Breakdown of Czy możemy iść pieszo, czy musimy jechać pociągiem, bo pada deszcz?
iść
to go
bo
because
musieć
to have to
czy
question marker
my
we
móc
to be able to
padać
to rain
deszcz
the rain
jechać
to go
pociąg
the train
pieszo
on foot
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Questions & Answers about Czy możemy iść pieszo, czy musimy jechać pociągiem, bo pada deszcz?
Why does the sentence start with Czy?
In Polish, to turn a statement into a yes/no question you typically add the question particle czy at the beginning. There is no subject–auxiliary inversion as in English, so czy marks the whole clause as a question.
Why is czy repeated before each clause in this sentence?
When asking an alternative (either/or) yes/no question, you introduce each option with czy. It’s like saying “Czy A czy B?” = “Is it A or B?” In Polish, you need czy before each option to signal the choice.
What’s the difference between iść and jechać here?
iść means “to go on foot” (walking), while jechać means “to go by vehicle” or “to ride” (in this case, by train). They describe different modes of travel.
Why is pieszo used instead of na piechotę, and are they interchangeable?
Both pieszo (an adverb) and na piechotę (a prepositional phrase) mean “on foot.” pieszo is slightly more formal or neutral, while na piechotę is colloquial. You can use either in everyday speech without changing the meaning.
Why is pociągiem in the instrumental case?
In Polish, when you express the means of transportation, you use the instrumental case. So pociąg (“train”) becomes pociągiem to mean “by train.”
Why is musimy used here? Could we use trzeba instead?
musimy is the first-person plural form of musić, so it literally means “we must.” trzeba is an impersonal construction (like “one must” or “it’s necessary to”). You could say Czy trzeba jechać pociągiem?, but that doesn’t explicitly mention “we.”
Why is bo used for “because” here, and could we use ponieważ?
bo is a casual, colloquial conjunction meaning “because.” In spoken Polish it's very common. ponieważ (or gdyż) mean the same but are more formal or written; you can replace bo with ponieważ here without changing the meaning significantly.
In bo pada deszcz, why does the verb pada come before the subject deszcz?
With weather verbs like padać, Polish often puts the verb first when stating a general condition (“It’s raining”). Pada deszcz is more natural than Deszcz pada, although both are grammatically correct. The verb-first order focuses on the action.