Questions & Answers about Dzieci gonią psa w ogrodzie.
The infinitive (dictionary form) is gonić – “to chase.”
In the sentence, the subject is dzieci (children), which is 3rd person plural.
Polish present-tense endings for -ić verbs look like this (using gonić):
- ja (I) – gonię
- ty (you sg.) – gonisz
- on/ona/ono (he/she/it) – goni
- my (we) – gonimy
- wy (you pl.) – gonicie
- oni/one (they) – gonią
So with dzieci (they) you must use the 3rd person plural form gonią.
Forms like goną simply don’t exist; goni would be 3rd person singular (“he/she/it chases”), which doesn’t match the plural subject dzieci.
Polish has only one present tense, and it usually covers both English:
- present simple: They chase the dog every day.
- present continuous: They are chasing the dog (right now).
The form gonią can therefore be translated as:
- “they chase” (habitual action), or
- “they are chasing” (action happening now),
depending on context. The Polish verb form itself does not distinguish these two uses.
Pies is the nominative form (the basic dictionary form) meaning “dog.”
In this sentence, the dog is the direct object (the thing being chased), so Polish uses the accusative case:
- nominative (subject): pies – The dog is barking. (Pies szczeka.)
- accusative (object): psa – They are chasing the dog. (Dzieci gonią psa.)
For masculine animate nouns like pies, the accusative is the same as the genitive, and it changes to psa in the singular.
Psa is:
- accusative singular of pies (dog),
- also genitive singular of pies.
So it always refers to “dog,” but it can function as:
- direct object: Widzę psa – I see a/the dog. (accusative)
- after some prepositions or in “of”-type meanings: Nie ma psa – There is no dog. (genitive)
The exact meaning (object vs. “of the dog” / “no dog”) comes from context and the rest of the sentence.
The sentence Dzieci gonią psa w ogrodzie contains three different cases:
- Dzieci – nominative plural (subject: children)
- psa – accusative singular (direct object: dog)
- ogrodzie – locative singular (after the preposition w to show location: in the garden)
So the pattern is:
Nominative (subject) + verb + Accusative (direct object) + preposition + Locative (place).
Polish does not have articles like English “a/an” or “the.”
- Dzieci gonią psa could be:
- The children are chasing the dog.
- The children are chasing a dog.
- Children chase the dog. (in some contexts)
Whether we understand “the” or “a” comes purely from context, not from separate words. The forms dzieci and psa themselves do not encode definiteness.
Dzieci means “children” (or “kids”) and is:
- plural in meaning (more than one child),
- grammatically, it belongs to the non‑masculine personal plural group.
It behaves a bit like an irregular plural in English (child → children):
- singular: dziecko – child
- plural: dzieci – children
For verbs in the present tense, all plural subjects use the same 3rd person plural ending (gonią, czytają, etc.), so the gender group doesn’t affect the verb form here. It matters more in the past tense and for adjective endings.
Dziecko is the singular form: “a child.”
Dzieci is the plural form: “children.”
This is an irregular plural pattern, similar to English child → children. You don’t say dziecka or dziecki for “children” – the correct noun is dzieci.
Polish is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending shows who is doing the action.
- Gonią already tells us it is 3rd person plural (“they chase / are chasing”).
- The word dzieci then tells us who “they” are: the children.
You could say One gonią psa w ogrodzie, but it would sound unusual or overly emphatic here. Normally, you just say Dzieci gonią psa… without an extra “they.”
The noun ogród (garden) changes form depending on case:
- nominative (dictionary form): ogród
- locative singular (after w meaning “in”): ogrodzie
The preposition w can take different cases, but:
- w
- locative = static location (“in, inside” somewhere)
So:
- in the garden → w ogrodzie (locative)
- The garden is big. → Ogród jest duży. (nominative)
Forms like w ogród or w ogrodu are ungrammatical for the meaning “in the garden.” The correct form is w ogrodzie.
In w ogrodzie, w means “in” and shows where the action happens.
- w
- locative case → static location (in, inside)
So:
- w ogrodzie = in the garden (no movement into, just location)
- Compare: do ogrodu = to the garden (movement towards the garden, genitive case after do)
In our sentence, the children are already in the garden chasing the dog, so w ogrodzie is used.
Yes. Polish word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:
- Dzieci gonią psa w ogrodzie.
- W ogrodzie dzieci gonią psa.
- Dzieci w ogrodzie gonią psa.
They all mean essentially the same, but the focus can shift slightly:
- Starting with W ogrodzie highlights the place (“In the garden, the children are chasing the dog…”).
- The original order is neutral and common in learner examples.
Pronouns and clitics are less flexible, but with full nouns like dzieci, psa, ogród, you have quite a bit of freedom.
For more than one dog, you need the accusative plural of pies, which is psy.
Examples:
- Dzieci gonią psy w ogrodzie.
The children are chasing dogs in the garden / the dogs in the garden.
Here:
- singular object: psa – one dog
- plural object: psy – dogs
The verb gonią stays the same, because it already matches the plural subject dzieci.
Approximate pronunciation (simplified for English speakers):
dzieci → roughly “djeh‑chee”
- dz
- ie makes a soft sound, like a “dj” blended into “ye.”
- The whole word sounds like one smooth unit: d-jie‑chee.
- dz
ogrodzie → roughly “oh‑GROH‑djeh”
- The -dzie- part is very similar to the end of dzieci.
- Think of dz
- ie producing a soft “dje” sound.
In both words, the spelling dzi(e) or dzie represents a soft palatal sound that doesn’t exist exactly in English, but “dj-ye” is a decent approximation.