Ja wolę kawę, ale ty wolisz herbatę.

I prefer coffee, but you prefer tea.

Breakdown of Ja wolę kawę, ale ty wolisz herbatę.

• ja: I
• ty: you
• kawa: the coffee
• herbata: the tea
• ale: but
• wolić: to prefer

Questions & Answers about Ja wolę kawę, ale ty wolisz herbatę.

What does the verb wolić mean in this sentence, and how are its forms wolę and wolisz used?

The verb wolić means "to prefer." In this sentence, it is conjugated as wolę in the first person singular (indicating "I prefer") and as wolisz in the second person singular (indicating "you prefer"). This conjugation shows how the verb changes according to the subject.

Why are the subject pronouns ja and ty included even though Polish often allows for their omission?

While Polish verbs carry enough information through their endings to indicate the subject, including ja ("I") and ty ("you") is common for added clarity or emphasis. This can be especially helpful for language learners who are still getting used to recognizing subjects solely from verb forms.

What grammatical case are the nouns kawę and herbatę, and why is this case used?

Both kawę ("coffee") and herbatę ("tea") are in the accusative case because they act as direct objects of their respective verbs. In Polish, the accusative case is typically used to mark the direct object of an action.

What role does the conjunction ale play in the sentence?

The word ale means "but" in English. It is used in this sentence to contrast the two clauses, highlighting the difference in preferences between the subjects.

Is the word order in this sentence flexible, or must it always follow the structure seen here?

The sentence follows a clear Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) pattern in each clause, which is typical in Polish. However, due to the language's inflectional nature (especially with cases clearly marking the roles of words), the word order can be flexible and rearranged for emphasis or stylistic effect without changing the basic meaning.