Breakdown of Jej marzeniem jest zostać kucharzem w słynnej restauracji.
być
to be
w
in
restauracja
the restaurant
słynny
famous
Questions & Answers about Jej marzeniem jest zostać kucharzem w słynnej restauracji.
What is the role of jej in this sentence? Why not ona?
jej is a possessive pronoun (her) used to modify marzenie. It stands in the genitive to mean “the dream of her.” ona is a subject pronoun meaning “she” and cannot function as a possessive adjective before marzenie.
Why is marzeniem in the instrumental case instead of the nominative marzenie?
After the linking verb jest, the noun indicating identity or role takes the instrumental case. This is the same pattern as in On jest lekarzem (“He is a doctor”). Hence marzeniem (not marzenie).
Why is there no article before kucharzem or restauracji?
Polish does not have definite or indefinite articles like a or the. Nouns stand alone, and definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context or word order rather than special words.
Why is kucharzem in the instrumental case?
The verb zostać (“to become”) requires its complement—the new role or status—to be in the instrumental. You always say zostać + noun(instrumental), for example zostać nauczycielem, zostać prezydentem, zostać kucharzem.