Learn Hardcore Polish: Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku. - After the examination the doctor will call and say whether everything is all right.

Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.

After the examination the doctor will call and say whether everything is all right.

Breakdown of Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.

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Questions & Answers about Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.

What does po badaniu literally mean, and why is badaniu in that form?

Po badaniu literally means after the examination / after the test (here: a medical examination).

Grammatically:

po = after (in a time sense)
badaniu is the locative singular of badanie (neuter noun: examination, test).

In Polish, when po means after in time, it is followed by the locative case:

po obiedzie – after lunch
po pracy – after work
po lekcji – after the lesson
po badaniu – after the examination

So badanie → badaniu is just the regular locative form required by po in this meaning.

Could you explain the verb forms zadzwoni and powie? Why are they like this and what tense/aspect are they?

Both zadzwoni and powie are:

3rd person singular
future tense
perfective aspect

From:

zadzwonić – to call (phone)
- zadzwoni – he/she/it will call (once, successfully)
powiedzieć – to say, to tell
- powie – he/she/it will say / will tell (once, complete)

Perfective aspect in the future usually refers to a single, completed action:

zadzwoni – he will (make one) call
powie – he will say (it) / tell (you)

If you used imperfective verbs instead, you’d need the compound future, and the meaning would slightly change:

będzie dzwonił – he will be calling / will be on the phone (focus on the process)
będzie mówił – he will be speaking (process, duration)

Here, the idea is: at some point after the examination, the doctor will call you once and will tell you the result, so perfective zadzwoni and powie are natural.

Why is there no object after zadzwoni? Shouldn’t it be zadzwoni do mnie (“call me”)?

You are right that usually we say zadzwonić do kogoś – to call someone:

zadzwoni do mnie – he will call me
zadzwoni do pana / do pani – he will call you (formal)

In this sentence, the indirect object (who exactly gets the call) is simply left out because it is obvious from context. This is very common in Polish.

The full, explicit version could be:

Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni do pana / pani i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.

But if the context is clear (e.g. the doctor is speaking to you), Polish often drops the do + person part.

Why isn’t there a comma before i powie? In English I might write “the doctor will call, and will say…”.

Polish punctuation rules are stricter about commas than English.

In this sentence:

lekarz zadzwoni i powie – the doctor will call and (will) say

The subject lekarz is shared by two verbs zadzwoni and powie, joined by i (and).

Rule: When i connects two verbs with the same subject in one clause, you do not put a comma before i.

So:

Poszedł do sklepu i kupił chleb. – He went to the shop and bought bread.
Usiadła i zaczęła płakać. – She sat down and started crying.

No comma in these cases.

You would use a comma when i connects clauses with different subjects or creates separate clauses that need separation, but here that’s not the case.

What exactly does czy do in powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku?

Czy here introduces an embedded yes/no question or indirect question.

Czy wszystko jest w porządku? – Is everything okay? (direct question)
Powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku. – He will say whether everything is okay. (indirect question)

So:

In direct questions, czy ≈ “(question marker for yes/no)”
In indirect questions, czy ≈ whether / if

It cannot be replaced with że (that).
Compare:

Powie, że wszystko jest w porządku. – He will say that everything is okay.
Powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku. – He will say whether everything is okay.

Different content and different conjunction.

Why is it jest w porządku (present tense) and not będzie w porządku (future tense), when we’re talking about the future?

Polish often uses the present tense inside such clauses to talk about a state at that future moment.

The idea is:

In the future, the doctor will say: “Everything is okay (right now, in your results).”

So grammatically we have:

lekarz zadzwoni i powie – future (will call, will say)
czy wszystko jest w porządku – present (is okay), but understood as is okay at the time of the results / call.

If you said:

czy wszystko będzie w porządku – whether everything will be okay

that would usually suggest in the further future (e.g. prognosis: “Will everything be okay long term?”) rather than “Are the current examination results fine?”

So jest w porządku is very natural here.

What does w porządku literally mean, and why is porządku in that form?

W porządku is a very common idiomatic phrase meaning:

okay, fine, all right, in order

Literally:

w – in
porządku – locative of porządek (order, tidiness, correctness)

So literally: “in (a state of) order” → everything is as it should be.

