Sav dan smo u parku.

We are in the park all day.

Breakdown of Sav dan smo u parku.

• biti: to be
• u: in
• dan: day
• park: park
• sav: all

Questions & Answers about Sav dan smo u parku.

Why is it sav dan and not cijeli dan? Are both correct?

Both sav dan and cijeli dan are correct and mean all day / the whole day.

• sav dan – slightly shorter, very common in speech, can sound a bit more emotional or emphatic in some contexts.
• cijeli dan – also very common, maybe a bit more neutral or “standard” in many people’s speech.

In this sentence, you can freely say:

• Sav dan smo u parku.
• Cijeli dan smo u parku.

Both are natural and mean the same thing in everyday use.

Why is there no we in the sentence? Where is the subject?

Croatian usually drops subject pronouns because the verb form already shows who the subject is.

• smo is the 1st person plural of biti (to be): mi smo = we are.

So sav dan smo u parku literally has:

• sav dan – all day
• smo – (we) are
• u parku – in the park

The mi (we) is understood from smo, so it is not normally said. You can say:

• Mi smo sav dan u parku.

but you usually do that only for emphasis or contrast (e.g. Mi smo sav dan u parku, a oni su kod kuće. – We are in the park all day, but they are at home).

Why is the word order Sav dan smo u parku and not Smo sav dan u parku?

The short verb form smo is a clitic in Croatian. Clitics normally have to stand in the second position in the clause (after the first stressed word or phrase).

In Sav dan smo u parku:

1. First stressed element: Sav dan
2. Clitic: smo
3. Rest: u parku

That’s why Sav dan smo u parku is correct, but Smo sav dan u parku is wrong – the clitic smo cannot stand first.

Other correct word orders (with smo still in second position) are, for example:

• U parku smo sav dan.
  (first element = U parku, second = smo)
• Mi smo sav dan u parku.
  (first element = Mi, second = smo)

Why is it u parku and not u park?

The preposition u has different cases depending on meaning:

• u
  • accusative – motion into something
    
    • Idemo u park. – We are going to the park.
• u
  • locative – location in/inside something (no movement)
    
    • Smo u parku. – We are in the park.

In Sav dan smo u parku, the meaning is location, not movement, so u takes the locative case:

• Nominative: park
• Locative singular: parku

Hence u parku = in the park.

How do I know that parku is locative, and not dative?

For masculine nouns like park, the dative and locative singular forms are identical:

• Nominative: park
• Dative: parku
• Locative: parku

So you don’t know the case from the form alone; you know it from:

1. The preposition: here it’s u, which with static location normally uses locative.
2. The meaning: in the park (place, not recipient/goal), so it must be locative.

Dative parku would appear with verbs or prepositions that require a dative meaning such as “to/for the park” (less common with park, but very common with people: dati Marku – give to Marko).

Could you also say na parku instead of u parku?

Normally, for being inside a park, you say u parku.

• u parku – in the park, inside the area
• na parku – is unusual in standard language for physical presence in a park; it could appear in some dialects or fixed phrases, but generally you should avoid it for this meaning.

Croatian often uses:

• u for being in/inside a place (u kući, u školi, u autu, u parku)
• na for being on/at a surface or open facility (na stolu, na plaži, na trgu, na stadionu, na poslu)

So the natural choice for this sentence is u parku.

Why is it sav dan, not sva dan or sve dan? How does sav agree?

The word dan (day) is:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative here (time expression)

The adjective-like word sav (‘all, whole’) must agree with the noun in gender, number and case.

Basic nominative singular forms are:

• Masculine: sav dan – all day
• Feminine: sva noć – all night
• Neuter: sve vrijeme – all the time

So you say:

• sav dan (masculine)
• sva noć (feminine)
• sve vrijeme (neuter)

Is Sav dan smo u parku present tense? How would I say We were in the park all day?

Yes, Sav dan smo u parku is present tense: We are in the park all day (in general, or today, depending on context).

To say We were in the park all day, you use the past tense of biti:

• Sav dan smo bili u parku. – We were in the park all day.

Structure:

• sav dan – all day
• smo – we (auxiliary, 1st pl.)
• bili – past participle of biti (masculine plural; agrees with mi)
• u parku – in the park

Is Sav dan smo u parku a generic habit (like “we are in the park all day” every day), or about today only?

On its own, Sav dan smo u parku is ambiguous between:

• a habitual/general statement:
  
  • We are in the park all day (as a usual routine).
• a specific time frame, often “today”:
  
  • Today we are in the park all day.

The exact meaning depends on context or on adding time words:

• Danas smo sav dan u parku. – Today we are in the park all day.
• Vikendom smo sav dan u parku. – On weekends, we are in the park all day.
• Svaki dan smo sav dan u parku. – Every day, we are in the park all day.

Can I change the word order, for example U parku smo sav dan? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the word order, as long as smo stays in the correct clitic position. All of these are grammatical and natural:

• Sav dan smo u parku.
• U parku smo sav dan.
• Mi smo sav dan u parku.
• Mi smo u parku sav dan.

The basic meaning does not change: we are in the park all day.

Different word orders can slightly affect emphasis or sound more natural in a specific context, for example:

• U parku smo sav dan. – may sound like you are stressing where you are (in the park) rather than the duration.
• Sav dan smo u parku. – may sound like you are stressing how long (all day).

But in normal conversation, they’re all understood the same way.