Learn Hardcore Polish: My pijemy sok codziennie rano.

My is the personal pronoun we. In Polish you often drop subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you who’s doing the action, but including My adds emphasis or clarity.

Why do we include My if pijemy already means “we drink”?

Polish verbs carry person and number in their endings, so pijemy indeed means “we drink.” Adding My stresses the subject (e.g. “we, as opposed to they”) or clears up ambiguity in longer sentences.

How is the verb pijemy formed and what does it indicate?

Pijemy is the first person plural present tense form of the infinitive pić (to drink). The full present-tense paradigm is:

ja piję
ty pijesz
on/ona/ono pije
my pijemy
wy pijecie
oni/one piją
So pijemy literally means “we drink” or “we are drinking.”

What case is sok in, and why does it look the same as the base form?

Here sok is in the accusative singular because it’s the direct object of pić. For masculine inanimate nouns like sok, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form, so it stays sok.

Why is there no preposition before sok?

The verb pić is transitive and takes a direct object in the accusative without any preposition—unlike English “have a drink of juice,” in Polish you simply “drink juice.”

What does codziennie rano mean, and how is it constructed?

Codziennie means “daily” or “every day,” and rano means “in the morning.” Together they form the adverbial phrase “every morning.” A common alternative is każdego ranka, which literally means “each morning” using the genitive case.

Can I change the word order without altering the meaning?

Yes. Polish has relatively free word order. You can say:

Pijemy sok codziennie rano.
Codziennie rano pijemy sok.
My pijemy sok codziennie rano.
Omitting My is also perfectly natural: Pijemy sok codziennie rano.