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W łazience brakuje ręczników, muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.

W łazience brakuje ręczników, muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.
There are no towels in the bathroom; I have to put them in the washing machine tomorrow.
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Questions & Answers about W łazience brakuje ręczników, muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.

Why is it w łazience and not something like w łazienka?

Łazienka (bathroom) is a feminine noun. After the preposition w meaning in, Polish usually uses the locative case.

The declension of łazienka (singular) is:

  • Nominative (dictionary form): łazienka – bathroom
  • Locative: w łazience – in the bathroom

So w łazience literally means in (the) bathroom and is grammatically required because w + location → locative case.

Why is it brakuje ręczników and not brakuje ręczniki?

The verb brakować (here in the form brakuje) takes the genitive case for the thing that is missing.

  • Nominative plural: ręczniki – towels
  • Genitive plural: ręczników – of towels

The structure is:

  • brakuje + GENITIVE → there is a lack of X / X are missing

So:

  • Brakuje ręczników = There is a lack of towels / Towels are missing.

Using ręczniki (nominative plural) after brakuje would be ungrammatical.

What is the difference between brakuje ręczników and nie ma ręczników?

Both are very common and both mean that there are no towels, but there is a nuance:

  • Brakuje ręczników

    • Literally: It lacks towels / There is a lack of towels.
    • Slightly more formal or neutral, often focusing on the absence as a problem.

  • Nie ma ręczników

    • Literally: There are no towels / There is no towels.
    • Very colloquial and frequent in everyday speech.

In most everyday contexts, you could say either:

  • W łazience brakuje ręczników
  • W łazience nie ma ręczników

Both are fine. The original version just happens to use brakuje.

Why is the pronoun je used (in muszę je jutro włożyć) and not ich?

The pronoun must agree with ręczniki (towels):

  • ręczniki are plural, non‑masculine personal (they are things, not people).

In the accusative plural:

  • For non‑masculine personal nouns (like towels, books, cars), the object pronoun is je.
  • For masculine personal (groups of men or mixed groups with men), the object pronoun is ich.

So:

  • Muszę je włożyć – I have to put them in (towels, plates, clothes, etc.)
  • Muszę ich odwiedzić – I have to visit them (some men / people).

Using ich for ręczniki as the direct object would be incorrect here.

Can the word order be different? For example, can I say Muszę jutro je włożyć do pralki or Jutro muszę je włożyć do pralki?

Yes. Polish word order is fairly flexible, especially with unstressed pronouns like je. All of these are grammatically correct:

  • Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.
  • Muszę jutro je włożyć do pralki.
  • Jutro muszę je włożyć do pralki.
  • Jutro muszę włożyć je do pralki.

They all express the same basic idea. Differences are mostly about rhythm and emphasis:

  • Putting jutro at the beginning (Jutro muszę…) emphasizes tomorrow.
  • Keeping je close to the verb (…je włożyć) is very natural; moving it slightly (…jutro je włożyć) is also fine in speech.
Why is the verb włożyć (perfective) used here instead of wkładać (imperfective)?

Polish distinguishes aspect:

  • Perfective (e.g. włożyć) – one complete, single action, often seen as a finished whole.
  • Imperfective (e.g. wkładać) – ongoing, repeated, or habitual action.

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about one specific future action: putting the towels into the washing machine once, tomorrow. That’s why the perfective infinitive włożyć is used.

  • Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.
    → I have to perform this one complete action tomorrow.

You would use wkładać for something like describing what you usually do:

  • Zwykle wkładam pranie do pralki wieczorem. – I usually put the laundry in the washing machine in the evening.
If włożyć is perfective (normally future), why do we still say muszę włożyć, not something like muszę włożę?

With modal verbs like musieć (muszę = I must / I have to), Polish uses a modal verb in the present tense + infinitive, regardless of aspect:

  • muszę + infinitive
  • chcę + infinitive (I want to…)
  • mogę + infinitive (I can…)

So:

  • Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.
    Literally: I must tomorrow put them into the washing machine.

The future meaning comes from:

  • the perfective aspect of włożyć (a single, completed action), and
  • the time adverb jutro (tomorrow).

You cannot say muszę włożę; this is ungrammatical because muszę must be followed by an infinitive, not a finite verb form.

Why is it do pralki and not do pralka or do pralce?

The noun pralka (washing machine) is feminine. The preposition do (to / into / up to) takes the genitive case.

Declension (singular):

  • Nominative: pralka – a washing machine
  • Genitive: pralki – of a washing machine

After do, you must use genitive:

  • do pralki – into the washing machine

So the pattern is:

  • do + GENITIVE → do pralki, do domu, do sklepu, etc.
Why do pralki and not w pralce? Are they different?

Yes, they express different ideas:

  • włożyć do pralki – to put (something) into the washing machine
    • Focus on the movement into the machine.
  • w pralce – in the washing machine
    • Just describes the location, not the action of putting it in.

In your sentence, the important action is putting the towels into the machine, so włożyć do pralki is correct.

If you wanted to describe where the towels already are, you would use:

  • Ręczniki są w pralce. – The towels are in the washing machine.
Could we say Muszę je jutro wyprać instead of Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki?

You can, but the meaning changes slightly:

  • Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.

    • Emphasis on the specific action of putting them into the machine tomorrow.
    • It doesn’t explicitly say anything about running the washing cycle, just putting them in.

  • Muszę je jutro wyprać.

    • Wyprać is perfective and means to wash them (completely) in the sense of doing the whole washing process and finishing it.
    • Emphasis on getting them washed, not just putting them into the machine.

Both are natural; you choose based on what you want to emphasize: putting the towels into the machine vs. getting them washed.

Where can jutro go in the sentence? Is there a fixed position?

Jutro (tomorrow) is an adverb and can appear in several positions without changing the basic meaning:

  • W łazience brakuje ręczników, muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki.
  • W łazience brakuje ręczników, jutro muszę je włożyć do pralki.
  • Jutro muszę je włożyć do pralki, bo w łazience brakuje ręczników.

All are acceptable. Moving jutro slightly can emphasize either:

  • the time (Jutro muszę…) or
  • the necessity (muszę jutro…).

There is no strict, single “correct” position for jutro here.

Why is there a comma between ręczników and muszę?

The sentence actually contains two independent clauses joined by just a comma:

  1. W łazience brakuje ręczników – There are no towels in the bathroom / Towels are missing in the bathroom.
  2. Muszę je jutro włożyć do pralki – I have to put them in the washing machine tomorrow.

In English you might add so:

  • There are no towels in the bathroom, so I have to put them in the washing machine tomorrow.

In Polish, it’s common in everyday writing to link such related clauses with just a comma (a kind of comma splice), especially when the logical connector (więc, dlatego, so/therefore) is omitted but understood.