Learn Hardcore Croatian: Navečer strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski. - In the evening the foreign woman studies Croatian alone in the park.

It can mean:
- a specific evening: “in the evening (later today / generally today)”, or
- a habitual time: “in the evenings (as a routine)” – context usually makes it clear.

Related words:

večer – noun: “evening”
- ove večeri – this evening
- svake večeri – every evening
uvečer – also “in the evening”; used less than navečer, style‑wise often feels a bit more formal/old‑fashioned.
večeras – adverb: “this evening, tonight (in the evening)”, only for today.

In your sentence Navečer strankinja…, it most naturally sounds like a habitual action: “In the evenings, the foreign woman studies Croatian (in the park).”

Why is the word order “Navečer strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski” and not something like “Strankinja uči hrvatski navečer u parku sama”? Is the word order fixed?

Croatian word order is flexible, but not random. The usual pattern is:

known / contextual info → new / important info → verb and its objects can move for emphasis.

Your sentence:

Navečer – sets the time frame (often comes first)
strankinja – subject
sama u parku – place + manner (where and how)
uči hrvatski – verb + object (the key action and what is learned)

You can say:

Strankinja navečer u parku sama uči hrvatski.
Navečer strankinja uči hrvatski sama u parku.

They are grammatically correct, but the focus changes slightly (what you want to highlight: time, place, being alone, or what she is learning).

General tips:

Time words (danas, navečer, jučer) often appear near the beginning.
The verb can move, but putting it very late often gives it extra focus.
The neutral and most natural version here is close to the original sentence; big re-ordering can sound marked or poetic.

Why is it strankinja and not something like stranca or strani?

Strankinja is the feminine noun meaning “foreign woman / female foreigner.”

stranac – masculine: “foreigner (man or generic)”
- nominative sg masc: stranac
- genitive sg: stranca (this is not a base form, it’s a case form)
strankinja – feminine: “foreigner (woman)”
- nominative sg fem: strankinja
strani – an adjective: “foreign”
- e.g. strani jezik – foreign language

In your sentence, the subject is a woman, so we use the feminine nominative noun: strankinja.

If the subject were male, we’d say:

Navečer stranac sam u parku uči hrvatski.
(“In the evening, the (male) foreigner learns Croatian alone in the park.”)

What is the role of sama here? Does it mean “alone”? Why isn’t there a verb like “je” (is)?

Yes, sama here means “alone / by herself.”

Grammatically:

sam, sama, samo are forms of an adjective meaning “alone.”
sama agrees with strankinja (feminine singular).

In English we say “she is alone,” but Croatian can often drop “to be” + adjective when the adjective is not the main predicate but more like a descriptive detail:

Strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski.
Literally: “The foreign woman, alone, in the park, studies Croatian.”

If you say:

Strankinja je sama u parku.
that makes being alone the main statement: “The foreign woman is alone in the park.”

In the original sentence, the main focus is the action (uči hrvatski). “Sama” just adds extra information about how she is there: she’s doing it alone.

Where is the “she” in this sentence? Why isn’t it ona?

In Croatian, subject pronouns (ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni/one/ona) are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

uči = he/she/it learns / is learning (3rd person sg)
Context plus strankinja tells us it’s she.

So:

Ona uči hrvatski. – “She learns Croatian.”
Uči hrvatski. – “She/He learns Croatian.” (subject understood)

In Navečer strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski, the noun strankinja gives the subject explicitly, so ona would be unnecessary and a bit emphatic:

Navečer ona, strankinja, sama u parku uči hrvatski. (sounds marked/contrastive: she, the foreign woman…)

Why is it u parku and not u park or u parkU with some different form?

The preposition u can take either accusative or locative case, depending on the meaning:

u + accusative → motion into something
- Idem u park. – I’m going into the park.
u + locative → location (position) inside something
- Sam u parku. – I am in the park.

In your sentence:

There is no motion described; it’s the location of the action → use locative.
park (nominative) → parku (locative singular).

So u parku = “in the park (location).”
If you wanted “goes to the park,” you’d say, for example:

Navečer strankinja ide u park učiti hrvatski. – “In the evening, the foreign woman goes to the park to study Croatian.”

