Questions & Answers about Ne vidim nikoga u parku.
The most natural translation is “I don’t see anyone in the park.”
Literally, it is closer to “I not see nobody in the park,” but in English we avoid that kind of double negative, while Croatian requires it.
Croatian uses negative concord, which means all the relevant words in a negative sentence become negative.
So you get:
- Ne vidim nikoga. = I don’t see anyone / I see nobody.
- Ne znam ništa. = I don’t know anything / I know nothing.
Using just ne without a negative pronoun would sound wrong:
✗ Ne vidim nekoga does not mean “I don’t see anyone”; it actually sounds like “I don’t see someone (specific).”
For “anyone / nobody,” you need ne + nikoga.
Nikoga is a negative pronoun, meaning “no one / nobody / anyone (in negative sentences)”.
It is the form of nitko (“no one”) used for the object of the verb (genitive/accusative singular).
- Subject: Nitko nije u parku. – No one is in the park.
- Object: Ne vidim nikoga. – I don’t see anyone / I see no one.
Because “anyone”/“no one” here is the thing you see (the object), Croatian uses nikoga, not nitko.
Nitko is the nominative form, used for the subject of the sentence:
- Nitko ne govori. – No one is speaking.
In Ne vidim nikoga u parku, the “no one” is the object of vidim (“I see”), so Croatian uses the object form nikoga, not the subject form nitko.
Both nikoga and nikog are correct and mean “no one / anybody (in negative)” in this position.
They are just two variants of the same case form:
- Ne vidim nikoga u parku. – completely standard, slightly more formal/neutral.
- Ne vidim nikog u parku. – very common in everyday speech, a bit shorter and more colloquial.
Meaning and grammar are the same here.
Vidim means “I see”.
It is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb vidjeti (“to see”):
- ja vidim – I see
- ti vidiš – you see
- on/ona/ono vidi – he/she/it sees
- mi vidimo – we see
- vi vidite – you (pl./formal) see
- oni/one/ona vide – they see
In the sentence Ne vidim nikoga u parku, ne simply negates this verb: ne vidim = I do not see.
Croatian usually drops subject pronouns like “I” because the verb ending shows who the subject is.
The ending -m in vidim already tells you it is 1st person singular (“I”).
You can say Ja ne vidim nikoga u parku, but that adds emphasis, like “I don’t see anyone (but maybe someone else does).”
Parku is the locative singular of park.
After the preposition u meaning “in/inside” with a static location (“in the park”), Croatian uses the locative case:
- u parku – in the park (location, where?)
- u gradu – in the city
- u školi – at/in school
So parku is “in the park,” not just “park.”
Not with this meaning.
- u parku (locative) = in the park → location, where something is.
- u park (accusative) = into the park → movement, where to you are going.
Your sentence is about not seeing anyone in the park (location), so it must be u parku, not u park.
Compare:
- Idem u park. – I’m going to the park (into the park).
- Sjedim u parku. – I’m sitting in the park.
Yes, Croatian word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatical:
- Ne vidim nikoga u parku. – neutral: I don’t see anyone in the park.
- U parku ne vidim nikoga. – mild emphasis on “in the park”.
- Nikoga ne vidim u parku. – stronger emphasis on “no one” (“It’s absolutely no one that I see in the park”).
The basic meaning stays the same; word order mainly affects emphasis and focus, not grammar.
You use the past of vidjeti with the auxiliary biti (“to be”), negated as nisam:
- If you are male: Nisam vidio nikoga u parku.
- If you are female: Nisam vidjela nikoga u parku.
Both mean “I didn’t see anyone in the park.”
You drop the negation and use the positive indefinite pronoun nekoga / nekog (“someone”):
- Vidim nekoga u parku.
- Vidim nekog u parku.
Both mean “I see someone in the park.”
Notice the contrast:
- Ne vidim nikoga u parku. – I don’t see anyone in the park.
- Vidim nekoga u parku. – I see someone in the park.