Breakdown of Danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
Questions & Answers about Danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
In Croatian, what looks like a double negative in English is actually normal grammar, called negative concord.
- ne vidim nikoga literally is “I not see nobody,” but it still means “I don’t see anybody”, not “I see someone.”
- The rule in standard Croatian is:
- If the sentence is negative, you use ne with the verb and a negative pronoun/adverb like nitko/nikoga (nobody), ništa (nothing), nigdje (nowhere), etc.
So:
- Ne vidim nikoga. = I don’t see anybody.
- Ne vidim nikoga nigdje. = I don’t see anyone anywhere.
If you said Vidim nikoga, it would be ungrammatical in standard Croatian.
Nikoga is the genitive / accusative singular of the pronoun nitko (nobody, no one).
Paradigm (for reference):
- Nominative: nitko – “nobody” (as the subject)
- Genitive / Accusative: nikoga – “nobody / no one” (as an object, or in “of nobody”)
- Dative: nikomu – “to nobody”
- Instrumental: nikim – “with nobody”
- Locative: ni o komu – “about nobody”
In your sentence:
- Ne vidim nikoga.
- The word nikoga is functioning as the direct object of vidim (“I see”), so it’s in the accusative/genitive form, which here looks the same.
So nikoga here = anybody / anyone in a negative context (“I don’t see anybody”).
Both nikoga and nikog are used in practice and both are understood.
- nikoga – full form
- nikog – shorter, more colloquial form
In careful/standard written Croatian, nikoga is more neutral and often preferred:
- Danas ne vidim nikoga. (standard/neutral)
In everyday speech, you will often hear:
- Danas ne vidim nikog. (more casual)
Meaning-wise, they’re the same: “I don’t see anyone.”
čak ni is an emphasizing phrase and can be translated as “not even.”
- čak = even (as in “surprisingly/especially”)
- ni = not … even / nor
Together:
- čak ni u parku = “not even in the park”
So the whole sentence means something like:
- “Today I don’t see anyone, not even in the park.”
(The park is a place where you might expect to see people, which is why čak ni adds emphasis.)
Compare:
ne vidim nikoga u parku
= I don’t see anyone in the park. (plain statement)ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku
= I don’t see anyone, not even in the park. (stronger, more expressive)
čak i (without ni) is usually used in non‑negative sentences and means “even” in the positive sense:
- Vidim ljude čak i u parku.
= I see people even in the park.
So:
- čak ni = “not even” (in negative clauses)
- čak i = “even” (in positive clauses)
The comma separates the main statement from an additional, emphasizing phrase.
Danas ne vidim nikoga,
→ Main idea: “Today I don’t see anybody.”čak ni u parku.
→ Extra comment that strengthens the meaning: “not even in the park.”
In Croatian, when you add something like čak ni, pa čak ni, a ni, etc. as an additional comment rather than an essential part of the sentence, it’s common (and stylistically natural) to separate it with a comma.
You could also write it without a comma:
- Danas ne vidim nikoga čak ni u parku.
This is still correct, but it sounds a bit more “compressed”; the version with a comma slightly highlights the contrast/emphasis.
Croatian uses different prepositions depending on how a place is conceptualized.
- u = in, inside, within a space
- na = on, on top of, or at (for certain “open” or “surface-like” places: na trgu (on the square), na stanici (at the station), na plaži (on the beach))
A park is usually seen as a 3D area/space that you go into, so the normal phrase is:
- u parku = in the park
na parku would sound strange in standard Croatian and would normally only be used in some very specific or dialectal contexts (or if someone literally meant “on top of the park” in some odd physical sense).
Croatian is a “pro‑drop” language: the subject pronoun is usually omitted because the verb ending already shows the subject.
- vidim (1st person singular) already means “I see”.
- So Ja vidim is often shortened to just Vidim.
Thus:
Ja danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
is grammatically fine but sounds emphatic (“I, today, don’t see anyone…”).Danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
is the neutral, most natural version.
You only say ja when you want to:
- stress contrast (Ja ne vidim nikoga, ali ti vidiš. – I don’t see anyone, but you do.)
- or make the subject extra clear.
vidim is:
- Present tense
- 1st person singular of vidjeti (to see)
So ne vidim = “I do not see / I don’t see.”
In English, depending on context, you might translate it as:
- “I don’t see anyone (today).”
- “I can’t see anyone (today).”
Croatian doesn’t need a separate modal verb like “can” to express this idea in everyday speech. Context decides whether “don’t see” feels more like “am not seeing” or “cannot see.”
Yes, you can change the word order in Croatian for emphasis while keeping the same basic meaning.
Possible variants:
Danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
– neutral emphasis: “Today I don’t see anyone, not even in the park.”Danas nikoga ne vidim, čak ni u parku.
– pushes nikoga forward, slightly emphasizing “anyone”:
“Today it’s nobody that I see, not even in the park.”Nikoga danas ne vidim, čak ni u parku.
– puts nikoga right at the start; strong focus on “no one at all today”.
All of them are grammatical and natural. Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and differences are mostly in focus and rhythm, not in basic meaning.
In standard Croatian:
- The base form is nitko (“nobody”).
- But its other forms drop the “t”:
- nitko (nom.)
- nikoga (gen./acc.)
- nikomu (dat.)
- nikim (instr.)
- ni o komu (loc.)
So:
- nitko → nikoga, not nitkoga.
niko is more common in Serbian and some regional/dialectal varieties of Croatian and Bosnian. In those varieties, you might see:
- niko – nikoga – nikome – nikim …
In your sentence, nikoga is the standard Croatian non‑nominative form of nitko, so:
- Danas ne vidim nikoga, čak ni u parku.
= Today I don’t see anyone, not even in the park.