Breakdown of Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą i rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
Questions & Answers about Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą i rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
In Polish, rodzeństwo is a collective noun and is treated as grammatically singular, neuter, even though it refers to several people.
So:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą.
Literally: Her siblings lives abroad (in Polish grammar: 3rd person singular).
The verb must therefore be 3rd person singular:
- mieszka, not mieszkają
- odwiedza, not odwiedzają
In everyday speech, some people do say:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszkają za granicą.
But this is considered colloquial / non‑standard. In correct standard Polish, you should use singular agreement with rodzeństwo.
Rodzeństwo is neuter singular.
That has several consequences:
Adjectives describing it will be neuter singular:
- moje młodsze rodzeństwo – my younger siblings
- dobre rodzeństwo – a good set of siblings
The verb form is singular:
- Rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą.
In strict grammar, the related pronoun would also be neuter singular:
- Moje rodzeństwo jest daleko. Ono mieszka za granicą.
(My siblings are far away. It lives abroad. – sounds odd in English, but is grammatical in Polish.)
- Moje rodzeństwo jest daleko. Ono mieszka za granicą.
In real usage, Poles often switch to plural personal pronouns when thinking of the siblings as individual people:
- Moje rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą. Oni tam pracują.
(My siblings live abroad. They work there.)
So: the noun and verbs stay singular, but follow‑up pronouns can be either strictly neuter singular (ono) or more natural plural (oni / one) depending on what you want to emphasize.
Jej is a non‑reflexive possessive pronoun: her.
Swoje / swoją / swój is reflexive: one’s own referring back to the subject of the clause.
At the beginning of the sentence, jej rodzeństwo introduces the subject:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą…
Her siblings live abroad…
We can’t use swoje here, because swoje would have to refer back to some subject that’s already in the sentence (like she herself). But the only subject we have is being introduced here: rodzeństwo.
Compare:
Ona bardzo kocha swoje rodzeństwo.
She loves her (own) siblings.
Here swoje refers back to ona (the subject).Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą.
Her siblings live abroad.
Here we’re just saying whose siblings they are; there’s no earlier subject for swoje to refer to, so we use jej.
Both are possible:
…rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
Literally: rarely visits (the) family.
Context tells us this is almost certainly their own family back home.…rzadko odwiedza swoją rodzinę.
…rarely visits their own family.
Adding swoją (accusative feminine of swoja) makes it explicit that the family being visited is the subject’s own family (the siblings’ own family).
- Without swoją:
Neutral, but context‑dependent. Typically still understood as their family. - With swoją:
Extra clarity or emphasis that they are visiting their own family, not someone else’s.
So the original sentence is natural; adding swoją is also correct and just a bit more explicit.
Because odwiedzać (to visit) is a transitive verb that takes a direct object in the accusative case.
Rodzina is a feminine noun:
- Nominative (dictionary form): rodzina
- Accusative (direct object): rodzinę
So:
- Rodzina mieszka w Polsce. – The family lives in Poland. (subject – nominative)
- Odwiedzam rodzinę. – I visit (the) family. (object – accusative)
In your sentence:
- …rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
…rarely visits (the) family.
→ rodzinę is the object of odwiedza, so it must be accusative.
Both are based on granica – border.
za granicą
- Case: instrumental singular (granicą)
- Meaning: abroad as a location (where someone is)
- Literally: beyond the border
- Used with no movement, just position:
- Mieszka za granicą. – He/She lives abroad.
za granicę
- Case: accusative singular (granicę)
- Meaning: abroad as a destination (where someone is going)
- Used with movement towards:
- Wyjechał za granicę. – He went abroad.
So:
- mieszka za granicą – lives abroad (already there)
- wyjeżdża za granicę – is going abroad (movement to there)
In Polish, you generally do not put a comma before i when:
- It links two verbs that share the same subject in one clause.
Here:
- Subject: Jej rodzeństwo
- Predicate 1: mieszka za granicą
- Predicate 2: rzadko odwiedza rodzinę
- Connector: i
Because both verbs have the same subject and are simply joined as a compound predicate, no comma is used:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą i rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
You would use a comma before i if it joins two separate clauses with different subjects, or in some more complex structures, e.g.:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą, i ona też chce wyjechać.
(Two different subjects: rodzeństwo and ona.)
Both can be translated as to live, but they are used differently:
mieszkać – to reside, to live somewhere, in terms of housing/address.
- Mieszkam w Warszawie. – I live in Warsaw (I reside there).
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą. – Her siblings live abroad (reside abroad).
żyć – to be alive, to live one’s life, more existential/biological or lifestyle‑related.
- On już nie żyje. – He is no longer alive.
- Chcę żyć zdrowo. – I want to live healthily.
- Jak ci się żyje za granicą? – How is life for you abroad? / How do you find living abroad?
In your sentence, we are talking about a place of residence, so mieszkać is the natural verb.
Rzadko is an adverb of frequency: rarely, seldom.
In your sentence:
- …i rzadko odwiedza rodzinę.
It directly modifies odwiedza (visits): rarely visits.
Usual and best position is just before the verb it modifies.
You can move it slightly without a big change in meaning, for example:
- Jej rodzeństwo rzadko odwiedza rodzinę, bo mieszka za granicą.
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą i odwiedza rodzinę rzadko.
(The last one is possible, but a bit less neutral; it puts slight emphasis on how rarely they visit.)
In practice, rzadko most commonly appears right before the verb in neutral word order.
In standard Polish grammar, yes, it is considered incorrect.
Rodzeństwo is grammatically singular, so it should take a singular verb:
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą. ✓ (standard)
- Jej rodzeństwo mieszkają za granicą. ✗ (colloquial, non‑standard)
However, in everyday speech, many native speakers do sometimes use plural verbs with collective nouns like rodzeństwo, młodzież (youth), especially when thinking strongly about the individuals.
For formal writing and correct usage as a learner, stick to:
- rodzeństwo mieszka / odwiedza / wyjechało (3rd person singular).
Yes, you can change the word order; Polish is relatively flexible with word order.
Both are correct:
Jej rodzeństwo mieszka za granicą.
– neutral, basic order; slight focus on jej rodzeństwo as the topic.Za granicą mieszka jej rodzeństwo.
– more like: Abroad lives her siblings.
This puts slightly more emphasis on the place (abroad). It might answer a question like:- Gdzie mieszka jej rodzeństwo? – Where do her siblings live?
→ Za granicą mieszka jej rodzeństwo.
- Gdzie mieszka jej rodzeństwo? – Where do her siblings live?
The overall meaning is the same; only information focus / emphasis shifts.
Polish does not have articles (a, an, the) like English.
Nouns appear without articles, and whether English would use a or the is decided by context and sometimes word order / stress, not by a separate word.
So:
- rodzeństwo can mean siblings / the siblings / her siblings, depending on context.
- rodzinę can mean (the) family / her family / their family, again depending on context.
In your sentence:
- Jej rodzeństwo → clearly her siblings because of jej.
- odwiedza rodzinę → normally understood as visits the family (back home), i.e. their family, because that fits the real‑world situation and previous context.
When translating to English, we choose the or a based on what makes sense in context, but Polish simply doesn’t mark that distinction with separate words.