Breakdown of Vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom.
Questions & Answers about Vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom.
Vikendom means “on weekends / at the weekend (in general)” – a habitual, repeated time (every or most weekends), not just one specific upcoming weekend.
Grammatically it comes from the noun vikend (weekend).
The form vikendom is:
- formally: instrumental singular of vikend
- functionally: used adverbially to answer “When?”
It doesn’t show singular/plural in the way English does; context tells you it’s about weekends in general, not just one.
They overlap but aren’t identical:
vikendom
- habitual / regular: “on weekends / at weekends”
- e.g. Vikendom vježbam = “I exercise on weekends (as a routine).”
za vikend
- usually a specific or upcoming weekend: “(this) weekend / for the weekend”
- e.g. Za vikend idem na more. = “I’m going to the seaside this weekend.”
So in your sentence, vikendom fits because the activity is a regular habit.
The infinitive is vježbati = “to exercise / to practise”.
Present tense (singular + plural):
- ja vježbam – I exercise
- ti vježbaš – you (sg.) exercise
- on/ona/ono vježba – he/she/it exercises
- mi vježbamo – we exercise
- vi vježbate – you (pl./formal) exercise
- oni/one/ona vježbaju – they exercise
In the sentence Vikendom vježbam…, the -m ending shows the subject is “I”, so ja is not needed.
In this context you normally say vježbam without se.
vježbati (without se) is the standard verb for:
- physical exercise / working out
- practising a skill (music, language, etc.)
vježbati se can appear, but it’s more like:
- “to practice oneself / train oneself” in a reflexive, sometimes stylistic way
- used in some specific phrases, not the default for “I work out.”
So: Vikendom vježbam u parku… is the natural form.
Pronunciation tips:
- v – like English v
- j – like English y in yes
- ž – like s in measure / vision (a voiced “zh”)
- vjež- – approximately “vyezh”
- -bam – like “bahm”, with a short a
So the whole word is roughly: vyezh-bahm.
There is no silent letter; every consonant is pronounced.
U parku uses the locative case, because we are talking about location (“in the park”).
- The noun is park (nominative).
- The locative singular form is parku.
- After u:
- u + locative = where something is (static location):
- Vježbam u parku. – I exercise in the park.
- u + accusative = where something is going (movement into):
- Idem u park. – I’m going to the park.
- u + locative = where something is (static location):
So here we describe where you exercise, so u parku (locative) is correct.
Park is a regular masculine noun. Singular forms:
- Nominative: park – (the) park
- Genitive: parka – of (the) park
- Dative: parku – to/for (the) park
- Accusative: park – (to) the park (motion), or object
- Locative: parku – in/at the park (location)
- Instrumental: parkom – with/by the park
In u parku, you see the locative form parku.
S bratom literally means “with (my) brother.”
- The base noun is brat = brother.
- bratom is instrumental singular of brat.
- The preposition s (“with”) always takes the instrumental case.
Simplified singular pattern:
- Nominative: brat – brother
- Genitive: brata – of (a/the) brother
- Dative: bratu – to/for (a/the) brother
- Accusative: brata – (I see) the brother
- Locative: bratu – about the brother
- Instrumental: bratom – with the brother
So s bratom = “with brother” → naturally understood as “with my brother” in this context.
In Croatian, possessive words (my, your, his, etc.) are often dropped when the meaning is obvious from context.
With close family members, brat, sestra, mama, tata, etc., speakers usually mean their own family member if nothing else is specified.
So:
- Idem u park s bratom.
Naturally understood as: “I’m going to the park with my brother.”
If it were some other brother (e.g. another person’s brother), context or extra words would clarify:
- s tvojim bratom – with your brother
- s njegovim bratom – with his brother
Both s and sa mean “with”.
s bratom and sa bratom are both grammatically correct.
The rule is mainly phonetic:
- Usually: just s.
- sa is used:
- before some clusters of consonants where s alone is hard to pronounce
- often before words starting with s, š, z, ž, or certain combinations (e.g. sa psom, sa školom, sa znanjem).
With bratom, both are easy to say, so:
- s bratom is a bit more common and slightly shorter.
- sa bratom is also fine; some speakers prefer it for flow.
Croatian is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows the subject.
- vježbam already tells us the subject is “I” (ja).
So:
- Vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom. – normal, neutral.
- Ja vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom. – also correct, but adds emphasis on “I” (e.g. in contrast to someone else).
You normally leave ja out unless you want to stress it.
Yes, Croatian word order is quite flexible. All of these are correct:
- Vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom.
- Vježbam vikendom u parku s bratom.
- U parku vikendom vježbam s bratom.
The differences are mostly about emphasis and flow, not grammar:
- Starting with Vikendom highlights the time.
- Starting with Vježbam highlights the activity.
For a neutral, natural-sounding sentence, your original order Vikendom vježbam u parku s bratom is perfect.