Breakdown of On postanowił codziennie rano biegać w parku.
on
he
w
in
biegać
to run
park
the park
postanowić
to decide
codziennie rano
every morning
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Questions & Answers about On postanowił codziennie rano biegać w parku.
What is the grammatical role of on in this sentence?
On is the 3rd person singular masculine pronoun meaning “he.” In Polish you can often drop it because the verb ending already shows person and gender, but here it’s included for clarity or emphasis on who made the decision.
Why is postanowił in the perfective past tense?
Postanowić is a perfective verb, so its past tense form (postanowił) indicates that the act of deciding was completed at a specific point in the past. It tells us “he decided” (once) to start running.
Why do we pair the perfective postanowił with the imperfective infinitive biegać?
This is a common Polish pattern: you use a perfective verb of deciding, planning, or promising (postanowić, zdecydować, obiecać) followed by an imperfective infinitive (biegać) when you want to express that the action will be ongoing or habitual. Perfective marks the one‐time decision; imperfective describes the repeated activity.
What does codziennie rano mean, and why is the order codziennie rano and not rano codziennie?
Codziennie rano means “every morning.” Polish word order is relatively flexible, but putting the frequency adverb (codziennie) before the time-of-day noun (rano) is the most natural and emphasizes the regularity. Rano codziennie is understandable but less usual.
What case is used in w parku, and why is it the locative?
W parku (“in the park”) uses the locative case because the preposition w (“in”) requires locative when indicating location (static position). If you were going into the park (movement with a goal), you’d use the accusative: do parku.
Why is biegać used instead of biec?
Biegać is the imperfective verb meaning “to run (habitually or repeatedly).” Biec is perfective/imperfective with a different aspect: it usually implies “to run (right now, one-time).” Since he plans to run every morning (a repeated action), the imperfective biegać is correct.
Could we replace postanowił with zdecydował się? What’s the nuance?
Yes, zdecydował się + infinitive also means “he decided to …” but it feels slightly more formal or emphatic. Postanowił is more like “he made a resolution,” while zdecydował się is simply “he made up his mind.” Both use perfective + imperfective infinitive.
Why is the infinitive phrase biegać w parku at the end of the sentence?
Polish tends to place the main verb (postanowił) before its infinitive complement (biegać w parku). Putting the infinitive clause at the end keeps the focus on the decision first, then on what he decided to do. You could slightly reorder adverbials, but the basic V + infinitive pattern remains.