Breakdown of Przy granicy często jest duży korek i samochody stoją godzinami.
Questions & Answers about Przy granicy często jest duży korek i samochody stoją godzinami.
All three are possible in Polish, but they’re not identical in meaning or feel:
przy granicy – literally “at/by the border”.
Emphasises being right next to the border area, in its immediate vicinity (e.g. the road leading to the border crossing).na granicy – literally “on the border”.
Often suggests being on the actual border line / crossing itself, or in some official sense (e.g. na granicy polsko‑niemieckiej = on the Polish‑German border).blisko granicy – “near the border”.
More general “somewhere near”, not necessarily right up against it.
In the sentence, przy granicy fits well because the traffic jam typically builds up right around the border crossing, not somewhere loosely “nearby” or exactly "on" the border line.
Granicy is the locative case (Polish: miejscownik), singular.
- The base noun is granica (border), feminine.
- Locative singular of granica is o (tej) granicy / przy granicy / na granicy.
The preposition przy always takes the locative case, so:
- przy granicy, not przy granica or przy granicę.
Other examples with przy + locative:
- przy oknie – by the window
- przy stole – at the table
- przy szkole – next to the school
Both are possible; they just describe the situation differently:
często jest duży korek
= there is often a big traffic jam (one big jam; the road is blocked as a single long queue).często są duże korki
= there are often big traffic jams (several separate jams, or talking more generally about many such situations).
Polish usually prefers the singular korek for a specific traffic jam in a location at a given time. So if we picture one big jam “at the border”, jest duży korek is the natural choice.
You’re right: korek has two main meanings in Polish:
- korek (do butelki) – cork (the thing in a wine bottle)
- korek (drogowy) – traffic jam
The meaning is determined from context. After talking about samochody (cars) and stoją godzinami (stand for hours), it’s clearly about a traffic jam.
You’ll more often see the compound:
- korek drogowy – traffic jam
but in everyday speech people usually say just korek, like in your sentence.
Because of grammatical gender:
- korek is masculine (like stół, dom, pies).
- The adjective has to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun.
- Masculine nominative singular of duży is duży:
- duży korek – big traffic jam
- duży dom – big house
Compare with other genders in nominative singular:
- feminine: duża ulica – big street
- neuter: duże miasto – big city
So with korek (masculine), duży is correct.
In Polish:
- stać = to stand / be (in a standing position), be stationary
- być = to be (very general)
In the context of traffic:
- samochody stoją – the cars are standing, i.e. not moving
- samochody są – the cars are (exist) – this doesn’t say anything about motion
So for a traffic jam, Polish uses stać to mean be stopped in place:
- Samochody stoją w korku. – The cars are stuck in a traffic jam.
- Autobusy stoją na przystanku. – The buses are (standing) at the stop.
Using są here would sound unfinished: you’d have to add what they are (e.g. samochody są nowe – the cars are new).
Godzinami literally is the instrumental plural of godzina (hour), used adverbially.
Meaning: “for hours (and hours)”, “for many hours” – it emphasises a long, extended time.
Compare:
- stoją godzinę – they stand for one hour
- stoją dwie godziny – they stand for two hours
- stoją wiele godzin – they stand for many hours
- stoją godzinami – they stand for hours (on end)
So godzinami is a very natural way to say that something lasts a long time, without specifying the exact number of hours.
Polish word order is flexible, and często can move around, though some positions sound more natural. Possible options:
- Przy granicy często jest duży korek… – neutral, very natural.
- Przy granicy jest często duży korek… – also correct; slightly more emphasis on jest/duży korek.
- Często przy granicy jest duży korek… – emphasis on how frequently it happens.
What you would usually avoid in neutral speech is putting często at the very end of the clause:
- ✗ Przy granicy jest duży korek często. – understandable, but sounds clumsy / foreign.
In your sentence, Przy granicy często jest duży korek is the most typical, natural word order.
You can, but there is a nuance:
samochody stoją godzinami – literally “the cars stand for hours”;
standard way to describe traffic jams: cars are stopped and not moving.kierowcy czekają godzinami – “the drivers wait for hours”;
emphasises the waiting as an experience.
Saying samochody czekają (“the cars wait”) is understandable and used in everyday speech, but strictly speaking, cars don’t “wait”, people do.
So the most natural combinations are:
- Samochody stoją godzinami.
- Kierowcy czekają godzinami.
It’s not fixed; Polish allows reordering, but you should keep it sounding natural. Some acceptable variants:
- Często przy granicy jest duży korek i samochody stoją godzinami.
- Przy granicy jest często duży korek i samochody stoją godzinami.
Less natural / marked:
- Przy granicy jest duży korek i godzinami stoją samochody.
(possible, but unusual emphasis)
You generally want to keep:
- przy granicy near the start as the place reference,
- często before or just after the verb jest,
- samochody immediately before stoją.
The original ordering is perfectly standard and idiomatic.
Because jest here refers to korek (singular), not to samochody.
The sentence is essentially:
- Przy granicy często jest duży korek
(There is often a big traffic jam at the border)
and then:
- (…) i samochody stoją godzinami.
(…) and the cars stand (are stopped) for hours.
So we have two separate clauses:
- (Tam) jest duży korek. – korek is singular → jest.
- Samochody stoją godzinami. – samochody is plural → stoją.