Case:

porządek (nominative) → w porządku (locative)
Just like:
- w domu – in the house (dom → domu)
- w sklepie – in the shop (sklep → sklepie)

Phrase usage:

Wszystko jest w porządku. – Everything is fine.
Z tobą wszystko w porządku? – Are you okay?
To jest w porządku. – That’s ok / That’s fine.

Could you explain the difference between Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie… and Lekarz zadzwoni po badaniu i powie…? Is the word order important?

Both orders are grammatically correct:

Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– After the examination, the doctor will call and say whether everything is okay.
Lekarz zadzwoni po badaniu i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– The doctor will call after the examination and say whether everything is okay.

The basic meaning is the same: the call happens after the examination.
The difference is emphasis and information flow:

Version 1 (Po badaniu at the beginning) puts strong emphasis on the time frame: As for after the examination… the doctor will call…
Version 2 starts with the subject and main action (the doctor will call), then adds when: The doctor will call – after the examination…

In everyday speech, both are very natural.
Polish word order is quite flexible, and time expressions like po badaniu commonly appear either at the beginning or later in the sentence.

What case is lekarz in here, and could it change form in this sentence?

Lekarz is in the nominative singular – it’s the subject of the sentence:

Kto zadzwoni? – Who will call?
Lekarz. – The doctor.

Because lekarz is the doer (subject) of zadzwoni and powie, it stays in the nominative.

It would change form only if its grammatical function changed. For example:

Po badaniu zadzwonię do lekarza. – After the examination, I will call the doctor.
Here lekarza is genitive singular after do.

In your original sentence, as long as lekarz remains the subject, the form lekarz (nominative) is correct and does not change.

What is the infinitive of powie, and how is it used outside this sentence?

The infinitive is powiedzieć – to say, to tell (perfective).

Basic forms:

infinitive: powiedzieć
past (masc. sg.): powiedział – he said
past (fem. sg.): powiedziała – she said
future (3rd pers. sg.): powie – he/she will say

Usage examples:

Powiem ci prawdę. – I will tell you the truth.
Powiedział, że przyjdzie jutro. – He said that he will come tomorrow.
Powiedz coś! – Say something! (imperative, informal: powiedz)

In your sentence, powie is just the future form matching lekarz (he/she).

Could the sentence use że instead of czy, as in powie, że wszystko jest w porządku? What would change?

Yes, you can say:

Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie, że wszystko jest w porządku.

But this has a different meaning:

z powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku – he will say whether everything is okay (he will tell you yes or no).
powie, że wszystko jest w porządku – he will say that everything is okay (he will state it is okay).

So:

czy – introduces a yes/no choice (we don’t yet know the answer)
że – introduces reported speech / a statement that is known or assumed (he will tell you that it is fine)

Which one you choose depends on whether you want to emphasise the checking/uncertainty (czy) or the positive result (że).

Is badanie only “examination”, or can it also mean “research, study”? How do I know which meaning is intended here?

Badanie is a general noun meaning:

(Medical) examination / test
- badanie krwi – blood test
- badanie USG – ultrasound examination
- być na badaniu – to have an examination / test done
(Scientific) research / study
- badanie rynku – market research
- badania naukowe – scientific research (usually plural)

In your sentence, context makes it clear:

Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni – After the examination the doctor will call…

The presence of lekarz (doctor) and the action of a doctor calling to say if everything is okay strongly points to a medical exam/test, not scientific research.

So here badanie = medical examination / medical test.

Are there any natural alternative ways to say the same thing in Polish?

Yes, several variants are common and natural. For example:

Po badaniu lekarz do pana/pani zadzwoni i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– adds a polite “to you”.
Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni i powie panu/pani, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– uses a dative object (powie panu/pani = will tell you).
Lekarz zadzwoni po badaniu i powie, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– different word order, same meaning.
Po badaniu lekarz zadzwoni, żeby powiedzieć, czy wszystko jest w porządku.
– After the examination, the doctor will call to say whether everything is okay.

All of these keep the same basic message, with small stylistic or emphasis differences.