Learn Hardcore Polish: W weekend dzieci rysują w zeszycie i malują kolorowe domy. - On the weekend the children draw in a notebook and paint colourful houses.

w weekend – time expression
- Function: “during / on the weekend”
- Case: accusative (but the form weekend looks the same in nominative, accusative, and locative, so you don’t see a change).
w zeszycie – location in space
- Function: “in the notebook / exercise book”
- Case: locative singular of zeszyt
- zeszyt (nom.) → w zeszycie (loc.)

A good rule of thumb:

w + accusative – often used for time (w weekend, w poniedziałek)
w + locative – used for place (w zeszycie, w domu, w szkole)

How would I say on weekends (in general), not just on one weekend?

You have a few options, all common:

W weekend – can also mean on weekends (generally) in Polish, especially in habitual sentences:
- W weekend dzieci rysują… – Children draw on weekends.
W weekendy – explicitly plural, “on weekends”:
- W weekendy dzieci rysują w zeszycie.
W każdy weekend – “every weekend”:
- W każdy weekend dzieci rysują w zeszycie.

So the sentence as given can already be understood as a habit (“on weekends”) in context.

Why is there no word for the or a in this sentence?

Polish has no articles (no equivalents of a/an or the).
Whether you translate:

children draw in a notebook
children draw in the notebook

depends on context, not on any specific word in Polish.

So:

dzieci → children / the children
zeszycie → a notebook / the notebook
kolorowe domy → colourful houses / the colourful houses

English must choose an article; Polish simply doesn’t mark it.

Why is the subject dzieci and not a pronoun like one or oni?

Dzieci itself is the subject, meaning children. Polish does not require subject pronouns when the subject is clear from the noun or the verb ending.

dzieci rysują – children draw
You could say one rysują, but then you usually omit dzieci, not repeat it: One rysują w zeszycie. (They [girls/mixed children] draw…)

In natural Polish, you typically have either:

a noun subject: Dzieci rysują…
or
a pronoun subject: One rysują…

Using both together (Dzieci one rysują…) would be strange here.

What is the grammatical gender and behavior of dzieci?

Dzieci is grammatically plural, non‑masculine‑personal (in Polish terms: liczba mnoga, niemęskoosobowa).

Details:

Singular: dziecko – a child (neuter)
Plural: dzieci – children

With dzieci:

Verbs take 3rd person plural:
- dzieci rysują (not rysuje)
Adjectives and past forms use non‑masculine‑personal plural endings:
- małe dzieci – small children
- Dzieci były zmęczone. – The children were tired.

So the verb form rysują correctly agrees with dzieci.

Why do both verbs, rysują and malują, appear in the present tense and in this form?

Rysują and malują are:

3rd person plural, present tense of:
- rysować – to draw
- malować – to paint / to colour

The ending -ją is typical for oni/one (they) in the present tense:

oni/one rysują – they draw
oni/one malują – they paint

This present tense can mean:

right now:
- W weekend dzieci rysują i malują. – This weekend, the children are drawing and painting.
habitually:
- On weekends, children draw and paint.

Polish often uses present tense of imperfective verbs for both “are doing” and “do (regularly)”.

What is the difference between rysować and malować in meaning?

Generally:

rysować – to draw, usually with pencil, pen, crayon, etc. (line-based drawing)
malować – to paint, often with paints (watercolours, acrylics) or to colour something in

So in dzieci rysują w zeszycie i malują kolorowe domy:

they draw in the notebook (perhaps outlines, sketches)
they paint/colour colourful houses (likely using paints or colouring them in)

There is also a verb:

kolorować – to colour (e.g. colouring books), but malować is very commonly used for children’s painting/colouring activities.

Why is it w zeszycie and not do zeszytu? What is the difference?

Both are possible but mean slightly different things:

w zeszycie – in the notebook, focuses on location
- Dzieci rysują w zeszycie. – Children are drawing in the notebook (that’s where the drawings are).
do zeszytu – into the notebook, focuses on the direction / target
- Dzieci rysują do zeszytu. – Children are drawing into the notebook / for the notebook (more like “they put the notes/drawings into their notebook”).

In practice:

For school exercises or drawings physically located in the notebook, w zeszycie is the most neutral and usual choice here.

Why is zeszycie singular when there are multiple children? Shouldn’t it be plural (zeszytach)?

Polish can use either singular or plural here, depending on what you want to emphasize and context:

w zeszycie – in the notebook / in a notebook
- Can mean that each child has their own notebook, but you’re speaking generally.
- It does not force the idea of only one physical notebook.
w zeszytach – in (their) notebooks (clearly plural)
- Emphasizes that there are many notebooks, one per child (or several).

The sentence W weekend dzieci rysują w zeszycie… is perfectly natural; Polish often uses a generic singular in this kind of statement.

How does kolorowe domy work grammatically (case, gender, agreement)?

Kolorowe domy is:

domy – plural of dom (house)
- nominative plural: domy
- accusative plural: domy (same form)
kolorowe – plural, non‑masculine‑personal form of kolorowy (colourful)

In the sentence:

dzieci malują kolorowe domy

kolorowe domy is the direct object of malują, so it is in the accusative plural. For domy, nominative and accusative plural look the same, so you only see that it is accusative from the structure of the sentence.

Agreement:

noun: domy – non‑masculine‑personal plural
adjective: kolorowe – matches plural, non‑masculine‑personal

Can the word order be changed? For example, can I say Dzieci w weekend rysują…?

Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

W weekend dzieci rysują w zeszycie i malują kolorowe domy.
Dzieci w weekend rysują w zeszycie i malują kolorowe domy.
Dzieci rysują w zeszycie i malują kolorowe domy w weekend.

Differences are mostly about emphasis and style, not meaning:

Starting with W weekend puts emphasis on the time.
Starting with Dzieci emphasizes the children as the topic.

Your original sentence sounds very natural and neutral.

How would the meaning change if I used the perfective verbs narysują or pomalują instead?

Changing to perfective would shift the focus to completed actions:

W weekend dzieci narysują w zeszycie i pomalują kolorowe domy.

This suggests:

They will draw and complete painting the colourful houses this coming weekend (one-time, result-focused action).

Key points:

rysują / malują (imperfective, present):
- present or habitual: they draw/are drawing, they paint/are painting
narysują / pomalują (perfective, future):
- completed future: they will (finish) drawing / painting

So you’d use perfective if you mean a one‑off, finished result in the future, not a general routine.