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Questions & Answers about Ona pokazuje plan spotkania w biurze.
What is the grammatical aspect, person, and tense of pokazuje, and when would I use pokaże?
pokazuje is the 3rd person singular present tense of the imperfective verb pokazywać (“to show”). Imperfective verbs describe ongoing, repeated, or habitual actions, so Ona pokazuje… can mean “She is showing…” or “She shows….”
By contrast, pokaże is the 3rd person singular future tense of the perfective verb pokazać, used for a single, completed action in the future:
• Ona pokaże plan. – “She will show the plan (once).”
What case is plan in Ona pokazuje plan spotkania w biurze, and why doesn’t it change its ending?
Here plan is the direct object of pokazuje, so it’s in the accusative singular. Because plan is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative form. That is why you see plan rather than some other ending.
Why is spotkania in the genitive case here?
spotkania is the genitive singular of spotkanie (“meeting”). In Polish you express “the plan of the meeting” as plan czego? spotkania – literally “plan of the meeting.” The genitive case after plan shows the relationship or possession.
What case is biurze, and why do we use w with it?
biurze is the locative singular of biuro (“office”). When you use the preposition w to indicate location (“in”), it always takes the locative case. So w biurze means “in the office.” (If you wanted “to the office,” you’d say do biura with the accusative.)
Why doesn’t Polish have articles like “a” or “the” before plan, spotkania, or biurze?
Polish does not use definite or indefinite articles. Context, word order, or additional words (like ten “this” or jakiś “some”) convey specificity. So Ona pokazuje plan spotkania w biurze can mean “She is showing a plan of the meeting in the office” or “She is showing the meeting plan in the office,” depending on context.
Can I omit Ona in the sentence, and why might I include it?
Yes. Polish verb endings encode person and number, so you can simply say Pokazuje plan spotkania w biurze and still mean “She is showing….” The pronoun ona is optional and is used when you want to emphasize or clarify that it’s specifically she (not he or they) doing the showing.
How would I ask “What is she showing?” in Polish?
Use the interrogative pronoun co for “what” (it remains unchanged in form) as the direct object:
Co ona pokazuje?
This literally means “What is she showing?”
Can I change the word order to emphasize different parts of the sentence?
Yes. Polish word order is flexible. You can move elements for emphasis without changing the core meaning:
• W biurze ona pokazuje plan spotkania. – Emphasizes where it happens (“In the office…”).
• Plan spotkania ona pokazuje w biurze. – Emphasizes what she’s showing (“The meeting plan…”).
How do I pronounce pokazuje, spotkania, and biurze, and where is the stress?
Polish words are almost always stressed on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable:
• po-KA-zu-je
• spot-KA-nia
• biu-RZE
Pronunciation tips:
• rz sounds like the “zh” in English “measure.”
• j sounds like the “y” in “yes.”
What are the genders of plan, spotkanie, and biuro, and how do they affect their endings?
• plan is masculine inanimate. Its accusative singular stays plan (same as nominative).
• spotkanie is neuter. Its genitive singular is spotkania (–a ending) and its locative singular would be spotkaniu.
• biuro is also neuter. Its genitive singular is biura, and its locative singular is biurze.
Knowing the gender tells you which case endings to apply.
