Learn Hardcore Polish: W weekend lubię spacerować po centrum. - On the weekend I like to stroll around the center.

w is a preposition that can take:
- locative (place: w domu – at home),
- or accusative (time/direction: w poniedziałek – on Monday).
Here it’s a time expression, so it takes the accusative case.
weekend is a masculine noun whose nominative and accusative singular are the same: weekend.
The locative form would be w weekendzie, but that would sound odd in this context. For time expressions like days and weekends, Polish uses w
- accusative:
  - w poniedziałek, w piątek, w weekend.

So w weekend is “during the weekend / on the weekend” and is grammatically w + accusative.

Why is there no word for “the” in W weekend lubię spacerować po centrum?

Polish has no articles (no equivalents of a/an/the).

Whether you mean “a weekend”, “the weekend”, or “weekends” is understood from context:

W weekend lubię spacerować po centrum.
Can be understood as:
- I like walking around the city centre at the weekend. (general habit)
  or
- This weekend I like / I’m planning to walk around the city centre. (specific weekend, from context).

So you don’t add anything like the; you just say w weekend.

Why is it lubię spacerować, and not something like lubię spacer or lubię spaceruje?

In Polish, when you say you like doing an activity, the usual pattern is:

lubić (to like) + infinitive (dictionary form of the verb)

So:

lubię spacerować = I like to walk / I like walking
(spacerować = to walk, to go for walks – infinitive)

Compare:

Lubię czytać. – I like reading.
Lubię pływać. – I like swimming.

The other options:

lubię spacer – literally I like (a/the) walk (a noun).
This is grammatically correct, but means you like walks (as things), not “I like walking (as an activity)”. More natural would be:
- Lubię spacery. – I like walks.
lubię spaceruje – incorrect.
spaceruję is 1st person singular present (“I am walking”). You cannot follow lubię with a conjugated verb. After lubię, you want the infinitive: spacerować.

So the natural way to say “I like walking (around)” is Lubię spacerować.

What exactly does lubię mean here, and what form is it?

Lubię means I like (in the sense of finding something pleasant or enjoyable).

Verb: lubić (to like)

Person: 1st person singular
Tense: present
Aspect: imperfective (general, habitual)

Forms of lubić (present):

ja lubię – I like
ty lubisz – you (sg.) like
on/ona/ono lubi – he/she/it likes
my lubimy – we like
wy lubicie – you (pl.) like
oni/one lubią – they like

So W weekend lubię… = At the weekend I like…, describing a habitual preference, not a one-time event.

Why is it spacerować and not iść na spacer? Aren’t both “to go for a walk”?

Both are related, but they’re used a bit differently:

spacerować – to walk (for pleasure), to stroll, focusing on the activity itself
- Lubię spacerować po centrum. – I like walking around the city centre.
iść na spacer – to go for a walk, focusing on going (setting off) for a walk, often as a specific decision or plan
- Idę na spacer. – I’m going for a walk (right now / in a moment).

So:

For a general hobby or preference, you normally say lubię spacerować or lubię chodzić na spacery (I like going for walks).
You’d use iść na spacer to talk about a specific walk you’re going on.

In your sentence, you’re describing something you generally enjoy doing at the weekend, so spacerować is the natural choice.

Why is it po centrum and not w centrum? What’s the difference?

Both are possible, but they give slightly different images:

po centrum (with po
- locative)
  – “around/through the centre”
  Suggests movement within and around the area, covering different streets and places.
  - Spacerować po centrum = walk around the city centre, from place to place.
w centrum (with w
- locative)
  – “in the centre”
  Just says where you are; it doesn’t emphasise movement.
  - Mieszkam w centrum. – I live in the centre.
  - Spaceruję w centrum. – I’m walking in the centre (neutral location; less of that “all around” feeling).

In the sentence lubię spacerować po centrum, po nicely suggests strolling around, wandering through the centre, which fits the idea of a leisurely weekend walk.

Why isn’t there any ending on centrum after po? Shouldn’t it change for the locative?

The preposition po requires the locative case.

Centrum is in the locative here, but for this type of noun, the locative form looks the same as the basic form.

Centrum is a neuter noun ending in -um. Many such nouns have identical forms in several cases:

Nominative: centrum
Accusative: centrum
Locative: centrum

So:

po centrum = po
- locative of centrum
w centrum = w
- locative of centrum

Even though you don’t see a visible ending, grammatically it is locative; that’s just how this noun type behaves in Polish.

Can I change the word order? Is Lubię spacerować po centrum w weekend also correct?

Yes, Polish word order is relatively flexible, and both of these are correct:

W weekend lubię spacerować po centrum.
Lubię spacerować po centrum w weekend.

The differences are mostly about emphasis and rhythm:

Starting with W weekend highlights when:
“At the weekend, I like walking around the centre.”
Putting w weekend at the end is more neutral, focusing first on what you like:
“I like walking around the centre at the weekend.”

In everyday speech, both orders sound natural. The original version is a bit more common in short statements about routines.

How would I say “On weekends I like walking around the centre” (plural: weekends)?

To make it clearly plural (“on weekends / at weekends”), you can say:

W weekendy lubię spacerować po centrum.

Grammar:

weekendy is the accusative plural of weekend.
With a time expression like this, Polish again uses w
- accusative.

Alternatives (also possible, slightly more formal or less common):

W weekendach lubię spacerować po centrum. – grammatically fine, but w weekendy is more natural in modern speech.
You can also rephrase without weekend:
- W soboty i niedziele lubię spacerować po centrum. – On Saturdays and Sundays I like walking around the centre.

So:

W weekend lubię… – often understood as “at the weekend / on weekends” from context.
W weekendy lubię… – clearly “on weekends (in general) I like…”.