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W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.

W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.
During the week I usually eat lunch at work.
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Questions & Answers about W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.

What does W tygodniu literally mean, and why is tygodniu in this form?

W tygodniu literally is in the week, but idiomatically it means on weekdays / during the week (as opposed to the weekend).

  • w = in
  • tydzień = week (dictionary form, nominative)
  • tygodniu = locative case of tydzień

After the preposition w meaning location or time (in, on, during), Polish usually uses the locative case, so tydzień → tygodniu.

Why are there no words like a / the before tygodniu or obiad?

Polish has no articles (no a, an, the at all).

Whether English would use a or the is understood from context, not from a separate word:

  • W tygodniu → during the week / on weekdays
  • jem obiad → I eat (my) lunch / I have lunch

There is no way to mark definiteness directly; you just rely on context.

What is the difference between W tygodniu and Co tydzień?

Both relate to time, but they are slightly different:

  • W tygodniu = during the week / on weekdays, i.e. not on the weekend.
    • Focus: which part of the week (weekday vs weekend).
  • Co tydzień = every week, a regular frequency.
    • Focus: how often something happens.

So:

  • W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.
    I usually eat lunch at work on weekdays (not at weekends).

  • Co tydzień jem obiad z rodzicami.
    I have lunch with my parents every week.

Why is there no ja before jem? Can I say Ja jem obiad?

You can say Ja jem obiad, but normally you don’t need ja.

Polish verb endings already show the subject:

  • jem = I eat
  • jesz = you eat (singular)
  • je = he / she / it eats

Because jem clearly means I eat, the pronoun ja is usually dropped. You add ja mainly for emphasis or contrast:

  • Ja jem obiad w pracy, a on je obiad w domu.
    I eat lunch at work, and he eats lunch at home.
What verb is jem from, and is it regular?

jem is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb jeść (to eat).

The present tense forms are a bit irregular:

  • ja jem – I eat
  • ty jesz – you eat
  • on / ona / ono je – he / she / it eats
  • my jemy – we eat
  • wy jecie – you (pl.) eat
  • oni / one jedzą – they eat

So yes, jeść is slightly irregular, and jem does not look like the infinitive.

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

In jem obiad, obiad is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb jem.

The noun:

  • obiad (nominative, dictionary form) – lunch / dinner
  • obiad (accusative, masculine inanimate) – looks the same

For masculine inanimate nouns, nominative and accusative often have identical forms, so you don’t see a change even though the case is different.

Does obiad mean lunch or dinner?

Obiad is the main hot meal of the day, traditionally eaten in the afternoon in Poland. Depending on country and culture, it can map to English:

  • lunch (if the main meal is around early/mid-afternoon), or
  • dinner (if you think of the “main meal of the day”)

In sentences like this one, obiad is usually translated as lunch, but context (time of day, culture) matters.

Why is it w pracy and not w pracę?

The preposition w can take either the locative or accusative case, depending on the meaning:

  • w
    • locative → location / state: in, at (where?)
  • w
    • accusative → movement into something: into (where to?)

Here we mean being at work (location), so we use locative:

  • praca (nominative) → w pracy (locative) = at work / in work

Examples:

  • Jestem w pracy. – I’m at work.
  • Idę w pracę. – would sound wrong; you would say Idę do pracy. (I’m going to work).

So w pracy is the correct, idiomatic way to say at work.

Where can zwykle go in the sentence? Is the word order fixed?

Word order in Polish is fairly flexible, especially with adverbs like zwykle (usually).

All of these are possible and natural, with similar meaning:

  • W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.
  • W tygodniu jem zwykle obiad w pracy.
  • Zwykle w tygodniu jem obiad w pracy.

The most neutral and common is very close to the original: W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy.

Changing the position of zwykle can slightly shift emphasis, but does not usually change the basic meaning.

How would I say I will eat lunch at work instead of I (usually) eat lunch at work?

You need a perfective future form of jeść, which is zjeść (to eat up, to finish eating).

  • Zjem obiad w pracy. – I will eat (up) lunch at work.

Compare:

  • Jem obiad w pracy. – I eat / I am eating lunch at work (present, imperfective).
  • Zjem obiad w pracy. – I will eat lunch at work (future, perfective, one completed event).

If you keep zwykle, it still sounds habitual and you usually stay in the present:

  • W tygodniu zwykle jem obiad w pracy. – On weekdays I usually eat lunch at work.

Habitual actions in Polish are generally expressed with the present tense, not with a special “used to” or “will usually” form.