Breakdown of Nauczyciel mówi o nowym słowie.
nowy
new
o
about
słowo
the word
nauczyciel
the teacher
mówić
to talk
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Polish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Nauczyciel mówi o nowym słowie.
Why is there no word for the or a before nauczyciel?
Polish has no articles. A noun like nauczyciel can mean the teacher or a teacher depending on context. You don’t insert the or a—you rely on the situation or other qualifying words to show definiteness.
What case is nauczyciel in, and why doesn’t it change its ending here?
Nauczyciel is in the nominative case, which is used for the subject of a sentence. In the nominative singular masculine, the form stays nauczyciel, so there’s no extra ending.
Which case does the preposition o require, and how does that apply to nowym słowie?
O always governs the locative case in Polish. That is why nowe słowo (nominative) becomes o nowym słowie (locative). You use the locative to express “about something.”
Why is the adjective nowy inflected as nowym?
Adjectives agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify. Here:
- słowie is neuter singular in the locative.
- The neuter locative singular ending for nowy is -ym. So nowy → nowym to match słowie.
Why does słowo change to słowie in this sentence?
Słowo (“word”) is a neuter noun. In the locative singular (required by o), the ending -o becomes -ie, giving słowie.
How are the letters ó and ł pronounced in mówi and słowie, and where is the stress?
- ó sounds like English u. So mówi is pronounced [ˈmu.vi].
- ł sounds like English w. So słowie is [ˈswo.vʲe]. Polish words are almost always stressed on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable: mau-CZY-ciel, MÓ-wi, NO-wym, SŁO-wie.
Could you change the word order? For example, O nowym słowie mówi nauczyciel?
Yes. Polish has relatively free word order. Moving o nowym słowie to the front adds emphasis on about the new word, but the meaning stays “The teacher is talking about the new word.”
What would change if the teacher were female?
The noun would become nauczycielka, but the verb stays third person singular: Nauczycielka mówi o nowym słowie.
Why don’t we say nauczyciel mówi nowe słowo to mean “talks about the new word”?
Without o, mówić + accusative usually means “to say/utter” rather than “to talk about.”
- nauczyciel mówi nowe słowo → “the teacher says/utters the new word” (though you’d more naturally say wypowiada nowe słowo).
- nauczyciel mówi o nowym słowie → “the teacher talks about the new word.”