Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.

My brother often comes home late.

Breakdown of Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.

• dom: the house
• mój: my
• do: to
• późno: late
• często: often
• brat: the brother
• przychodzić: to come

Questions & Answers about Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.

What does mój do here, and why is it mój and not something like moja or moje?

Mój means my. In Polish, possessive words like mój change their form to match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.

• brat (brother) is:
  • masculine
  • singular
  • in the nominative case (the subject of the sentence)

So you must use the masculine singular nominative form: mój brat = my brother.

Other forms for comparison:

• moja siostra – my sister (feminine)
• moje dziecko – my child (neuter)
• moi bracia – my brothers (masculine personal plural)

Why is it brat and not some other word for “brother”?

Polish mainly uses:

• brat – brother (basic, neutral word)
• braciszek – little / dear brother (diminutive, more emotional or affectionate)

In this neutral sentence about a habit, brat is the normal, dictionary form. Using braciszek would sound more emotional or “cute.”

Why is it przychodzi, and what is the infinitive form of this verb?

Przychodzi is the 3rd person singular present tense of przychodzić (to come, to come over).

Conjugation of przychodzić (present tense):

• ja przychodzę – I come
• ty przychodzisz – you (sg.) come
• on/ona/ono przychodzi – he/she/it comes
• my przychodzimy – we come
• wy przychodzicie – you (pl.) come
• oni/one przychodzą – they come

We use this verb here because we are talking about a repeated, habitual action: He often comes home late.

What’s the difference between przychodzi and wraca?

Both can appear in similar sentences, but they are not identical:

• przychodzi (do domu) – comes (to the house/home)
  Focus: the arrival, the act of coming.

• wraca (do domu) – returns (home)
  Focus: coming back from somewhere to your usual place.

In daily speech, when talking about someone getting home after being out, wraca do domu is very common:
Mój brat często wraca do domu późno. – My brother often comes (back) home late.

Your original sentence with przychodzi is still correct and understandable; it just slightly emphasizes the coming/arrival itself.

Why do we use często (often) before przychodzi, and can we move it to another position?

In Polish, adverbs of frequency like często are usually placed before the verb they modify:

• Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.

It is also possible to move często a bit, especially for emphasis, for example:

• Często mój brat przychodzi do domu późno. (emphasis on often)
• Mój brat przychodzi często do domu późno. (less common, but possible in speech)

The neutral, most natural order is exactly the one you have:
Mój brat często przychodzi…

Why is it do domu and not do dom or something else?

The preposition do (to, into) always requires the genitive case.

• The noun dom (house, home) in the genitive singular is domu.

So:

• do
  • dom → do domu

This pattern is regular: do + [noun in genitive].

More examples:

• do szkoły – to school (szkoła → szkoły)
• do pracy – to work (praca → pracy)
• do sklepu – to the shop (sklep → sklepu)

What is the difference between do domu and w domu?

They show different types of meaning:

• do domu – to home / to the house
  Direction, movement towards home.
  Used with verbs of motion: iść, przychodzić, wracać, etc.

• w domu – at home / in the house
  Static location, no movement.
  Used with verbs like być (to be), mieszkać (to live), etc.

Compare:

• Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.
  My brother often comes home late. (movement towards home)

• Mój brat jest w domu.
  My brother is at home. (location)

Why is it późno and not późny?

Późno is an adverb, meaning late in the sense of at a late time.

Późny is an adjective, meaning late when describing a noun:

• późny pociąg – a late train
• późny obiad – a late lunch

Here, we are describing when he comes home, not describing a noun, so we use the adverb:

• przychodzi późno – he comes late

Why doesn’t the sentence start with the verb, like in questions? Could we say Często mój brat przychodzi…?

Polish word order is flexible, but the default statement order is:

Subject – (adverb) – verb – (other elements)

So:

• Mój brat (subject)
• często (adverb of frequency)
• przychodzi (verb)
• do domu późno (rest of the information)

Moving parts is possible, especially for emphasis, so:

• Często mój brat przychodzi do domu późno. – OK, with emphasis on "often".
• Późno mój brat często przychodzi do domu. – grammatically possible but sounds unusual.

Your original order is the most neutral and natural.

Why don’t we need a pronoun like on (he) before the verb?

Polish is a pro-drop language. The personal pronoun (I, you, he, etc.) is usually dropped because the verb ending already shows who does the action.

Here, the subject is explicitly given as Mój brat (my brother), so adding on would be redundant:

• Mój brat przychodzi… – My brother comes…
• On przychodzi… – He comes…
• Mój brat on przychodzi… – unnatural and incorrect.

So you either say Mój brat przychodzi… or On przychodzi…, not both.

How do you pronounce brat, przychodzi, and późno?

Approximate pronunciation:

• brat – like “brut” but with a as in “father”:
  [brat]

• przychodzi – roughly: pshih-HO-jee
  More precisely: [pʂɨˈxɔ.d͡ʑi]

  • prz → sounds like English “psh”
  • ch → like German “Bach” or Scottish “loch”
  • dzi before i → like English “jee” (soft d+j)

• późno – roughly: POOZH-no
  More precisely: [ˈpuʑ.nɔ]

  • ó → sounds like u in “rule”
  • ź → like s in “vision”

Could I say Mój brat często idzie do domu późno instead of przychodzi?

Not in this meaning.

• iść (idzie) – to go (on foot), right now / one specific time
• chodzić / przychodzić – to go / to come, habitually or repeatedly

Często (often) talks about a habit, so you need a habitual (imperfective) verb:

• Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno. – correct
• Mój brat często idzie do domu późno. – sounds wrong; idzie feels like one specific moment.

However:

• On idzie do domu późno. – He is going home late (this time, right now).

Why is there no word for “the” before domu? How do you say “the house” vs “a house”?

Polish does not have articles like a/an or the. Context tells you whether you mean a house, the house, or just home.

• do domu can mean:
  • to the house
  • to the home
  • (simply) home

In your sentence, English needs home or the house, but Polish expresses that just with do domu and the context.

Is the sentence still correct if I change the order to Mój brat często późno przychodzi do domu?

It is grammatically correct, but it sounds less natural and a bit awkward.

Native speakers would normally say:

• Mój brat często przychodzi do domu późno.

Putting późno right before przychodzi makes the rhythm and focus feel odd. The most natural places for późno in this sentence are:

• at the very end: …przychodzi do domu późno.
• or, more marked: Późno mój brat często przychodzi do domu. (very unusual, strong focus on “late”)

So stick with the original order for natural speech.