Learn Hardcore Polish: Dwa lata temu mój brat zmienił zawód. - Two years ago my brother changed his profession.

temu normally comes after the time expression:
- dwa dni temu – two days ago
- rok temu – a year ago
- chwilę temu – a moment ago
You don’t put temu at the very end of the sentence like English ago:
- ✅ Dwa lata temu mój brat zmienił zawód.
- ✅ Mój brat zmienił zawód dwa lata temu.
- ❌ Mój brat zmienił zawód temu dwa lata. (ungrammatical)

Can I move dwa lata temu to a different place in the sentence?

Yes. Word order in Polish is fairly flexible. All of these are correct, with slightly different emphasis:

Dwa lata temu mój brat zmienił zawód.
→ Focuses on when it happened (time first).
Mój brat dwa lata temu zmienił zawód.
→ Neutral, balanced: subject first, then time.
Mój brat zmienił zawód dwa lata temu.
→ Focuses on the action and adds when at the end.

There is no change in basic meaning; it’s mostly about what you want to highlight in the sentence.

What is the difference between zmienił and zmieniał?

This is an aspect difference (perfective vs. imperfective):

zmienił – past tense, perfective, completed action
→ He changed his profession (we see it as a single finished event)
zmieniał – past tense, imperfective, ongoing/repeated process
→ can mean he was changing / he used to change his profession
→ suggests duration or repetition, not just a single completed event

In this context, zmienił zawód is natural, because we’re talking about one completed change at a specific point in the past: two years ago.

Why is it zmienił and not something with był (like a helping verb)?

Modern Polish past tense is usually formed without an extra auxiliary verb (like English have or was) in the simple past:

On zmienił zawód. – He changed his profession.
Ona zmieniła zawód. – She changed her profession.
Ja zmieniłem / zmieniłam zawód. – I changed my profession.

Historically, there was an auxiliary być (to be), and you still see a trace of that in some forms like:

zmieniłbym – I would change (conditional)
zmieniłby – he would change

But in the normal past tense, you do not add jest/był:

❌ On był zmienił zawód. – wrong in modern Polish (except in some dialects or archaic style)
✅ On zmienił zawód. – correct

How would the verb change if it was my sister instead of my brother?

The verb ending must match the gender (and person/number) of the subject in the past tense.

Your sentence:

Mój brat zmienił zawód. – My brother (he) changed profession.

If it was your sister:

Dwa lata temu moja siostra zmieniła zawód.
- moja siostra – feminine
- verb: zmieniła (feminine singular past)

Some other forms for comparison:

Ja zmieniłem zawód. – I changed profession. (speaker = male)
Ja zmieniłam zawód. – I changed profession. (speaker = female)
Oni zmienili zawód. – They changed profession. (group with at least one man)
One zmieniły zawód. – They changed profession. (all-female group or inanimate plural)

What does zawód mean exactly? Is it like job or profession?

Zawód most commonly means profession, occupation, or trade:

Jaki masz zawód? – What is your profession?
On ma ciekawy zawód. – He has an interesting job/profession.

Nuance:

zawód → more about your professional profile (teacher, doctor, mechanic)
praca → work/job more generally; the position or employment

Compare:

Zmienił zawód. – He changed his profession (e.g., from teacher to programmer).
Zmienił pracę. – He changed his job (e.g., left one company for another, possibly in the same profession).

Note: zawód can also mean disappointment in other contexts:

To był dla mnie wielki zawód. – That was a big disappointment for me.

In your sentence, from context, it clearly means profession.

What case is zawód in here, and why doesn’t it change form?

In Dwa lata temu mój brat zmienił zawód, zawód is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb:

(Kto?) mój brat – subject, nominative
(Co zrobił?) zmienił – verb
(Co?) zawód – object, accusative

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

nominative: zawód
accusative: zawód

That’s why you don’t see a visible change.

Compare with a feminine noun, where the change is clear:

nominative: praca (job/work)
accusative: pracę

Example:

On zmienił pracę. – He changed (his) job.
→ here you can see the accusative form pracę.

Is mój necessary? Could I just say Brat zmienił zawód?

You can drop mój. Both are possible:

Mój brat zmienił zawód. – My brother changed profession.
Brat zmienił zawód. – (My) brother changed profession.

In everyday conversation, when it is clear you’re talking about your own relatives, Poles often omit the possessive:

Mama zadzwoniła. – (My) mum called.
Brat przyjechał. – (My) brother arrived.

Mój simply makes it explicit that it’s my brother, which can be helpful in some contexts, but it’s not always required.

Does dwa lata temu always force the past tense in Polish?

Yes, in normal usage dwa lata temu (two years ago) refers to a finished point in the past, so you use the past tense:

Dwa lata temu zmienił zawód. – Two years ago he changed profession.
Dwa lata temu przeprowadziłem się do Polski. – Two years ago I moved to Poland.

Polish does not have a separate present perfect tense like English (has changed, has moved). The simple past tense covers both:

He changed / has changed → On zmienił
I moved / have moved → Przeprowadziłem się

The time expression (like dwa lata temu) and context tell you how to understand it.

Can I say przed dwoma laty instead of dwa lata temu?

Yes, but it is more formal and old-fashioned.

Dwa lata temu – normal, neutral, very common.
Przed dwoma laty – grammatically fine, but sounds literary / formal / old-style in everyday speech.

In modern spoken Polish, dwa lata temu is strongly preferred.

How do you pronounce zmienił and what does the ł sound like?

zmienił is pronounced roughly like:

z-mye-nyew (in one smooth word)

Breakdown:

z – like z in zoo
mie – similar to mye in my + eh, with a soft m before ie
ń (spelled ni before a vowel, but here softened as part of nie) – a soft n, like Spanish ñ in señor
ł – pronounced like English w in water

So zmienił ends with a w sound, not an l.