Questions & Answers about Praca w biurze bywa trudna.
Bywa suggests that something happens from time to time, or that it can be that way, but not always.
- Praca w biurze bywa trudna ≈ Office work can be hard / is sometimes hard.
- Praca w biurze jest trudna ≈ Office work is hard. (sounds more constant and general)
So bywa softens the statement and makes it less absolute. It implies variability: sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is not.
Yes, they are related but different verbs:
być – to be (basic, neutral verb)
- jest = is
- są = are
bywać – to be (from time to time), to be somewhere habitually, to tend to be
- bywa = is sometimes / tends to be / can be
Examples:
- On jest w domu. – He is at home (now).
- On bywa w domu wieczorami. – He is (often/usually) at home in the evenings.
In your sentence, bywa comes from bywać and expresses that the difficulty is occasional or typical, not permanent.
The preposition w (in, at) normally takes the locative case when it means being in a place (static location).
- The noun is biuro (office), neuter singular.
- Neuter nouns in -o usually take -e in the locative singular.
- So: biuro → w biurze (in the office / at the office).
Compare:
- dom → w domu (in the house)
- sklep → w sklepie (in the shop)
- kino → w kinie (in the cinema)
W biuro would be a grammatical mistake for a location meaning.
praca is in the nominative case (subject of the sentence).
- Praca w biurze = office work / work in an office is the thing we are talking about.
w biurze uses the locative case after w (as explained above).
- biurze is the locative singular of biuro.
So structurally:
- Praca (nominative subject)
- w biurze (locative prepositional phrase modifying praca)
- bywa (verb)
- trudna (predicate adjective agreeing with praca)
Adjectives in Polish must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- praca is feminine, singular, nominative.
- The matching form of trudny (difficult, hard) for a feminine singular nominative noun is trudna.
So:
- trudny – masculine: trudny dzień (a hard day)
- trudna – feminine: trudna praca (hard work)
- trudne – neuter or non‑masculine plural:
- trudne zadanie (a hard task, neuter)
- trudne prace (difficult jobs, plural)
trudno is an adverb, not an adjective. For example:
- Jest mi trudno. – It is hard for me.
In your sentence, because praca is feminine, you must say trudna.
In standard, full sentences you are expected to include the verb jest or bywa:
- Praca w biurze jest trudna.
- Praca w biurze bywa trudna.
You may sometimes see or hear Praca w biurze trudna in:
- headlines, notes, or slogans
- very informal, fragmented speech
But as a normal, neutral sentence, it is better (and safer as a learner) to keep the verb:
- Praca w biurze bywa trudna.
Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible, but different orders change the focus or emphasis.
- Praca w biurze bywa trudna. – Neutral: Office work can be hard.
- W biurze praca bywa trudna. – Emphasizes in the office (as opposed to somewhere else).
- More like: In the office, work can be hard.
Other possibilities:
- Praca w biurze trudna bywa. – Possible in speech/poetry, sounds stylistic or emphatic.
- Bywa trudna praca w biurze. – Unusual, sounds poetic or marked.
For everyday speech and writing, Praca w biurze bywa trudna is the most natural word order.
It can mean either, depending on context, because Polish has no articles like a/the.
In a general statement like this one, Praca w biurze bywa trudna is understood as:
- Office work (in general) can be hard.
In a specific context, it could also refer to a particular office:
- e.g. said by someone about their job: The work in the office (here) can be hard.
If you want to stress the type of work rather than the place, you can also say:
- Praca biurowa bywa trudna. – Office work can be hard. (more “type of job” than “place”)
Present‑tense forms of bywać (to be from time to time / to tend to be) are:
- ja bywam – I am sometimes / I tend to be
- ty bywasz – you (sg.) are sometimes
- on / ona / ono bywa – he / she / it is sometimes
- my bywamy – we are sometimes
- wy bywacie – you (pl.) are sometimes
- oni / one bywają – they are sometimes
In your sentence, bywa is 3rd person singular (matching praca – it).
Approximate pronunciation (English-style):
Praca – PRA-tsa
- c is like ts in cats.
w – sounds like English v.
w biurze – roughly v BYOO-zhe
- biu = like byoo
- rz = like the zh sound in vision.
- final e is a short eh sound.
- bywa – BIH-va (short i, like bit)
- trudna – TROOD-na (u like oo in food; both a’s like the a in father).
In IPA (more precise):
Praca w biurze bywa trudna → /ˈprat͡sa v ˈbjurʐɛ ˈbɨva ˈtrudna/