every day I often play with them in the park.
我周末常常在公园跟它们玩。 – On weekends I often play with them in the park.
昨天我在公园跟它们玩了。 – Yesterday I played with them in the park.
明天我会在公园跟它们玩。 – Tomorrow I will play with them in the park.

You can sometimes swap the order of time and frequency for slightly different emphasis, and both usually sound okay:

我常常周末在公园跟它们玩。 – I often, on weekends, play with them in the park.

Can I say 我在公园常常跟它们玩 instead of 我常常在公园跟它们玩? Is there a difference?

Both are grammatically correct:

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
我在公园常常跟它们玩。

The difference is mainly in focus:

我常常在公园跟它们玩。
– Neutral; feels like “I often play with them in the park.”
The frequency word 常常 comes early, so “often” stands out slightly.
我在公园常常跟它们玩。
– Slightly more emphasis on at the park as the “stage” where things happen; then within that location, it’s often.

In everyday speech, 我常常在公园跟它们玩 is the most typical, but the other version does not sound wrong.

Can I add 一起 somewhere, like 跟它们一起玩? Where does 一起 go and what does it add?

Yes. 一起 (yìqǐ) means “together”, and it commonly goes after 跟/和 + person and before the verb:

跟它们一起玩 – play together with them.

So your full sentence:

我常常在公园跟它们一起玩。
I often play together with them in the park.

Nuance:

跟它们玩 – I play with them.
跟它们一起玩 – I play together with them; it slightly emphasizes that we are doing the activity jointly (not, say, just watching them play).

In casual speech, could any words be dropped from 我常常在公园跟它们玩?

Yes, depending on context, Chinese speakers often omit information that is obvious:

If it’s clear who “I” is, you can drop 我:
- （我）常常在公园跟它们玩。
If the location is already known from context, you might drop 在公园:
- 我常常跟它们玩。 – I often play with them.
If “with them” is clear (for example, they’re being talked about already), you might drop 跟它们:
- 我常常在公园玩。 – I often play in the park.

But you would not normally drop 常常 if you still want the meaning “often,” and you can’t drop the verb 玩 because it carries the main action.

So the full form is clear and complete, and then conversation context tells you which parts can be safely left out.