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Questions & Answers about Ona daje jej stary przepis na zupę dyniową.
Why is ona included in this sentence? Aren’t subject pronouns optional in Polish?
In Polish, verb endings already indicate person and number, so subject pronouns are often dropped. Ona is included here for emphasis, contrast, or clarity (for example, to stress that she, and not someone else, is doing the giving). Without it, daje jej stary przepis na zupę dyniową still means “She gives her an old pumpkin soup recipe,” but sounds less explicit.
What case is jej, and why is it used here?
jej is the dative form of the pronoun ona, meaning to her. Polish uses the dative for the indirect object (the person receiving something). The verb dawać (imperfective “to give”) requires a dative for the recipient and an accusative for the thing given.
Why doesn’t stary przepis change in the accusative? Shouldn’t there be an ending like starego przepisu?
przepis is a masculine inanimate noun. In Polish, masculine inanimate nouns have identical forms in nominative and accusative. Their adjectives also keep the nominative ending. That’s why stary przepis remains stary przepis in the accusative.
Why is zupa in the accusative form zupę in na zupę dyniową?
The preposition na, when used to express purpose (what something is for), takes the accusative. Here it means “recipe for …,” so zupa (feminine) becomes zupę in the accusative singular.
Why does the adjective dyniową end in -ą?
dyniową modifies zupę, which is feminine singular accusative. Feminine singular adjectives take the ending -ą in the accusative (versus -a in the nominative).
Can we swap zupę dyniową to dyniową zupę here?
Yes. Thanks to case marking, adjectives normally precede nouns (dyniową zupę), but after na you often see na zupę dyniową, which is equally correct. Both mean “for pumpkin soup,” the difference is stylistic.
Is the word order fixed as Ona daje jej stary przepis na zupę dyniową?
Polish has relatively free word order due to its cases. You could say Ona jej stary przepis na zupę dyniową daje, or move the indirect object: Ona daje stary przepis na zupę dyniową jej. The standard order is subject–verb–indirect object–direct object–prepositional phrase, but changing it shifts emphasis.
How would you express this sentence in the past tense?
Use the perfective verb dać in the past: Ona dała jej stary przepis na zupę dyniową. Dała is the feminine singular past form of dać.