Breakdown of Mój brat buduje dom na wsi.
dom
the house
mój
my
na
in
wieś
the countryside
brat
the brother
budować
to build
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Questions & Answers about Mój brat buduje dom na wsi.
Why isn’t there an article like a or the before dom?
Polish has no definite or indefinite articles. English “a house” or “the house” both translate simply as dom. Context (word order, adverbs, etc.) tells you whether it’s definite or not.
What case is dom in, and how do you know?
Dom is the direct object of buduje, so it’s in the accusative case. For most inanimate masculine nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are identical, which is why dom looks the same in both cases here.
Why is mój placed before brat, and what form does mój take in this sentence?
A possessive pronoun like mój (“my”) normally precedes its noun. It must agree with brat, which is masculine singular nominative, so we use mój (not moja or moje).
What case is brat in, and why?
Brat is the subject of the sentence, so it’s in the nominative case. Whatever performs the action (here, “my brother”) is nominative.
What does buduje mean exactly, and why isn’t it buduje się?
Buduje is the third-person singular present of the imperfective verb budować (“to build”). Imperfective aspect shows an ongoing, habitual, or uncompleted action (“(he) is building” or “(he) builds”). There’s no need for -się because budować is transitive (he builds something). Buduje się would make it reflexive and change the meaning (roughly, “is being built”).
Why is na wsi used to say “in the countryside,” and what case is wsi?
To express location “in the countryside,” Polish normally uses na + the locative case. The noun wieś (“village/countryside”) in the locative singular becomes wsi. So na wsi literally means “on the countryside,” i.e. “in the countryside.”
Can you change the word order in Polish like in English, and would it affect the meaning here?
Polish word order is flexible but changing it can add emphasis or sound poetic.
– Standard: Mój brat buduje dom na wsi. (neutral statement)
– Emphatic: Na wsi mój brat buduje dom. (emphasizes location)
– Poetic/archaic: Brat mój buduje dom na wsi. (emphasizes “brother”)
Grammatical relations stay clear thanks to cases, so word order shifts don’t break the meaning.