Word
Ona potrafi prasować koszule, a żelazko szybko robi się gorące.
Meaning
She can iron shirts, and the iron quickly becomes hot.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ona potrafi prasować koszule, a żelazko szybko robi się gorące.
ona
she
robić się
to become
szybko
quickly
a
and
Questions & Answers about Ona potrafi prasować koszule, a żelazko szybko robi się gorące.
Why is potrafi used here instead of może or umie?
- potrafić = can/be able to (ability or capability, often implying being capable of doing it successfully).
- umieć = know how to (acquired skill; very common in everyday speech).
- móc = can/may (permission or possibility). All three are grammatical, but they mean different things:
- Ona potrafi prasować koszule = She is capable of ironing shirts.
- Ona umie prasować koszule = She knows how to iron shirts (practical skill).
- Ona może prasować koszule = She is allowed/able to iron shirts (permission/possibility).
Can I drop the subject pronoun Ona?
Yes. Polish usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person. Potrafi prasować koszule is fully natural. Keeping Ona adds emphasis or contrast (she, as opposed to someone else).
Why is the verb in the infinitive (prasować) after potrafi?
Polish verbs of ability/knowledge (like potrafić, umieć, móc) take an infinitive complement. Hence potrafi prasować, not a finite form like prasuje.
Why prasować and not the perfective wyprasować?