An opinion column is the place where Polish grammar goes to build an argument. Where a news report stays neutral and a dialogue stays personal, an editorial has to claim, support, qualify and conclude — and it does so with a recognisable toolkit: logical connectives that chain claims together, impersonal generalizations (the się and należy constructions) that present opinions as if they were shared common sense, emphatic word order that foregrounds the point, and a vocabulary loaded with evaluation. Reading the excerpt below the way a writer would build it — clause by argued clause — turns these into reusable moves rather than mysterious flourishes. Mastering them is a core B2 writing skill.
The register is argumentative-formal: confident, structured, persuasive, but still impersonal rather than chatty.
The column
Coraz częściej mówi się, że nasze miasta dławią się od samochodów.
It is said more and more often that our cities are choking on cars.
Należy jednak zauważyć, że problem nie leży wyłącznie w liczbie aut.
It should be noted, however, that the problem does not lie solely in the number of cars.
Z jednej strony brakuje nam wygodnego transportu publicznego.
On the one hand, we lack convenient public transport.
Z drugiej strony przyzwyczailiśmy się do tego, że wszędzie jeździmy autem.
On the other hand, we have got used to driving everywhere by car.
Ponieważ alternatywy są niewygodne, ludzie wybierają to, co znają.
Because the alternatives are inconvenient, people choose what they know.
Dlatego nie wystarczy podnosić opłat za parkowanie.
That is why it is not enough to raise parking charges.
Trzeba przede wszystkim zaoferować ludziom coś naprawdę lepszego.
Above all, we have to offer people something genuinely better.
Tu właśnie tkwi sedno sprawy, o którym tak chętnie się zapomina.
This is precisely where the heart of the matter lies, something so readily forgotten.
Moim zdaniem bez odważnych decyzji nic się nie zmieni.
In my opinion, without bold decisions nothing will change.
Grammar in this text
Connectives that build the argument
The skeleton of an argument is its connectives, and this column lays them out almost as a template. Jednak ("however") signals a qualification or counter-move; ponieważ ("because") introduces a cause; dlatego ("that is why / therefore") draws a consequence; and the paired z jednej strony… z drugiej strony… ("on the one hand… on the other hand…") balances two considerations before the writer takes a side.
The cause-and-result pair is worth isolating: Ponieważ alternatywy są niewygodne, ludzie wybierają to, co znają puts the cause first with ponieważ, then Dlatego nie wystarczy… draws the conclusion. That is the engine of argumentation — reason, then result. See cause and result connectives and, for jednak and the contrastive moves, contrast and condition connectives.
The broader inventory of essay-organising language — sequencing, signposting, summing up — is collected in structuring formal discourse.
Impersonal generalizations: mówi się, należy, trzeba
Persuasive Polish loves to present claims as if no one in particular is making them, lending them the weight of common sense. Three impersonal devices do this work here.
The impersonal się turns an ordinary verb agentless: mówi się, że… ("it is said that…"), zapomina się o tym ("one forgets about it"). There is no subject; się signals that "people in general" do the action. See impersonal sentences.
The modal należy ("one should / it is proper to") + infinitive issues a measured recommendation without naming who must act: Należy zauważyć, że… ("it should be noted that…"). Its blunter cousin trzeba ("one must / it is necessary") raises the urgency: Trzeba zaoferować ludziom coś lepszego. Both are subjectless and take a following infinitive.
Należy pamiętać, że żadna reforma nie przyniesie efektów z dnia na dzień.
One should remember that no reform will bring results overnight.
A model należy + infinitive recommendation, presenting the caution as a general truth rather than the writer's private opinion.
Emphatic word order
Polish word order is free enough that an editorialist can use it to point. Tu właśnie tkwi sedno sprawy fronts the adverb tu ("here") and reinforces it with the focus particle właśnie ("precisely"), throwing all the weight onto this is exactly where. Compare the flat Sedno sprawy tkwi tu — grammatical, but limp. Fronting the contrastive element and verb-final placement are stylistic choices the writer makes for emphasis, not free variation. See stylistic word order.
Właśnie tego najbardziej nam dzisiaj brakuje.
That is precisely what we lack most today.
Here the object tego is fronted and stamped with właśnie — the marked, emphatic order an opinion writer uses to drive a point home, versus the neutral Najbardziej brakuje nam dzisiaj właśnie tego.
Evaluative vocabulary
Opinion writing is saturated with words that judge: dławią się ("are choking" — a vivid, loaded verb), wyłącznie ("solely"), naprawdę lepszego ("genuinely better"), odważnych decyzji ("bold decisions"), sedno sprawy ("the heart of the matter"). These are not neutral descriptions; each nudges the reader toward the writer's stance. And the position itself is flagged with moim zdaniem ("in my opinion"), the standard explicit opinion marker, which here arrives at the end to deliver the thesis. This evaluative-yet-impersonal blend is characteristic of the official-administrative and formal register when it turns persuasive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Należy zauważać, że problem jest poważny.
Incorrect — imperfective infinitive after należy for a single act
✅ Należy zauważyć, że problem jest poważny.
It should be noted that the problem is serious.
With należy and trzeba, a one-off act takes the perfective infinitive (zauważyć, not the imperfective zauważać). The imperfective would imply a repeated or ongoing "noting," which is not the intent here.
❌ Mówi się, że miasta dławią się od samochody.
Incorrect — noun after od left in the nominative
✅ Mówi się, że miasta dławią się od samochodów.
It is said that cities are choking on cars.
Od governs the genitive, so samochody must become samochodów. The impersonal się construction is fine; the case on the prepositional object is the trap.
❌ Z jednej strony… ale z drugiej strony…
Incorrect — breaking the fixed correlative pair with 'ale'
✅ Z jednej strony… z drugiej strony…
On the one hand… on the other hand…
The correlative pair z jednej strony… z drugiej strony… is a fixed frame; you do not splice ale into the second arm. The contrast is already carried by the z drugiej strony half.
❌ Ja myślę że bez decyzji nic się nie zmieni.
Over-personal, weak opinion framing for an editorial
✅ Moim zdaniem bez odważnych decyzji nic się nie zmieni.
In my opinion, without bold decisions nothing will change.
In argumentative writing, moim zdaniem is the register-appropriate opinion marker. The bare ja myślę is conversational and the explicit ja over-stresses the speaker; an editorial wants the more measured moim zdaniem.
Key Takeaways
- Argument is built on connectives: z jednej strony… z drugiej strony, ponieważ (cause), dlatego (result), jednak (qualification).
- Impersonal generalizations — mówi się, należy
- infinitive, trzeba
- infinitive — present claims as shared common sense; należy/trzeba take a perfective infinitive for a single act.
- infinitive, trzeba
- Emphatic word order with właśnie foregrounds the point: Tu właśnie tkwi sedno sprawy.
- The thesis is flagged with moim zdaniem, the formal opinion marker, amid deliberately evaluative vocabulary.
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