Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedzielę.

The parents are organizing a family dinner on Sunday.

Breakdown of Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedzielę.

• obiad: the dinner
• rodzic: the parent
• w niedzielę: on Sunday
• rodzinny: family
• organizować: to organize

Questions & Answers about Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedzielę.

In English we say "the parents" or "my parents", but Polish just has rodzice. How do I know which one it means?

Polish has no articles (no the, a), so rodzice on its own can mean:

• parents in general,
• the parents (when clear from context),
• often my parents, if we’re clearly talking about the speaker’s family.

If you want to make it explicit, you add a possessive:

• moi rodzice – my parents
• twoi rodzice – your parents
• ich rodzice – their parents

Context usually tells you whether to understand rodzice as “the parents” or “my parents.”

What’s the difference between rodzic and rodzice?

• rodzic (singular) = a parent (could be a mother or a father, grammatically masculine).
• rodzice (plural) = parents (both together, or a group of parents).

You almost never say rodzic when talking casually about “my parents”; you say moi rodzice. Rodzice is a masculine personal plural form, which affects verb agreement (e.g. rodzice organizują, not rodzice organizuje).

The English translation is “are organizing.” Why is there no separate word for “are” in organizują?

Polish doesn’t use an extra verb like to be for the present tense.
The single form organizują already means:

• they organize / they are organizing.

So you never say *rodzice są organizują – that’s incorrect.
Subject + present verb is enough: Rodzice organizują…

Can organizują also mean “will organize”, i.e. the future?

Yes. Organizują is the present tense of an imperfective verb (organizować), and imperfective presents are often used for scheduled or planned future actions, especially with a time expression:

• Rodzice organizują obiad jutro. – My parents are organizing / will be organizing dinner tomorrow.

Context (like w niedzielę) tells you it’s about the future. English usually translates this as “are organizing” or “will be organizing.”

What’s the difference between organizują and zorganizują?

• organizują – imperfective: focuses on the process or the fact that something is arranged, without emphasizing completion. Can be present or (with a time adverb) future:
  Rodzice organizują obiad w niedzielę. – They’re in charge of arranging it / it’s being arranged.
• zorganizują – perfective future: focuses on the result, the completed action.
  Rodzice zorganizują obiad w niedzielę. – They will (successfully) organize it; the event will definitely happen.

Both can translate as future in English, but zorganizują sounds more like “they will (get it done).”

Why is the adjective rodzinny in that exact form? Why not rodzinna or rodzinne?

In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun in:

• gender,
• number,
• case.

Here the noun obiad is:

• masculine,
• singular,
• accusative (as a direct object).

Masculine singular accusative of a hard-stem adjective like rodzinny looks the same as nominative: rodzinny.
So you get rodzinny obiad. Forms like rodzinna or rodzinne would agree with feminine or neuter nouns instead.

What case is obiad in, and why?

Obiad is in the accusative singular.
It’s the direct object of the verb organizują (who? what? – obiad). For masculine inanimate nouns like obiad, nominative and accusative look the same in the singular, so the form doesn’t change:

• Nominative: obiad (as subject) – Obiad jest gotowy.
• Accusative: obiad (as object) – Rodzice organizują obiad.

If you negate the sentence, Polish switches the object to genitive:

• Rodzice nie organizują rodzinnego obiadu.

What exactly does obiad mean? Is it lunch or dinner?

Obiad is the main hot meal of the day in Polish culture, traditionally eaten in the afternoon.
Depending on the country and context, it can be translated as:

• lunch (if you focus on “midday main meal”),
• dinner (if you focus on “the main full meal of the day”).

In a family context like rodzinny obiad, English speakers often say family dinner, even if it happens earlier in the afternoon.

Why is it w niedzielę and not something like *w niedzieli?

The preposition w can take different cases:

• w
  • locative for location in space: w domu – in the house.
• w
  • accusative for movement into / or for points in time, especially days of the week.

For days, the usual pattern for “on X-day” is w + accusative:

• w niedzielę – on Sunday
• w poniedziałek – on Monday

So w niedzielę is accusative singular of niedziela.
The form w niedzieli (locative) is not used to mean on Sunday in modern standard Polish.

Does w niedzielę mean “this Sunday” or “on Sundays in general”?

On its own, w niedzielę usually means on (that/this) Sunday, often specified by context.
To be more precise:

• w tę niedzielę – this Sunday (the coming one).
• w niedziele (plural, without ę at the end) – on Sundays (in general).
  Example: Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedziele. – They organize a family dinner on Sundays (regularly).
• w każdą niedzielę – every Sunday.

So our sentence with w niedzielę is about one particular Sunday, not a habit.

Can I change the word order, for example to start with w niedzielę?

Yes, Polish word order is flexible. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different focus:

• Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedzielę.
  Neutral: just stating the fact.

• W niedzielę rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad.
  Emphasizes when it happens.

• Rodzice w niedzielę organizują rodzinny obiad.
  Mild focus on “on Sunday” as a contrast to other days.

• Rodzinny obiad rodzice organizują w niedzielę.
  Puts rodzinny obiad in focus (e.g. contrasting with some other meal).

The roles of words don’t change, because cases and verb endings show who does what.

Is rodzinny necessary? What’s the difference between Rodzice organizują rodzinny obiad w niedzielę and Rodzice organizują obiad w niedzielę?

You can drop rodzinny; the sentence is still correct:

• Rodzice organizują obiad w niedzielę. – The parents are organizing dinner on Sunday.

Adding rodzinny specifies the type of meal: a family dinner/meal, implying relatives will gather, it’s a family-focused event.
Without rodzinny, it’s just a meal they are organizing; it might or might not be a special family gathering.