Questions & Answers about Želim sačuvati naš park.
Želim is the 1st person singular present of željeti.
In this context it corresponds to English I want rather than the more formal or distant I wish. So:
- Želim sačuvati naš park.
≈ I want to preserve our park.
You can also use željeti for polite requests (like English would like):
- Želim kavu. – I’d like a coffee. / I want a coffee.
Croatian does not use a separate word like English to before infinitive verbs.
The bare infinitive form of the verb is used directly after želim:
- želim + sačuvati = I want + to preserve
So you do not say anything like želim da to sačuvati or add a Croatian word for to. You simply put the infinitive right after želim:
- Želim jesti. – I want to eat.
- Želim spavati. – I want to sleep.
- Želim sačuvati park. – I want to preserve the park.
Both verbs are related to keeping something safe, but they differ in verbal aspect:
čuvati – imperfective
- to guard, to keep, to look after, to be in the process of preserving
- stresses an ongoing or repeated action
sačuvati – perfective
- to preserve, to save, to keep safe (with the idea of a completed result)
- stresses achieving the outcome once/fully
In your sentence:
- Želim sačuvati naš park.
Suggests: I want to save / preserve our park (so that, in the end, it remains intact).
Focus on the result.
If you said:
- Želim čuvati naš park.
That would sound more like: I want to take care of our park / look after it (regularly).
Focus on the ongoing activity.
Yes, Želim da sačuvam naš park is also grammatically correct and widely understood.
Comparison:
- Želim sačuvati naš park. – željeti
- infinitive
- Želim da sačuvam naš park. – željeti
- da
- present tense
- da
Differences:
- In standard Croatian, the infinitive after verbs like želim, moram, mogu is more typical in formal writing.
- The da + present construction (Želim da sačuvam…) is very common and natural in everyday speech, and is more typical in some other standard variants (Serbian/Bosnian/Montenegrin).
In everyday conversation in Croatia, you will often hear both. In meaning, here they are practically the same: I want to preserve our park.
In Želim sačuvati naš park, sačuvati is in the infinitive form, not a tense.
- The tense comes from želim (present tense: I want).
- The infinitive sačuvati simply expresses the action as a non‑finite verb (to preserve).
So the overall meaning is now I want to preserve our park (in the future), but the future time is implied by context, not by a future tense on sačuvati.
If you wanted a straightforward future statement like I will preserve our park, you would use the future tense of sačuvati, for example:
- Sačuvat ću naš park. – I will preserve our park.
(Written as sačuvat ću rather than sačuvati ću in standard Croatian.)
Croatian verb endings show the subject, so the subject pronoun is usually omitted unless you want to emphasize it.
- Želim sačuvati naš park.
The ending -im on želim already tells us it is I.
You can add ja for emphasis or contrast:
- Ja želim sačuvati naš park.
Implies something like: I want to preserve our park (maybe others don’t).
But in neutral, everyday speech, you normally leave out subject pronouns when the meaning is clear from the verb form.
Park is a masculine noun.
Clues:
- Most nouns ending in a consonant (like park) are masculine.
- In the accusative singular (as a direct object) an inanimate masculine noun often looks the same as in the nominative:
- park → park (no change).
The possessive pronoun naš (our) must agree with park in:
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- case: accusative (object)
For masculine singular in accusative (inanimate), naš stays naš:
- naš park – our park
- Vidim naš park. – I see our park.
Compare with other genders:
- naša kuća – our house (feminine)
- naše dijete – our child (neuter)
- naši parkovi – our parks (masculine plural)
Yes, you can definitely say:
- Želim sačuvati park. – I want to preserve the / a park.
Differences:
- Želim sačuvati park.
More general: I want to preserve the park (which park depends on context). - Želim sačuvati naš park.
Emphasizes that the park belongs to us (our city, our neighborhood, our group, etc.).
So naš adds a sense of shared ownership or connection. Grammatically, both versions are fine.
In Želim sačuvati naš park:
ž in Želim
- Like s in English measure, vision.
- Similar sound: /ʒ/
- Approximation: zheh-lim
č in sačuvati
- Like ch in English church.
- Similar sound: /tʃ/
- Approximation: sa-CHU-va-ti
š in naš
- Like sh in English ship.
- Similar sound: /ʃ/
- Approximation: nash
Very rough syllable stress (not marking detailed Croatian accents) could be:
- ŽE-lim sa-ČU-va-ti NAŠ park
For a learner, putting stress slightly toward the beginning of each word (especially ŽE-lim, SA-ču-va-ti or sa-ČU-va-ti) will be acceptable.
Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and all of these are grammatically possible:
- Želim sačuvati naš park. – neutral, most natural.
- Naš park želim sačuvati. – emphasizes our park.
- Sačuvati želim naš park. – emphasizes the action to preserve.
- Naš park sačuvati želim. – more unusual, poetic or expressive.
The default, neutral choice you should learn and use most often is:
- Želim sačuvati naš park.
Present tense of željeti:
- ja želim – I want
- ti želiš – you (singular, informal) want
- on / ona / ono želi – he / she / it wants
- mi želimo – we want
- vi želite – you (plural or formal) want
- oni / one / ona žele – they want (masc / fem / neut. plural)
Using your sentence as a model:
- Mi želimo sačuvati naš park. – We want to preserve our park.
- Vi želite sačuvati naš park. – You (plural/formal) want to preserve our park.
- Oni žele sačuvati naš park. – They (masculine group) want to preserve our park.
- One žele sačuvati naš park. – They (feminine group) want to preserve our park.
Subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni, one, ona) are usually optional and are added mainly for emphasis or clarity, because the verb endings already show the subject.