Learn Hardcore Polish: Mój mąż pracuje w szkole, a twoja żona w szpitalu. - My husband works at a school, and your wife at a hospital.

In Polish, possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, etc.) agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, not with the speaker.

mąż (husband) is masculine singular, so you use:
- mój mąż = my (masc.) husband
żona (wife) is feminine singular, so you use:
- twoja żona = your (fem.) wife

Some basic forms of my / your:

mój (masc.), moja (fem.), moje (neuter) = my
twój (masc.), twoja (fem.), twoje (neuter) = your (informal, singular)

So mój mąż and twoja żona are just agreeing with the gender of the nouns mąż and żona.

Can I say moja mąż or twój żona instead?

No. That would be grammatically wrong, because the possessive must match the gender of the noun:

mąż (husband) → masculine → mój mąż, twój mąż
żona (wife) → feminine → moja żona, twoja żona

So:

✗ moja mąż → wrong (feminine possessive with masculine noun)
✗ twój żona → wrong (masculine possessive with feminine noun)

Why is the verb pracuje only written once? Why don’t we repeat it for twoja żona?

Polish often omits repeated elements if they are clearly understood from context.

Literally, the sentence corresponds to:

Mój mąż pracuje w szkole, a twoja żona (pracuje) w szpitalu.

The second pracuje is simply understood and doesn’t need to be repeated.

In English we normally repeat the verb:
My husband works at a school, and your wife works at a hospital.
In Polish, leaving it out is natural and not “incomplete.”

What exactly does pracuje mean, and which form is it?

Pracuje is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb pracować (to work).

ja pracuję – I work
ty pracujesz – you (sg., informal) work
on/ona/ono pracuje – he/she/it works
my pracujemy – we work
wy pracujecie – you (pl.) work
oni/one pracują – they work

In the sentence, pracuje goes with mój mąż (he) and is understood to apply to twoja żona (she) as well.

Why is the conjunction a used instead of i for “and”?

Both a and i can translate as and, but they’re used a bit differently:

i simply adds things: Jan i Piotr – Jan and Piotr
a often shows a contrast or difference between two things, similar to “while / whereas” in English.

In Mój mąż pracuje w szkole, a twoja żona w szpitalu, a suggests a light contrast:

My husband works at a school, *while your wife works at a hospital.*

If you used i here, it wouldn’t be wrong, but a sounds more natural because you are comparing two people and their different workplaces.

Why do we say w szkole and w szpitalu, not w szkoła and w szpital?

After the preposition w (in/at), Polish usually uses the locative case to talk about a location.

Base forms (nominative):

szkoła – school
szpital – hospital

Locative forms (after w in the sense “in/at”):

w szkole – in/at (a/the) school
w szpitalu – in/at (a/the) hospital

So w + [place] usually requires a changed ending in Polish, not the basic dictionary form.

Why does szkoła become szkole, but szpital becomes szpitalu?

They belong to different noun types, so they form the locative differently:

szkoła (feminine, ending in -a)
- locative: szkole → w szkole
szpital (masculine, consonant-ending)
- locative: szpitalu → w szpitalu

You just have to learn the patterns for each noun type. The key idea: both are locative, but they use different endings because the nouns belong to different declension groups.

Does w szkole mean “in the school” or “at school”? What about w szpitalu?

Polish doesn’t have articles (a, the), so w szkole and w szpitalu can correspond to several English options, depending on context:

w szkole:
- in the school
- at school (as a place where you study or work)
w szpitalu:
- in the hospital
- at the hospital (as a place where you work or are staying)

In this sentence, because we’re talking about jobs, we naturally understand:

pracuje w szkole → works at a school
pracuje w szpitalu → works at a hospital

Could I change the word order, for example Twój mąż pracuje w szkole, a moja żona w szpitalu?

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible, especially for subjects and objects, as long as grammar endings are correct.

Mój mąż pracuje w szkole… – My husband works at a school…
Twój mąż pracuje w szkole… – Your husband works at a school…
W szkole pracuje mój mąż, a w szpitalu twoja żona. – still correct, just with a different emphasis (focusing more on the places first).

The original sentence contrasts my husband with your wife, which is why mój mąż and twoja żona are at the start of each clause.

Is twoja the only way to say “your” in Polish in this type of sentence?

No. twoja is informal, singular “your” matching a feminine noun (żona).

Other common options:

twój mąż / twoja żona / twoje dziecko
– your husband / your wife / your child (informal, speaking to one person)
wasz mąż / wasza żona / wasze dziecko
– your husband / wife / child (informal, speaking to more than one person)
pana żona / pani żona / pańska żona
– your wife (formal you, to a man / to a woman / another formal option)

So you could also say, more politely:

Mój mąż pracuje w szkole, a pana żona w szpitalu.
– My husband works at a school, and your wife (sir) at a hospital.

How do I pronounce the special letters in mój mąż pracuje w szkole, a twoja żona w szpitalu?

Key sounds in this sentence:

ó in mój – pronounced like English “oo” in food: /mooy/
ż in żona – like the “s” in measure or the “zh” in vision.
sz in szkole, szpitalu – like English “sh” in shoe.
ł in szkole, szpitalu – like English “w” in we.
cz in pracuje – like “ch” in church (here softened slightly by following u, but close to that sound).

Putting some of it together roughly:

mój mąż ≈ mooy mosh (but with Polish “sh” and nasalized ąż, which you will learn over time)
w szkole ≈ v sh-kwo-leh
w szpitalu ≈ v shpee-ta-loo

The exact sounds are best learned by listening to native speakers, but these approximations help at the beginning.