Learn Hardcore Polish: W przyszłym roku chciałbym zmienić zawód i pracować z dziećmi. - Next year I would like to change my profession and work with children.

rok = “year” (masculine noun)
przyszły = “future / coming” (masculine adjective, base form)
After w meaning “in” with a time expression, Polish uses the locative case.
The locative singular of rok is roku.
The adjective must agree with the noun in case, number, and gender, so przyszły → przyszłym (masculine locative singular).

So:

Nominative (dictionary form): przyszły rok – “future year”
Locative after w: w przyszłym roku – “in (the) future year” → “next year”

That’s why it’s w przyszłym roku, not w przyszły rok.

Why is chciałbym used instead of chcę? What’s the difference?

Both come from the verb chcieć – “to want.”

chcę = “I want” (present tense, direct, quite strong)
chciałbym = “I would like / I would want” (conditional, more polite/softer)

chciałbym is built from:

chciał (past stem, masculine) + bym (conditional particle “would I”)

Functionally in this sentence:

chciałbym sounds more polite, less blunt than chcę.
It’s the usual way to express desires, plans, or wishes in a softer way, similar to English “I’d like to change my profession…” rather than “I want to change my profession.”

If you said:

W przyszłym roku chcę zmienić zawód.
it would be perfectly correct but sounds more firm/decisive.

How would the sentence change if the speaker is a woman?

Only chciałbym changes, because it encodes the gender of the speaker:

Male speaker: chciałbym
Female speaker: chciałabym

So a woman would say:

W przyszłym roku chciałabym zmienić zawód i pracować z dziećmi.

Everything else (zmienić, zawód, pracować z dziećmi) stays the same.

Why is zmienić used here, not zmieniać? What’s the aspect difference?

Polish has aspect:

imperfective (ongoing, repeated, process)
perfective (completed, one-time, result)

The verb pair is:

zmieniać (imperfective) – to change (in general / repeatedly / as a process)
zmienić (perfective) – to change (once, with a completed result)

In W przyszłym roku chciałbym zmienić zawód:

We’re talking about making a single change of profession, at some point next year.
The focus is on the result: ending up in a new profession.

So the perfective zmienić is natural.
If you used zmieniać zawód, it would sound more like changing professions repeatedly or being in the process of changing, which doesn’t fit as well here.

What case is zawód in, and why does it look like the dictionary form?

Zawód means “profession / occupation.”

In the sentence:

zmienić zawód – “to change (one’s) profession”

Here, zawód is the direct object of zmienić, so it’s in the accusative case.

For masculine inanimate nouns like zawód, the accusative singular form is the same as the nominative singular form:

Nominative: zawód – “profession” (as subject)
Accusative: zawód – “profession” (as object)

So although it looks like the dictionary form, its function in the sentence is accusative.

Why is pracować in the infinitive, not a conjugated form like pracuję?

Pracować is the infinitive form: “to work.”

In Polish, when you say you want/plan/like to do something, the second verb usually stays in the infinitive:

chcę pracować – I want to work
muszę pracować – I must work
lubię pracować – I like working

In the sentence:

chciałbym zmienić zawód i pracować z dziećmi

Both zmienić and pracować are infinitives dependent on chciałbym:

“I would like to change profession and to work with children.”

You wouldn’t say:

chciałbym zmienię zawód
chciałbym pracuję z dziećmi

Those would be incorrect.

What does z mean here, and why is dziećmi used instead of something like dzieci?

The preposition z has several meanings, but here it means “with” (in the sense of “together with”).

When z means “with (someone)”, it normally takes the instrumental case:

z kim? – with whom?
z czym? – with what?

Dziecko = “child” (singular)
Dzieci = “children” (nominative/accusative plural)
Instrumental plural of dzieci is dziećmi.

So:

pracować z dziećmi = “to work with children” (children = instrumental plural after z)

You cannot say pracować z dzieci in standard Polish; the preposition z in this meaning requires the instrumental form dziećmi.

What are some other ways to say “next year” in Polish, and how do they differ from w przyszłym roku?

Common alternatives:

za rok
- Literally: “in a year’s time”
- Often translates as “in a year” or “a year from now.”
- Very natural and common:
  - Za rok chciałbym zmienić zawód…
w następnym roku
- Literally: “in the next year”
- Slightly more neutral/less “formal future-sounding” than w przyszłym roku, but both are fine.
w przyszłym roku
- Literally: “in the future year”
- Very common and neutral for “next year,” especially in planning/context sentences.

In everyday speech, w przyszłym roku and za rok are probably the most frequent for “next year.”

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Chciałbym w przyszłym roku zmienić zawód…?

Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible, especially in spoken language. All of these are grammatically correct, with only slight differences in emphasis:

W przyszłym roku chciałbym zmienić zawód i pracować z dziećmi.
– Neutral, very natural: time expression at the beginning.
Chciałbym w przyszłym roku zmienić zawód i pracować z dziećmi.
– Slightly more emphasis on chciałbym (“I would like (in general) next year to…”).
Chciałbym zmienić zawód w przyszłym roku i pracować z dziećmi.
– Emphasizes that the change of profession specifically happens next year.

For a learner, the original word order (W przyszłym roku...) is a very safe, natural default.

What exactly does zawód mean? Is it more like “job,” “profession,” or “career”?

Zawód usually means “profession / occupation / trade.”

Nuances:

zawód – your professional field, what you are by training or qualification:
- Jaki jest twój zawód? – “What is your profession?”
praca – “work” or “job” (the actual position or employment):
- szukam pracy – “I’m looking for a job.”

In this sentence:

zmienić zawód = “to change profession / change careers” (e.g., from engineer to teacher).

You wouldn’t normally say zmienić pracę if you mean “change profession.”

zmienić pracę = “to change jobs” (same field, different employer/position).
zmienić zawód = “to change profession/career path.”

How is chciałbym pronounced, and why does it look so different from “want” in English?

Approximate pronunciation (in English-friendly terms):

chciałbym ≈ [hch-CHA-woom] (very rough)

More systematically:

ch = like a voiceless “kh” (as in Scottish “loch”)
ć (in chcia-) is a soft “ch” sound, similar to “tch” in “nature” (British pronunciation), but softer.
iał ≈ “yau” (like “yow” in “yowl,” but shorter)
bym ≈ “bim” (short i, lips closed at the end)

So you get something like: hch-CHYA-w-bim (blending into one word).

Spelling vs. meaning:

It doesn’t resemble English “want” at all because it’s from the Slavic root chcieć, unrelated to the Germanic root behind “want.”
Internally, it’s chciał (past form) + bym (conditional particle), but it’s always written together: chciałbym.

For practice, listen to native recordings and repeat: this word is extremely common and worth mastering early.