Breakdown of Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
Questions & Answers about Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
It is grammatically correct and understandable. A Pole will know what you mean.
However, depending on what you want to say, a native speaker might choose slightly different, more typical phrasing:
- For “we (will) walk to the museum, it takes about an hour”:
- Idziemy do muzeum przez mniej więcej godzinę.
- Do muzeum idzie się mniej więcej godzinę.
- Droga do muzeum zajmuje mniej więcej godzinę.
Your sentence is fine as a learning example, just be aware that other versions are often more idiomatic.
After the preposition do you always use the genitive case.
- do + genitive:
- do sklepu (from sklep)
- do domu (from dom)
- do szkoły (from szkoła)
- do muzeum (from muzeum)
The noun muzeum happens to have the same form in several singular cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, etc.), so you cannot see the genitive ending in the form itself. You know it’s genitive only because of the preposition do.
Polish often uses the accusative to express duration of time without a preposition:
- Czekaliśmy godzinę. – We waited for an hour.
- Spała całą noc. – She slept the whole night.
- Biegł dwie godziny. – He ran for two hours.
In Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę, the phrase godzinę (with mniej więcej in front of it) is exactly this kind of time-duration expression: for about an hour, so it appears in the accusative.
You can, but you don’t have to:
- Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
- Idziemy do muzeum przez mniej więcej godzinę.
Both are correct. The version with przez often puts a bit more emphasis on the span of time, roughly like stressing for the whole hour in English. In everyday speech, many people leave przez out in this kind of sentence.
Both express approximation (“about an hour”), but they behave differently grammatically:
mniej więcej is an adverbial phrase. It does not control case.
The case of godzina comes from its role in the sentence:- mniej więcej godzinę – accusative (duration)
- mniej więcej godziny – genitive (possible in other contexts)
około is a preposition and it requires the genitive:
- około godziny – always godziny, never godzinę
So you can say:
- Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
- Idziemy do muzeum około godziny.
Both are fine; the first uses accusative, the second uses a genitive phrase with około.
No, that would change the meaning.
godzinę (accusative alone) = for an hour (duration)
- Idziemy do muzeum godzinę. – We walk to the museum for an hour.
za godzinę (with za
- accusative) = in an hour (from now), i.e. after an hour passes
- Idziemy do muzeum za godzinę. – We will go to the museum in an hour.
So:
- Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę. – We walk to the museum for about an hour.
- Idziemy do muzeum za mniej więcej godzinę. – We will go to the museum in about an hour (we haven’t started yet).
Very different time relations.
Both come from the verb “to go (on foot)”, but:
iść / idziemy – one specific movement, in one direction, now or in a concrete situation:
- Idziemy do muzeum. – We are going / walking to the museum (now / this time).
chodzić / chodzimy – habitual, repeated movement, or movement in various directions:
- Chodzimy do muzeum. – We go to the museum (regularly, as a habit).
So:
- Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
Sounds like one concrete walk (this particular trip), lasting about an hour.
If you wanted to talk about how long it usually takes you, you’d more naturally say:
- Chodzimy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
or better: - Droga do muzeum zajmuje nam mniej więcej godzinę.
Very natural options include:
Do muzeum idzie się mniej więcej godzinę.
Literally: “To the museum one walks about an hour.” (impersonal, very common)Droga do muzeum zajmuje mniej więcej godzinę.
“The way to the museum takes about an hour.”Mamy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę drogi.
“We have about an hour’s walk to the museum.”
All of these sound more like what a native would usually say about typical travel time.
Polish word order is quite flexible, and all of these are possible, but not equally neutral:
- Idziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę. – very natural, neutral.
- Mniej więcej godzinę idziemy do muzeum. – OK, with emphasis on how long.
- Idziemy mniej więcej godzinę do muzeum. – understood, but sounds a bit clumsy; most speakers would avoid this order.
Two practical tips:
- Try to keep mniej więcej directly before the word or phrase it approximates (godzinę).
- Place time expressions either at the end, or at the very beginning, unless you have a specific emphasis in mind.
In general:
do
- genitive – movement into / to a place, city, country, building:
- do domu, do sklepu, do szkoły, do muzeum
na
- accusative – movement onto a surface or to an event / activity:
- na stół (onto the table)
- na koncert (to a concert)
- na wystawę (to an exhibition)
- na uniwersytet (to university, as an institution)
A museum is treated as a place/building you go to, not an event you go to attend, so you say do muzeum.
Na muzeum is not used with this meaning.
Polish uses different prepositions and verb forms:
How long we have already been walking (since some time ago):
- Idziemy do muzeum od mniej więcej godziny.
= We have been walking to the museum for about an hour (already).
od + genitive (od godziny) marks the time since something started.
How long we will be walking (future duration):
- Będziemy szli do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę.
= We will be walking to the museum for about an hour.
Here:
- będziemy szli is the future of iść, focusing on the ongoing process (good with duration).
- Again, godzinę (accusative) expresses the length of the action.
Not with the same structure and meaning.
- pójść / pójdziemy is perfective, one-time, focusing on the fact of going, not on the internal duration of the movement.
You would normally say:
- Pójdziemy do muzeum jutro. – We will go to the museum tomorrow.
But:
- Pójdziemy do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę. – sounds wrong in Polish.
To talk about when you will go, you can say:
- Pójdziemy do muzeum za mniej więcej godzinę. – We will go to the museum in about an hour.
To talk about how long the walk will last, use the imperfective future:
- Będziemy szli do muzeum mniej więcej godzinę. – We will be walking to the museum for about an hour.