Breakdown of Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu.
Questions & Answers about Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu.
Literally, na co dzień is “for what (is) day” / “for the everyday”, but that’s not how it’s understood.
Idiomatic meanings:
- normally
- in my daily life
- on a daily basis
- usually
So Na co dzień pracuję w biurze is best rendered as:
- I normally work in an office, or
- In my day-to-day life I work in an office.
Both talk about regularity, but they’re used a bit differently.
codziennie = every day (focus on frequency)
- Codziennie pracuję w biurze. – I work in the office every day.
na co dzień = in general / normally / in my everyday life (more about the usual state of things, not necessarily literally every single day)
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze. – In my everyday life, I work in an office (that’s my usual situation).
Often they overlap, but:
- codziennie stresses how often.
- na co dzień stresses what’s typical or normal for you.
In Polish, the simple present tense often covers:
- actions happening right now
- habits and routines
The adverbial phrase na co dzień tells us it’s about a habitual action, not about what is happening at this exact moment.
So:
- Pracuję w biurze. – I work in an office / I am working in an office (context decides).
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze. – Because of na co dzień, we understand it as I usually work in an office.
Polish doesn’t need a special tense form like English “used to” or “usually” – the context word (na co dzień) does that job.
- Infinitive: pracować – to work
- pracuję is:
- 1st person singular
- present tense
- imperfective aspect
So pracuję means I work / I’m working.
Other forms:
- pracujesz – you work (singular)
- pracuje – he/she/it works
- pracujemy – we work
- pracujecie – you (plural) work
- pracują – they work
Because of case.
- The preposition w (in) + a static location (no movement) takes the locative case.
- Noun: biuro (office), neuter singular.
- Locative form of biuro is biurze.
So:
- w biurze = in the office (where? – locative)
- do biura = to the office (to where? – accusative after do)
w biuro is grammatically wrong in this context.
Again, this is about location vs movement:
w domu – in the house / at home (where? – locative)
- Jestem w domu. – I am at home.
do domu – to home / to the house (to where? – movement towards – usually genitive after do)
- Idę do domu. – I’m going home.
In dziś jestem w domu, the person is already at home, not going there, so w domu is correct.
a is a conjunction that often means something like:
- and, but with a contrast or a shift of perspective
- sometimes close to while or whereas
In this sentence:
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu.
- Literally: On a daily basis I work in an office, and today I am at home.
- Nuance: Normally I work in an office, but today (by contrast) I’m at home.
Compare:
- i – just and, neutral connection:
- Pracuję w biurze i mieszkam w Warszawie. – I work in an office and live in Warsaw. (no contrast)
- ale – more explicit but / however:
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, ale dziś jestem w domu. – Stronger sense of “but”.
a is softer than ale, and more contrastive than a plain i.
Polish usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person:
- pracuję already tells us it’s I (1st person singular).
So:
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze is perfectly natural.
- Ja na co dzień pracuję w biurze is also correct, but:
- It adds emphasis to ja: I (as opposed to someone else) usually work in the office.
- It might sound like you’re contrasting yourself with others.
Default, neutral sentence: Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu.
They mean essentially the same thing:
- dziś = today
- dzisiaj = today
Differences:
- dziś is a bit shorter and often slightly more formal or literary, but used in everyday speech too.
- dzisiaj is very common in spoken language.
In this sentence, you could say:
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu.
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dzisiaj jestem w domu.
Both are correct and natural.
Yes. Polish word order is flexible, and moving elements usually changes emphasis, not basic meaning.
Possible variants:
- Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu. (neutral)
- Pracuję na co dzień w biurze, a dziś jestem w domu. (slight emphasis on the verb pracuję first)
- W biurze na co dzień pracuję, a dziś jestem w domu. (emphasis on w biurze – in the office is the usual place)
All are grammatically correct; the original is the most straightforward and neutral.
Correct spelling is two separate words: na co dzień.
- na – preposition (on/for)
- co – “what / which”
- dzień – “day”
So the phrase is built from three words functioning together as an idiom.
*na codzień (one word) is a very common mistake in writing, but it is incorrect in standard Polish.
The verb pracować is imperfective.
- pracuję (imperfective present) is used for:
- actions in progress
- habits and routines
- general states
There is no perfective partner that would be used for a habitual meaning here; imperfective is exactly what we need.
In Na co dzień pracuję w biurze, the imperfective aspect matches the idea of a repeated, ongoing habit rather than a single completed event.