Kończę pracę o szóstej.

I finish work at six.

Breakdown of Kończę pracę o szóstej.

• ja: I
• praca: the work
• o szóstej: at six
• kończyć: to finish

Questions & Answers about Kończę pracę o szóstej.

Why is it kończę and not ja kończę for “I finish”?

Polish usually drops subject pronouns (ja, ty, etc.) because the verb ending already shows the person.

• kończę = 1st person singular (I)
• So kończę pracę already means I finish work.
• You only add ja for emphasis or contrast, e.g. Ja kończę pracę o szóstej, a on o siódmej. – I finish work at six, and he at seven.

So ja kończę pracę o szóstej is correct, but ja is optional and normally omitted in neutral sentences.

What tense or time meaning does kończę have here? Is it “I finish”, “I’m finishing”, or “I will finish”?

Polish present tense often covers several English meanings; context decides:

• Habitual / timetable:
  Kończę pracę o szóstej. = I finish work at six (every day / usually).
• Planned near future (like English present continuous for a schedule):
  Jutro kończę pracę o szóstej. = Tomorrow I’m finishing work at six.

It does not normally mean simple future of a single, one‑off event. For a one‑time future action you’d more often use a perfective verb like skończyć:
Jutro skończę pracę o szóstej. – Tomorrow I will finish work at six.

Why is it pracę and not the base form praca?

Praca is the noun in its basic (nominative) form: praca = work.

In Kończę pracę o szóstej:

• kończyć is a transitive verb and takes a direct object in the accusative.
• Feminine nouns ending in ‑a change to ‑ę in the accusative singular.

So:

• nominative: praca (subject: Work is hard. – Praca jest ciężka.)
• accusative: pracę (object: I finish work. – Kończę pracę.)

That’s why you see pracę after the verb kończę.

Why is there no article in pracę? In English I’d say “I finish work / my work / the work.”

Polish has no articles (“a”, “an”, “the”), so pracę by itself can correspond to:

• work in general
• my work (from context)
• the work already known from context

Kończę pracę o szóstej can be understood as:

• I finish work at six.
• I finish my work at six.

If you really need to make it explicit, you add a possessive:

• Kończę swoją pracę o szóstej. – I finish my work at six.
  But in everyday speech, Kończę pracę o szóstej is enough; the “my” is understood.

Why is the preposition o used in o szóstej to mean “at six”? Isn’t o usually “about / concerning”?

The preposition o has several meanings in Polish. Two very common ones are:

1. about / concerning:
   Mówimy o pracy. – We’re talking about work.
2. at (a clock time):
   O szóstej kończę pracę. – I finish work at six.

When used with clock times, o + locative case expresses “at [that hour]”. This is just a fixed pattern in Polish:

• o pierwszej – at one
• o drugiej – at two
• o trzeciej – at three
• o szóstej – at six
• o dziesiątej – at ten

So o szóstej is the standard way to say “at six (o’clock)”.

Why is it szóstej and not sześć in o szóstej?

Polish uses ordinal numbers (first, second, third…) for clock times, not cardinal numbers (one, two, three…).

• sześć = six (cardinal)
• szósta = sixth (also used as “six o’clock” as a feminine noun: the sixth hour)
• In o szóstej, szóstej is the locative form of szósta.

So “at six (o’clock)” is literally “at the sixth (hour)”:

• szósta (godzina) – sixth (hour) = six o’clock
• o szóstej (godzinie) – at the sixth (hour) = at six o’clock

That’s why you say o szóstej, not o sześć.

What case is szóstej in, and how do other hours behave?

In o szóstej, the word szóstej is in the locative case, because many prepositions (including o in the time sense) require the locative.

The pattern for hours is:

• base (nominative, “which hour?”):

  • pierwsza – first / one o’clock
  • druga – second / two o’clock
  • trzecia – third / three o’clock
  • czwarta – fourth / four o’clock
  • piąta – fifth / five o’clock
  • szósta – sixth / six o’clock
  • siódma – seventh / seven o’clock
  • ósma – eighth / eight o’clock
    etc.

• after o (locative feminine singular):

  • o pierwszej
  • o drugiej
  • o trzeciej
  • o czwartej
  • o piątej
  • o szóstej
  • o siódmej
  • o ósmej

So szóstej is simply the locative form required by o.

Can I change the word order? Is O szóstej kończę pracę also correct?

Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible.

All of these are grammatically correct:

• Kończę pracę o szóstej. (neutral, very common)
• O szóstej kończę pracę. (focuses slightly more on “at six”)
• Pracę kończę o szóstej. (can emphasize “the work” vs. something else)

The basic information stays the same: I finish work at six.
Changes in word order mainly affect emphasis and rhythm, not core meaning.

What’s the difference between kończę pracę and skończę pracę?

This is about aspect (imperfective vs. perfective):

• kończyć (imperfective) – to be in the process of finishing / to (habitually) finish

  • Kończę pracę o szóstej.
    • Can mean: I (usually) finish work at six (habit / schedule).
    • Also: I’m in the process of finishing my work (context decides).

• skończyć (perfective) – to finish as a completed whole, to get it done

  • Skończę pracę o szóstej.
    • I will (have) finished work at six. (focus on completion at that time)

So:

• For a routine / timetable: prefer kończę pracę o szóstej.
• For a single future completed event: Skończę pracę o szóstej.

How do I say “I finished work at six” (past) and “I will finish work at six” (simple future)?

Using skończyć (perfective) is natural here.

Past:

• Masculine speaker:
  Skończyłem pracę o szóstej. – I finished work at six.
• Feminine speaker:
  Skończyłam pracę o szóstej.

Future:

• Masculine speaker:
  Skończę pracę o szóstej. – I will finish work at six.
• Feminine speaker:
  Skończę pracę o szóstej. (same form; gender is shown only in the past)

You can say Kończyłem / Kończyłam pracę o szóstej, but that focuses more on being in the process around six, not on the final completed moment.

How do I say “at six in the morning / evening” in Polish?

You add a time‑of‑day expression:

• o szóstej rano – at six in the morning
• o szóstej wieczorem – at six in the evening
• o szóstej po południu – at six in the afternoon
• o szóstej w nocy – at six at night

So you can say, for example:

• Kończę pracę o szóstej rano. – I finish work at six in the morning.
• Kończę pracę o szóstej wieczorem. – I finish work at six in the evening.

How do you pronounce kończę and szóstej? The letters ń and ę look difficult.

Approximate pronunciation (using English-like hints):

• kończę ≈ “KON‑cheh”

  • k as in key
  • o like in lot (British) or pot
  • ń is a soft n, like ny in canyon or Spanish ñ in señor
  • cz is like ch in chair
  • final ę is a nasal vowel; in this word it often sounds close to -e with a slight nasal color; many speakers pronounce it almost like -e in fast speech.

• szóstej ≈ “SHOOS‑tey”

  • sz like sh in shoe
  • ó is pronounced like u in boot
  • s is like s in see
  • tej similar to English tay

So:

• kończę → [KON‑che] with a soft ny sound in the middle
• szóstej → [SHOOS‑tay]