Breakdown of Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
Questions & Answers about Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
Putovanjima is in the locative plural case.
- The base noun is putovanje = “trip, journey” (neuter).
- Its locative plural form is putovanjima.
With the preposition na + locative, it answers “where?” in the sense of being somewhere:
- na putovanju – on a trip (singular, locative)
- na putovanjima – on trips / during trips (plural, locative)
So na putovanjima literally means “on (the) trips”, but in natural English we say “on trips” or “when she travels”.
The difference is in case and in the idea of location vs. direction.
na putovanjima – locative plural: “on trips, during trips”
- used with na when talking about being/acting during the trips (location in time/space)
- e.g. Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira… – On trips she constantly takes photos…
na putovanja – accusative plural: “(onto) trips” / “to trips”
- used with na when talking about going to a place or event (direction)
- e.g. Ona često ide na putovanja. – She often goes on trips.
So here na putovanjima is correct, because the sentence is about what she does while she is already on those trips, not about going to them.
Both na and u can often mean “in/on,” but Croatian tends to use them with different types of nouns.
For activities, events, and trips, Croatian normally uses na:
- na putovanju – on a trip
- na odmoru – on vacation
- na koncertu – at a concert
- na sastanku – at a meeting
U putovanjima would sound strange in this context; it would literally be “in the trips” and isn’t idiomatic here.
So na putovanjima is the natural phrase for “on trips / when traveling.”
The pronoun ona is not grammatically necessary and is often omitted in normal Croatian.
- Na putovanjima stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
This is completely correct and very natural.
Croatian is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni, etc.) are usually left out when the subject is clear from the verb ending or from context.
You include ona mainly when you want:
- to emphasize “she” as opposed to someone else:
- Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira… – She (not someone else) is the one who is always taking photos.
- to avoid ambiguity when several people have been mentioned.
So both versions are correct; the one without ona is more neutral, the one with ona is slightly more emphatic.
Stalno is an adverb meaning roughly “constantly, all the time, continually.”
Nuance:
- stalno – often implies something is happening very frequently or even annoyingly often, “constantly,” “non‑stop”.
- uvijek – means “always” in a more neutral, absolute sense.
In this sentence:
- Ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
→ She is constantly taking photos of nature and people (very often, as a habit; can be neutral or mildly complaining depending on tone).
If you said:
- Ona uvijek fotografira prirodu i ljude.
→ She always takes photos of nature and people (every time, on every occasion).
So stalno suggests a repeated, almost continuous habit rather than a strict logical “always.”
The most natural and neutral position is before the main verb:
- ✅ Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
- ✅ Na putovanjima stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
- ✅ Ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude na putovanjima.
You can move stalno around for emphasis, but some positions sound odd or unclear:
- ❌ Ona fotografira stalno prirodu i ljude. – sounds clumsy; we almost never split verb and its direct object this way with stalno in between.
- ❌ Ona fotografira prirodu stalno i ljude. – sounds wrong / confusing.
Safe rule: place stalno right before the verb (or in the very beginning) unless you have a specific stylistic reason not to.
In Croatian, fotografira is present tense, 3rd person singular of fotografirati.
Croatian has only one present tense form, and it covers several English uses:
- English present simple:
- Ona fotografira prirodu. – She takes photos of nature.
- English present continuous (especially for habits):
- Ona stalno fotografira. – She’s always taking photos / She keeps taking photos.
- General statements & habits:
- Ljudi mnogo fotografiraju. – People take a lot of photos.
So:
- Ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
can be translated as:- She constantly takes photos of nature and people.
- She is always taking pictures of nature and people.
Croatian doesn’t need a separate “-ing” form to express this; context and adverbs like stalno give the nuance.
The infinitive is fotografirati = “to photograph / to take photos”.
Present tense (one common colloquial pattern) is:
- ja fotografiram – I photograph / I take photos
- ti fotografiraš – you photograph
- on/ona/ono fotografira – he/she/it photographs
- mi fotografiramo – we photograph
- vi fotografirate – you (pl./formal) photograph
- oni/one/ona fotografiraju – they photograph
In the sentence, fotografira is:
- 3rd person singular (on/ona/ono)
- present tense
- imperfective aspect (describing a repeated/habitual action)
So ona stalno fotografira = “she constantly photographs / she is always taking photos.”
Priroda is a feminine noun meaning “nature”.
- Nominative singular: priroda (used for the subject of a sentence)
- Accusative singular: prirodu (used for the direct object of a verb)
In this sentence, prirodu is what she is photographing, i.e. the direct object, so it must be in the accusative case:
- Priroda je lijepa. – Nature is beautiful. (subject → nominative)
- Ona fotografira prirodu. – She photographs nature. (object → accusative)
That’s why the ending changes from -a to -u: priroda → prirodu.
Ljudi means “people” (plural). It has a somewhat irregular pattern.
- Nominative plural (subject): ljudi – Ljudi su vani. – People are outside.
- Accusative plural (direct object): ljude – Vidim ljude. – I see people.
In the sentence:
- fotografira prirodu i ljude
both prirodu and ljude are direct objects of fotografira, so they are in the accusative:
- prirodu – accusative singular (feminine) of priroda
- ljude – accusative plural of ljudi
The conjunction i simply joins two accusative objects: prirodu i ljude = “nature and people.”
Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and several versions are grammatically fine. These all have basically the same core meaning:
- Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
- Na putovanjima stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
- Ona na putovanjima stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.
- Ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude na putovanjima.
Differences are mainly in emphasis:
- Elements placed earlier in the sentence are often a bit more emphasized or used as the topic (what you’re talking about first).
- If you move na putovanjima to the end (…fotografira prirodu i ljude na putovanjima), it slightly emphasizes that she photographs them specifically on trips, as opposed to at home.
Very unusual or marked word orders might sound poetic or unnatural, but the ones above are all acceptable. The original sentence is a neutral, typical order:
[time/setting] + [subject] + [adverb] + [verb] + [objects]
Na putovanjima ona stalno fotografira prirodu i ljude.