Za pięć minut zaczyna się lekcja.

The lesson starts in five minutes.

Breakdown of Za pięć minut zaczyna się lekcja.

• lekcja: the lesson
• zaczynać się: to start
• za pięć minut: in five minutes

Questions & Answers about Za pięć minut zaczyna się lekcja.

What does za mean in za pięć minut?

Here za is a temporal preposition meaning “in” or “after” when talking about how much time remains until something happens. So za pięć minut literally means in five minutes.

Why is it pięć minut and not pięć minuty?

Numerals from 5 upward govern the genitive plural of the counted noun. The word minuta in genitive plural is minut, so we say pięć minut rather than pięć minuty.

Why is zaczyna in the present tense when the event is in the future?

Polish often uses the present tense for scheduled or imminent future events. Saying zaczyna się conveys “it will start” in a near-future sense—this sounds more natural than using the explicit future tense in everyday speech.

What is the function of the reflexive się in zaczyna się?

The verb zaczynać is normally transitive (“someone starts something”). Adding się makes it intransitive, so lekcja zaczyna się means “the lesson starts (on its own).” Without się, you would need a direct object (e.g. on zaczyna lekcję = “he starts the lesson”).