What is uči exactly? Is it “studies” or “is studying”? What is the infinitive?

uči is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb učiti.

učiti – imperfective verb meaning “to learn / to study (process)”
on/ona/ono uči – “he/she/it learns” or “he/she/it is learning”

Croatian present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous:

Uči hrvatski.
= “She learns Croatian.” (habitually)
or “She is learning Croatian.” (right now / these days)

Context decides which translation is better. With navečer, it often sounds habitual:

Navečer… uči hrvatski.
→ “In the evenings, she studies Croatian.”

The perfective counterpart is naučiti – “to learn (to the end, to have learned).”

Naučila je hrvatski. – “She has learned Croatian (she knows it now).”

Why is it just hrvatski at the end, and not hrvatski jezik? Is hrvatski a noun or an adjective here?

Hrvatski is an adjective that literally means “Croatian.” But in this context it is used as a noun meaning “Croatian (language).” This is very common with language names:

učim hrvatski – I’m learning Croatian
govorim engleski – I speak English
razumijem njemački – I understand German

Form-wise:

Base adjective: hrvatski (masc. sg nominative)
It’s also accusative masculine inanimate, which is identical in form to nominative.

So here:

Verb: uči (she studies)
Direct object: hrvatski (Croatian – accusative masculine sg)

You could say hrvatski jezik (Croatian language), but in everyday speech jezik is usually omitted:

uči hrvatski is more natural than uči hrvatski jezik, unless you need to emphasize “language” for some reason.

How do I know that hrvatski here is the object and not an adjective modifying something?

Position and context tell you:

Syntactic role
The verb učiti (to learn/study) normally takes a direct object:
učiti + what? → a language, a subject, etc.
No noun after it
If hrvatski were an adjective, we’d expect a noun after it:
- hrvatski jezik – Croatian language
- hrvatski film – Croatian film
Here, hrvatski is the final word, directly after the verb uči, so it naturally functions as the direct object.
Common pattern
This structure uči + [language adjective] is extremely common and idiomatic in Croatian, so learners quickly recognize “hrvatski, engleski, talijanski…” as nouns by usage in this position.

There are no words for “a/the” in this sentence. How does Croatian deal with “a foreign woman / the foreign woman”?

Croatian does not have articles like a/an or the. The noun strankinja alone can mean both “a foreign woman” and “the foreign woman”, depending on context.

When you mention someone for the first time, English often uses “a”, Croatian just has the bare noun:
- Navečer strankinja… – “In the evening, a foreign woman…”
When the person is already known in the conversation or clearly specific, English uses “the”, Croatian still just says:
- Navečer strankinja… – “In the evening, the foreign woman…”

Specificity is understood from context, previous sentences, or extra words (like ona strankinja, ta strankinja – that/that particular foreign woman).

Could I say Večeras strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski instead of Navečer…? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Večeras strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski.

The difference:

navečer – in the evening / in the evenings, often sounds habitual:
- In the evenings, she (usually) studies Croatian.
večeras – this evening (tonight, in the evening), specifically today’s evening:
- This evening, she is studying Croatian.

So:

Navečer… uči hrvatski. → suggests a regular routine.
Večeras… uči hrvatski. → refers to what she is doing tonight.

Can sama move to another position in the sentence? Does the meaning change?

Yes, sama can move, and the basic meaning (“alone”) stays, but the focus and nuance can shift.

Some possibilities (all grammatically fine):

Navečer strankinja sama u parku uči hrvatski.
Neutral: the foreign woman, alone, in the park, studies Croatian.
Navečer sama strankinja u parku uči hrvatski.
Slight emphasis on only the foreign woman (no one else), can sound like “the foreign woman herself (alone)…”
Navečer strankinja u parku sama uči hrvatski.
Emphasis moves towards the studying part: she is doing the studying alone (no teacher, no help).
Navečer strankinja u parku uči hrvatski sama.
Here sama is very late; it sounds a bit marked and puts strong emphasis on “alone.”

All of these are understandable, but the original order (strankinja sama u parku…) sounds the most neutral and natural in everyday speech.