Breakdown of Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
Questions & Answers about Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
Because the sentence is negative, Polish normally uses the genitive case for the object of a negated verb.
- Affirmative: Mogę zrozumieć to zadanie.
- to zadanie = accusative (direct object)
- Negative: Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
- tego zadania = genitive (after negation)
So:
- to zadanie – this task as a direct object (accusative)
- tego zadania – of this task form (genitive), used here because of nie.
This is a very common pattern:
- Rozumiem to zadanie. → Nie rozumiem tego zadania.
- Widzę ten dom. → Nie widzę tego domu.
In this sentence, tego zadania is genitive singular.
The noun zadanie (task, exercise) is neuter. Singular declension:
- Nominative (who/what?): zadanie
- Genitive (of what?): zadania
- Dative (to/for what?): zadaniu
- Accusative (what?): zadanie
- Instrumental (with what?): zadaniem
- Locative (about what?): zadaniu
- Vocative: same as nominative, zadanie
The demonstrative ten (this) with a neuter noun:
- Nominative: to zadanie
- Genitive: tego zadania
- Accusative: to zadanie
So in the sentence, tego zadania uses the genitive forms: tego + zadania.
Yes, both often translate as I can, but they are used differently:
mogę – from móc, about possibility / permission / circumstances
- Nie mogę zrozumieć – I am not able to understand (for some reason: too difficult, not enough time, etc.).
- Nie mogę iść – I cannot go (I’m not allowed / circumstances block me).
umiem – from umieć, about skill / ability you have learned
- Umiem czytać po polsku. – I know how to read in Polish.
- Nie umiem tego zrobić. – I don’t know how to do this.
In your sentence, Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania implies something is preventing you from understanding right now (it’s too hard, unclear, etc.), not that you lack the general skill of understanding tasks.
Polish has aspect: imperfective vs perfective.
- rozumieć – imperfective, focuses on the process / state (to understand in general, be in a state of understanding)
- zrozumieć – perfective, focuses on the result / achievement (to come to understand, to manage to understand)
So:
Nie rozumiem tego zadania.
I don’t understand this task (state, right now).Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
I can’t manage to understand this task, I can’t reach understanding (despite trying or wanting to).
Using zrozumieć emphasizes the failed result: you’re trying to “get it” and you can’t.
Affirmative (no nie) usually takes accusative:
- Mogę zrozumieć to zadanie. – I can understand this task.
Changes:
- Nie mogę → Mogę
- tego zadania (genitive) → to zadanie (accusative)
Yes, Polish word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatical, with slight differences in emphasis:
Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
Neutral, very natural.Nie mogę tego zadania zrozumieć.
Slight extra focus on tego zadania – this particular task is the problem.Tego zadania nie mogę zrozumieć.
Strong emphasis on tego zadania. Roughly: It’s this task that I can’t understand.
The basic meaning stays the same; word order mainly affects focus and what sounds more natural in a given context. Your original version is the most typical neutral choice.
With verbs, Polish normally writes nie as a separate word:
- nie mogę, nie rozumiem, nie mam, nie wiem
With many nouns and adjectives, nie is written together:
- dobry → niedobry
- szczęście → nieszczęście
- logiczny → nielogiczny
So:
- nie + verb → two words (nie mogę)
- nie + adjective/noun (often) → one word (niedobry, nieprawda)
There are exceptions and subtleties, but this is the basic rule you see here.
Present tense of móc (with nie you often hear it, as in your sentence):
- ja mogę – I can
- ty możesz – you (sg) can
- on / ona / ono może – he / she / it can
- my możemy – we can
- wy możecie – you (pl) can
- oni / one mogą – they can
So nie mogę = I cannot / I can’t.
Both express not understanding, but with different nuance:
Nie rozumiem tego zadania.
Plain statement of fact: you don’t understand it (state, now).Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
Implies effort or desire and failure to reach understanding.
Sounds more like:- I just can’t seem to understand this task.
- No matter how I try, I can’t understand it.
So nie mogę zrozumieć is a bit more emotional/effort-focused than simply nie rozumiem.
Yes, if the context makes it clear what you’re talking about, you can drop the object:
- (Looking at the task on the page)
Nie mogę zrozumieć. – I can’t understand (it).
In full, Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania is more explicit and is what you’d normally say if the context isn’t clear yet. In conversation, once the topic is known, speakers often omit what’s obvious.
Approximate pronunciation (with English-friendly hints):
- Nie – /ɲɛ/ – like nyeh (palatal n, similar to ny in canyon
- e in bed)
mogę – /ˈmɔ.gɛ/
- mo like mo in mop
- final -gę: in normal speech often like -ge in get (not strongly nasal)
zrozumieć – /ˈzrq.zu.mʲɛt͡ɕ/ roughly:
- zro – zro in zero, but shorter
- zu – zoo
- mieć – like myetch (soft m, ć like a soft ch)
- tego – /ˈtɛ.gɔ/ – te like te in ten, go like go but shorter
- zadania – /zaˈda.ɲa/ – za-DA-nya
Spoken fairly smoothly:
Nie mogę zrozumieć tego zadania.
[ɲɛ ˈmɔ.gɛ zrɔˈzu.mʲɛt͡ɕ ˈtɛ.gɔ zaˈda.ɲa]
Yes. zrozumieć is the infinitive form of the verb (the form you find in dictionaries).
Polish infinitives usually end in -ć (often written as -eć, -ić, -yć, -ać etc.):
- rozumieć – to understand
- zrozumieć – to (come to) understand
- widzieć – to see
- mówić – to speak
- czytać – to read
From zrozumieć (infinitive), the 1st person singular present perfective is normally zrozumiem (I will understand, since perfectives don’t have a true present tense), and the imperfective partner rozumieć has rozumiem (I understand) as 1st person present.
So in Nie mogę zrozumieć, mogę is the conjugated verb, and zrozumieć stays in the infinitive after móc.