Questions & Answers about Dzieci biją brawo na koncercie.
Literally, biją brawo is something like “they beat bravo”:
- bić – to beat, hit
- brawo – “bravo” (an exclamation), but in this phrase it means “applause”
The whole expression bić brawo is an idiomatic way to say “to applaud / to clap (one’s hands)”.
Polish does have a single-verb alternative: klaskać (“to clap”), e.g. Dzieci klaszczą na koncercie. But bić brawo is very common and completely natural, especially with an indirect object:
- Bili brawo pianistce. – They applauded the (female) pianist.
Both forms exist, but they are used a bit differently.
brawo – neuter, most often used as:
- an exclamation: Brawo! – “Bravo!”
- a mass noun for applause in fixed expressions like bić brawo
In Dzieci biją brawo, brawo works like a mass noun: “applause”.
brawa – neuter plural: (te) brawa – “the applause / rounds of applause”
- Dzieci dostały gromkie brawa. – The children received thunderous applause.
You will often hear:
- bić brawo (more idiomatic) but also:
- bić brawa (also used, but somewhat less fixed in everyday speech)
For learning purposes, treat bić brawo as the standard phrase “to clap / applaud”.
Dzieci is:
- lexical meaning: children
- number: plural (there is also dziecko – “child” in singular)
- case here: nominative plural (subject of the verb biją)
Polish has no articles, so dzieci can mean:
- children in general
- the children in a specific context
The translation depends on context, not on a form in Polish:
- Dzieci biją brawo na koncercie.
→ “The children are applauding at the concert.” (if we know which children) → “Children applaud at the concert.” (more general statement)
Biją is the 3rd person plural, present tense form of the verb bić.
- infinitive: bić – to beat, hit
- 3rd person plural present: oni/one biją – they beat / they are beating
In this idiom:
- bić brawo = to clap / applaud
So:
- Dzieci biją brawo. = “(The) children are applauding / clap.”
Some key present tense forms of bić:
- (ja) biję – I beat
- (ty) bijesz – you beat
- (on/ona/ono) bije – he/she/it beats
- (my) bijemy – we beat
- (wy) bijecie – you (pl.) beat
- (oni/one) biją – they beat
Yes.
Polish has only one present tense form that covers both English simple and continuous:
- Dzieci biją brawo na koncercie.
- “The children are clapping at the concert.” (right now)
- or, in the right context: “The children clap at the concert.” (habitually)
Context (and sometimes adverbs of time) tells you whether it’s a one-time action or a habit. The verb form itself doesn’t change.
Both na and w can translate to “at / in”, but they are used in different situations.
na is used with many events (concerts, parties, meetings, lessons):
- na koncercie – at the concert
- na imprezie – at the party
- na lekcji – in / during the lesson
- na meczu – at the match
w is used more for being inside physical spaces:
- w domu – in the house / at home
- w kinie – in the cinema
- w sklepie – in the shop
A concert is treated as an event, so Polish prefers:
- na koncercie, not w koncercie.
Koncercie is:
- noun: koncert – concert
- number: singular
- case: locative (miejscownik)
With na in the sense of “at (an event)”, Polish uses the locative case:
- na koncercie – at the concert
- na uniwersytecie – at the university
- na lotnisku – at the airport
For many masculine nouns, the locative singular ending is -cie:
- koncert → koncercie
- telefon → telefonie
- pokój → pokoju
So na koncercie literally means “on/at (the) concert” in locative.
Yes. Polish word order is quite flexible, especially for simple sentences like this. All of these are grammatical:
- Dzieci biją brawo na koncercie.
- Na koncercie dzieci biją brawo.
- Dzieci na koncercie biją brawo.
The main differences are focus and emphasis:
- Starting with Na koncercie emphasizes the location/time:
- “At the concert, the children are applauding.”
- Starting with Dzieci puts the focus on who is doing the action.
For a neutral, textbook-style sentence, Dzieci biją brawo na koncercie is perfectly fine.
Yes, you can say:
- Dzieci klaszczą na koncercie. – The children are clapping at the concert.
Differences:
- bić brawo – idiomatic, often a bit more “ceremonial” or tied to applause for a performance, speech, etc.
- klaskać – “to clap (hands)” in a more general sense (rhythm to a song, playing a game, etc.)
Examples:
- Publiczność biła brawo po występie. – The audience applauded after the performance.
- Dzieci klaszczą do rytmu piosenki. – The children are clapping to the rhythm of the song.
In many concert contexts, both are fine; bić brawo is simply the more set phrase for applause.
Yes, dzieci is grammatically plural, so it takes a plural verb:
- Dzieci biją brawo. – The children are applauding.
In the present tense, Polish verbs do not show gender, only person and number, so we just see the plural form biją.
In the past tense, gender matters. Dzieci is treated as non-masculine-personal plural, so the past tense would be:
- Dzieci biły brawo. – The children applauded.
(not bili – that would be used for a group of males, like chłopcy bili brawo)
In Dzieci biją brawo, brawo is the direct object of the verb biją, so it is in the accusative case.
- nominative (dictionary form): brawo
- accusative: brawo (same form)
Neuter nouns often look the same in nominative and accusative; brawo is also often treated as an indeclinable mass noun in this idiom.
Yes.
- Dzieci biją brawo. – The children are applauding.
Adding na koncercie just gives extra information about where this happens. Without it, the sentence is still complete and grammatical; the location is simply unspecified.