Teraz idę do pracy pieszo, ale zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano.

Polish has two basic verbs for “to go (on foot)”:

• iść → idę (1st person singular)
• chodzić → chodzę (1st person singular)

They differ mostly in type of action:

1. iść / idę – one specific, concrete movement happening now or soon, in one direction

   • Teraz idę do pracy pieszo.
     → Right now I’m on my way to work on foot (one specific trip, happening now).

2. chodzić / chodzę – repeated, habitual, or general movement, or movement back and forth

   • Zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano.
     → I usually go/walk there with a colleague in the morning (a routine, a habit).

So the sentence contrasts:

• this specific time now → idę
• what usually happens → chodzę

The preposition do (“to, into”) in Polish always requires the genitive case.

• Nominative (dictionary form): praca – “work, job”
• Genitive (after do): pracy

So:

• ❌ idę do praca – incorrect
• ✅ idę do pracy – correct: “I’m going to work”

Other examples:

• do domu (from dom) – to home
• do szkoły (from szkoła) – to school
• do sklepu (from sklep) – to the shop

Both pieszo and na piechotę mean “on foot, by walking.”

• Teraz idę do pracy pieszo.
• Teraz idę do pracy na piechotę.

Both are correct and very common. Differences:

• Style / feel:
  
  • pieszo – a bit shorter, slightly more neutral or “bookish” to some ears
  • na piechotę – very common in everyday speech
• Meaning: practically the same. In most contexts you can treat them as synonyms.

So you can freely say:

• Idę pieszo. = I’m going on foot.
• Idę na piechotę. = Same meaning.

They do slightly different things:

• do pracy – to work (names the destination)
• tam – there (points to that place as a known location in the conversation)

In zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano, the idea is:

• We already know which place we’re talking about (work), so we can refer to it as tam (“there”).
• It sounds natural in Polish to say chodzę tam when you mean “I go to that place (e.g. to work, to school)” as part of your routine.

You could say:

• Teraz idę do pracy pieszo, ale zwykle chodzę do pracy z kolegą rano. – fully explicit
• Teraz idę do pracy pieszo, ale zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano. – avoids repetition; very natural.

So tam here is basically “to that place (i.e. to work)”.

Polish is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (ja, ty, on, etc.) are often omitted when the verb ending already shows the person.

• idę already tells you it’s 1st person singular (“I”).
• chodzę does the same.

So:

• ✅ Teraz idę do pracy pieszo. – perfectly normal
• ✅ Ja teraz idę do pracy pieszo. – also correct, but ja adds emphasis: I (as opposed to someone else) am going now.

You typically use ja:

• to contrast: Ja idę pieszo, a on jedzie autobusem.
• to stress “me”: Ja tego nie zrobiłem. – I didn’t do it.

In Polish, you must put a comma before ale when it joins two clauses.

Here we have two clauses:

1. Teraz idę do pracy pieszo
2. (ale) zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano

They are joined by ale (“but”), so a comma is required:

• ✅ Teraz idę do pracy pieszo, ale zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano.

That’s a standard rule:

• …, ale … always takes a comma in this kind of sentence.

Yes. Polish word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatical, but they change emphasis slightly.

Examples:

1. Teraz idę do pracy pieszo. – neutral: “Now I’m going to work on foot.”
   Idę teraz do pracy pieszo. – similar meaning, but the verb idę comes earlier, slightly emphasizing the action (“I’m going now”).

2. zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą rano. – quite neutral
   Zwykle rano chodzę tam z kolegą. – focuses a bit more on the time (“usually in the morning I go there with a colleague”).
   Rano zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą. – even more emphasis on morning.

Polish uses word order more for focus and rhythm than for basic grammar, since endings show who is doing what.

Z kolegą is in the instrumental case.

• Nominative: kolega – “(male) colleague, friend”
• Instrumental: kolegą

The preposition z (“with”) in the sense of “together with someone” uses the instrumental:

• z kolegą – with a (male) colleague
• z koleżanką – with a (female) colleague/female friend
• z mamą – with (my) mother
• z psem – with a dog

So the pattern is:
z + [instrumental] → “with X”.

If the colleague is female, you normally use koleżanka:

• Nominative: koleżanka (female colleague/friend)
• Instrumental: koleżanką

So you’d say:

• Zwykle chodzę tam z koleżanką rano. – I usually go there with a (female) colleague in the morning.

z kolegą almost always implies a male person.

Polish does not have a separate continuous/progressive tense like English (“am going”, “was going”).

Instead, Polish uses the simple present for both:

• idę =
  
  • “I go” (right now)
  • “I’m going (now)”

So:

• Teraz idę do pracy pieszo. → “Now I’m going to work on foot.” (or literally “Now I go to work on foot.”)

To distinguish habit from right now, Polish mostly relies on:

• context words (teraz, zwykle, często, czasem), and
• choice of verb (iść vs chodzić, jechać vs jeździć, etc.).

In this sentence:

• teraz idę – now, one specific action
• zwykle chodzę – usually, a repeated habit.

If you are not walking, but using a vehicle (car, bus, tram, train), you usually switch to:

• jechać → present: jadę – one specific trip now
• jeździć → present: jeżdżę – habitual / repeated trips

Examples:

• Teraz jadę do pracy samochodem. – I’m going to work by car now.
• Zwykle jeżdżę tam autobusem rano. – I usually go there by bus in the morning.

Use:

• iść / chodzić – on foot
• jechać / jeździć – by some means of transport (car, bus, bike, train, etc.).

Yes, you can say do roboty, but it’s more informal / colloquial.

• praca – neutral, standard word for “work, job”
• robota – colloquial; can sound more casual, sometimes slightly rough (depending on context)

Compare:

• Idę do pracy. – neutral: I’m going to work.
• Idę do roboty. – informal: I’m off to work (more casual, maybe a bit complaining in some contexts).

In your sentence:

• Teraz idę do pracy pieszo… – neutral, suitable in almost any context.
• Teraz idę do roboty pieszo… – casual, spoken language, among friends.

Rano here functions as an adverb of time: “in the morning”.

It’s very flexible in placement:

• Zwykle rano chodzę tam z kolegą.
• Zwykle chodzę tam rano z kolegą.
• Rano zwykle chodzę tam z kolegą.

All mean essentially: “I usually go there with a colleague in the morning.”
The different positions just shift emphasis slightly (e.g. focusing more on morning vs usually), but they’re all correct and natural.