Questions & Answers about Na kraju dana odmaramo se u parku.
Odmaramo se uses the reflexive pronoun se because odmarati se means “to rest / to relax (oneself).”
Without se, odmarati would need an object and would mean “to give something/someone a rest,” which is rare.
So for “we relax / we rest,” you normally say mi se odmaramo or simply odmaramo se.
In practice, no: that sounds wrong or at least very odd.
In standard usage, when people talk about themselves resting, they virtually always use odmarati se with se.
Na kraju dana odmaramo u parku would sound incomplete, as if you were supposed to say what you are resting.
Odmaramo se is present tense of the imperfective verb odmarati se.
By itself it can mean either “we are relaxing (now)” or “we relax / we usually relax,” depending on context.
With Na kraju dana (“at the end of the day”), it most naturally means a habitual action: “At the end of the day, we (usually) relax in the park.”
For a single completed act (“we will rest / we rested”), you’d use the perfective odmoriti se (e.g. odmorit ćemo se).
Croatian normally drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person and number. Odmaramo clearly means “we rest.”
You add mi only for emphasis or contrast, e.g. Mi se odmaramo, a oni rade (“We rest, but they work”).
So the most natural version is Na kraju dana odmaramo se u parku without mi.
If you do add mi, it should be Mi se odmaramo u parku, with se right after mi.
The base nouns are kraj (“end”) and dan (“day”).
- kraju is the locative singular of kraj, used after na when talking about a static location: na kraju = “at the end.”
- dana is the genitive singular of dan, used after kraj to show “the end of the day”: kraj dana = “the end of the day.”
So na kraju dana literally is “at the end of the day’s end,” which in English simplifies to “at the end of the day.”
Yes, krajem dana odmaramo se u parku is also correct.
- na kraju dana = more like “at the end of the day” (a bit more point-like).
- krajem dana (instrumental) = “towards the end of the day / by the end of the day,” a bit more like a time period.
In many contexts they overlap and both sound natural.
With places that are seen as enclosed or like an “inside” space, Croatian usually uses u (“in”), and a park is one of those: u parku (“in the park”).
Na (“on / at”) is more common with open surfaces, squares, fields, etc. (e.g. na trgu – “at the square,” na igralištu – “on the playground”).
Na parku would usually sound wrong in standard language.
The dictionary (nominative singular) form is park.
In u parku, parku is the locative singular, used with u when indicating a static location (“in the park”).
For masculine nouns like park, the locative singular often ends in -u: park → u parku.
Se is a clitic and normally wants to be very early in the sentence (roughly “second position”).
In your sentence, common variants are:
- Na kraju dana se odmaramo u parku.
- Na kraju dana odmaramo se u parku.
Both are used and correct.
What you cannot do is put se at the very end, e.g. ✗ Na kraju dana odmaramo u parku se – that’s ungrammatical.
Yes. Croatian word order is flexible, and you can move phrases to change emphasis:
- Na kraju dana odmaramo se u parku. (neutral: “At the end of the day, we relax in the park.”)
- U parku se na kraju dana odmaramo. (slight emphasis on in the park as the place of resting.)
The grammar (cases, prepositions, verb forms) stays the same; only the focus and style change.