Breakdown of Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
Questions & Answers about Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
In this sentence wraca (3rd person singular, present tense of wracać) describes a repeated / habitual situation, not something happening at this exact moment.
Polish uses the present tense of imperfective verbs (like wracać) for:
- actions happening now:
- Kaszel wraca. – The cough is coming back (now).
- regular, repeated situations or general truths (like here):
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca. – Whenever the cough comes back in the evening, the runny nose comes back too.
English also uses the simple present for habits, so the tenses actually match quite well here.
Wraca and wróci are different aspects of the same basic verb:
wraca – imperfective, present tense of wracać
- focuses on the process / repeated action
- used for habits, ongoing or repeated events
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem… – When(ever) the cough comes back in the evening…
wróci – perfective, future tense of wrócić
- focuses on a single, completed return
- used for one specific event in the future
- Kiedy kaszel wróci wieczorem, katar też wróci. – When the cough comes back this evening, the runny nose will come back too.
So:
- current sentence with wraca = general pattern / habit
- with wróci = one particular evening in the future.
Both kaszel (cough) and katar (runny nose) are in the nominative singular case, because they are the subjects of their clauses:
- kaszel – subject of wraca in the first clause
- katar – subject of wraca in the second clause
Polish does not have articles like the, a, an at all.
So:
- kaszel can mean cough, a cough, or the cough
- katar can mean runny nose, a runny nose, or the runny nose
The exact meaning (a/the) is understood from context, not from a separate word.
The comma separates a subordinate clause from the main clause.
- Subordinate clause: Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem – When the cough comes back in the evening
- Main clause: katar też wraca – the runny nose comes back too
In Polish, a clause introduced by kiedy is always separated by a comma from the main clause, regardless of whether it comes first or second:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
- Katar też wraca, kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem.
You must keep the comma in both orders.
Yes, you can say:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
- Gdy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
In everyday modern Polish:
- kiedy and gdy are often interchangeable when they mean when.
- kiedy is more neutral and a bit more common in speech.
- gdy can sound a bit more formal or literary in some contexts, but here it is perfectly natural.
So for this sentence, both are correct and mean the same thing.
Wieczorem is the instrumental singular form of wieczór (evening) and is the standard way to say in the evening.
- wieczór – evening (nominative)
- wieczorem – in the evening
You do not say w wieczór in this meaning. Instead, you use the bare instrumental:
- rano – in the morning
- po południu – in the afternoon
- wieczorem – in the evening
- nocą – at night
So Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem = When the cough comes back in the evening.
Yes, you could say:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorami, katar też wraca.
The difference:
- wieczorem – in the evening (more like each or that evening, somewhat less strongly plural/habitual)
- wieczorami – in the evenings (explicitly many evenings, strongly habitual)
Both can describe a habitual situation:
- wieczorem: sounds like a typical pattern: “when it comes back in the evening (generally)”
- wieczorami: highlights that it happens on many evenings, regularly.
In this sentence, both are natural; wieczorami just makes the repetitive nature more explicit.
Też (also / too) is quite flexible in word order, but some positions are more natural.
Most natural versions:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, wraca też katar.
Less natural or with a change of emphasis:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, też katar wraca. – possible, but sounds a bit unusual.
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar wraca też. – understandable, but sounds slightly clumsy.
General guideline:
- Put też directly before the word it logically modifies (here, the subject katar or the verb wraca).
- The two best options in normal speech are:
- katar też wraca
- wraca też katar
Yes, repeating wraca is perfectly natural in Polish. The sentence:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
sounds completely normal.
You can avoid repetition in a few ways, but each slightly changes the rhythm or style:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, wraca też katar. – same verb, different order; still repeated.
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też się pojawia. – uses a different verb (appears).
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też. – very colloquial, verb omitted in the second clause, understood from context.
The original, with wraca repeated, is clear and standard; Polish does not avoid such repetition as strongly as English sometimes does.
Polish is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns are often omitted when the subject is clear from context or from the verb ending.
In this sentence:
- The subjects are the nouns kaszel and katar themselves.
- The verb form wraca (3rd person singular) already shows that the subject is he/it or something singular.
- Because kaszel and katar are explicitly mentioned, there is no need to add on (he/it).
You would normally not say:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, on katar też wraca. – incorrect / unnatural.
So Polish usually drops pronouns unless you need to emphasize or clarify something specific.
Yes. Both orders are correct:
- Kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem, katar też wraca.
- Katar też wraca, kiedy kaszel wraca wieczorem.
The meaning is the same. The only difference is what you want to highlight first:
- Version 1 focuses first on the condition (when the cough comes back).
- Version 2 focuses first on the result (the runny nose also comes back).
In both cases, you must keep the comma between the clauses.