Learn Hardcore Polish: Ona chce adoptować kota z schroniska. - She wants to adopt a cat from the shelter.

• chce is the 3rd-person singular present tense of chcieć (“to want”).
• chcę is 1st-person singular (“I want”), chcą isn’t used (they say chcą for 3rd-person plural, but that comes from another verb form).
• Because the subject is ona (“she”), we use chce (“she wants”).

Why is adoptować in the infinitive form and not conjugated?

• In Polish, after verbs like chcieć (“to want”), you follow with the infinitive of the next verb.
• So chce adoptować literally means “wants to adopt.”
• The infinitive adoptować never changes its ending for person or number.

What case is kota, and why isn’t it kot?

• kot (“cat”) is a masculine animate noun.
• As the direct object of adoptować, it must be in the accusative case.
• For masculine animate nouns, the accusative singular is formed by adding -a, yielding kota.

Why do we say z schroniska, and what case is schroniska? When would it be ze instead of z?

• The preposition z (“from”) requires the genitive case.
• schronisko (“shelter”) in genitive singular becomes schroniska.
• So z schroniska = “from the shelter.”
• Polish often changes z → ze before certain consonant clusters for ease of pronunciation (e.g. ze szkoły, not z szkoły).
• With schroniska the cluster sch- is treated as one unit, so z schroniska is standard.

Is the pronoun ona necessary here, or can it be omitted?

• Polish is a “pro-drop” language: the verb ending already tells you the subject.
• You can say simply Chce adoptować kota z schroniska. and it still means “She wants to adopt a cat from a shelter.”
• Including ona adds emphasis or clarity: “She (not someone else) wants to adopt…”

Where is the stress in the word adoptować, and how is it pronounced?

• Polish words are almost always stressed on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable.
• adoptować is pronounced [a-dop-TO-vatɕ], with stress on TO.
• Breakdown: a-DOP-to-wać (the diacritic ć sounds like the “ch” in “cheese,” but softer).

Is adoptować perfective or imperfective? How would you express a completed action (“She wants to have adopted…”)?

• adoptować is imperfective, focusing on the process or general action of adopting.
• To express a completed action, Polish uses a perfective counterpart: zaadoptować (“to adopt (once and for all)”).
• Example: Ona chce zaadoptować kota z schroniska → “She wants to (successfully) adopt a cat from the shelter,” implying the action will be completed.