Ona sadzi miętę w ogrodzie.

She plants mint in the garden.

Breakdown of Ona sadzi miętę w ogrodzie.

• ona: she
• w: in
• ogród: the garden
• sadzić: to plant
• mięta: the mint

Questions & Answers about Ona sadzi miętę w ogrodzie.

Why does the sentence start with Ona? Is it necessary to use the pronoun?

In Polish the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. Sadzi is third person singular, so you know it’s “he” or “she.” You can drop Ona entirely:

• Sadzi miętę w ogrodzie.
  You include Ona only to:
  • add emphasis (“She, in particular, is planting…”)
  • avoid ambiguity if context has multiple people

What does sadzi mean and why is it in that form?

Sadzi is the third-person singular present tense of the imperfective verb sadzić (to plant). Conjugation in the present tense looks like:
• ja sadzę
• ty sadzisz
• on/ona sadzi
• my sadzimy
• wy sadzicie
• oni/one sadzą

Here it simply means “she plants” or “she is planting” (Polish does not distinguish simple vs. continuous present).

What aspect is sadzić? How would you say “she planted mint in the garden” (completed action)?

Sadzić is imperfective (it describes habitual or ongoing actions). To express a single, completed event you pick the perfective verb posadzić. In the past tense (third person singular feminine) it becomes:

• Ona posadziła miętę w ogrodzie.
  If you want to say “she will plant” (future one-off), you use the perfective in present form:
• Ona posadzi miętę w ogrodzie.

Why is it miętę instead of mięta? What case is that?

Mięta (mint) is a feminine noun. In Polish the direct object takes the accusative case. Feminine nouns ending in -a change to -ę in the accusative:
• Nominative (subject): mięta
• Accusative (direct object): miętę

So miętę shows it’s the thing being planted.

What case is ogrodzie and why do we use w? How would you say “into the garden”?

Ogrodzie is the locative case of ogród (garden). After the preposition w (“in”) you use locative to express location:

• w ogrodzie = “in the garden”
  To express motion toward a place you use do
  • accusative:
• do ogrodu = “into (to) the garden”

Is the word order fixed? Could I say W ogrodzie sadzi miętę or Miętę sadzi w ogrodzie?

Polish is relatively flexible. The default is Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O), but you can shift parts around for emphasis:
• W ogrodzie (adv.) sadzi (V) miętę (O). puts focus on where.
• Miętę sadzi w ogrodzie. highlights what she’s planting.
• Dropping Ona is also fine: Sadzi miętę w ogrodzie.

How do you ask “What is she planting in the garden?” in Polish?

You use the question word co (what) for a direct object and keep the verb before the rest:

• Co ona sadzi w ogrodzie?
  You can omit ona if context is clear:
• Co sadzi w ogrodzie?
  Answer with the accusative noun:
• Miętę.

How do you pronounce miętę? What sound is ę?

• mię sounds like “myen” with a nasal vowel (similar to French “vin”).
• tę rhymes with “ten” but nasalized.
  Approximate English transcription: MYEN-teh (with a slight nasal “en” on each syllable).