Learn Hardcore Polish: Kucharz gotuje zupę w tym garnku. - The cook is cooking soup in this pot.

In this sentence, zupę is the direct object of the verb gotuje (is cooking). In Polish, direct objects of most verbs are in the accusative case, not the nominative.

Nominative (dictionary form): zupa – used for the subject
- Zupa jest gorąca. – The soup is hot.
Accusative (direct object): zupę
- Kucharz gotuje zupę. – The cook is cooking soup.

So the ending -ę on zupę is simply the feminine singular accusative ending.

What form of the verb is gotuje, and how is it related to gotować?

Gotuje is:

3rd person singular
present tense
imperfective aspect
of the verb gotować (to cook, to boil)

The present tense forms of gotować are:

ja gotuję – I cook / am cooking
ty gotujesz – you (sg.) cook / are cooking
on/ona/ono gotuje – he/she/it cooks / is cooking
my gotujemy – we cook / are cooking
wy gotujecie – you (pl.) cook / are cooking
oni/one gotują – they cook / are cooking

So kucharz gotuje = the cook cooks / the cook is cooking.

Why gotuje and not ugotuje? What is the difference?

Polish has aspect: imperfective vs perfective.

gotuje – imperfective: focuses on the process of cooking
- Kucharz gotuje zupę. – The cook is in the middle of cooking the soup.
ugotuje – perfective: focuses on the completion/result of the action
- Kucharz ugotuje zupę. – The cook will cook (and finish) the soup.

In the present tense, perfective verbs (like ugotować) are used only with future meaning. So:

gotuje = is cooking / cooks (now or habitually)
ugotuje = will cook (and finish)

Why is it w tym garnku and not w ten garnek?

The preposition w can take different cases depending on the meaning:

Location (where?) → locative case
- w tym garnku – in this pot (the soup is inside, location)
- w domu – at home
- w sklepie – in the shop
Direction (where to? into?) → accusative case
- w ten garnek – into this pot (movement into the pot)
- w dom – into the house
- w sklep – into the shop

In your sentence, the idea is that the cook is cooking the soup in that pot (where?), so w + locative is used: w tym garnku.

Why garnku instead of garnek?

Garnek (pot) is in the locative case after the preposition w (with the meaning “in”).

Nominative (dictionary form): garnek – the pot
Locative singular: garnku – in the pot

Many masculine nouns ending in -ek drop the -e- in oblique cases and then take an ending, for example:

chłopiec → w chłopcu (in the boy)
pudełek → w pudełku (in the small box)
garnek → w garnku (in the pot)

So garnku is just the regular locative form of garnek.

Why is it tym and not ten or tego?

Ten (this) is a demonstrative pronoun/adjective, and it declines (changes form) for case, number, and gender.

For a masculine inanimate noun in the locative singular (like garnek → garnku), the correct form is:

Nominative: ten garnek – this pot
Genitive: tego garnka
Dative: temu garnkowi
Accusative: ten garnek
Instrumental: tym garnkiem
Locative: tym garnku

Since w (in) with location requires the locative, we must use tym garnku.

So w tym garnku literally: in this (masc. loc.) pot (loc.) – both words are in the locative and agree in case, number, and gender.

Could the word order be different? For example: Kucharz w tym garnku gotuje zupę or Zupę gotuje kucharz w tym garnku?

Yes. Polish has relatively flexible word order, and your examples are possible.

Kucharz gotuje zupę w tym garnku.
Neutral: The cook is cooking soup in this pot.
Kucharz w tym garnku gotuje zupę.
Slight emphasis on in this pot – maybe contrasting with other pots.
Zupę gotuje kucharz w tym garnku.
Emphasizes zupę (soup), for example answering: “What is he cooking?”
Or contrasting with someone else / something else.

The default, neutral order is usually Subject – Verb – Object – (Adverbials), which is why Kucharz gotuje zupę w tym garnku is the most ordinary-sounding version.

Can I drop the subject and just say Gotuje zupę w tym garnku?

Yes. Polish often omits the subject pronoun or noun when it is clear from context.

Gotuje zupę w tym garnku.
= He/she is cooking soup in this pot.

The verb ending -e in gotuje tells us it’s 3rd person singular, but it does not tell us gender. So this could mean:

He is cooking soup in this pot.
She is cooking soup in this pot.

If the context already makes it clear who you’re talking about, it’s perfectly natural to drop kucharz.

Does kucharz mean specifically a male cook? What about a female cook?

Kucharz typically refers to a male cook (or a cook in general, if gender is not specified).

The specifically female form is kucharka.

Kucharz gotuje zupę. – The (male) cook is cooking soup.
Kucharka gotuje zupę. – The (female) cook is cooking soup.

The verb gotuje is the same form for both:

kucharz gotuje
kucharka gotuje

In the past tense and with adjectives, the forms will change according to gender:

Kucharz gotował zupę. – The (male) cook was cooking / cooked soup.
Kucharka gotowała zupę. – The (female) cook was cooking / cooked soup.

How do I change this sentence to the past or future tense?

You need different verb forms:

Past tense (imperfective – process/habit):

Kucharz gotował zupę w tym garnku.
The cook was cooking / used to cook soup in this pot.

(Female subject: Kucharka gotowała zupę w tym garnku.)

Past tense (perfective – completed result):

Kucharz ugotował zupę w tym garnku.
The cook cooked (and finished) the soup in this pot.

Future tense (imperfective – will be in the process / repeated future action):

Kucharz będzie gotował zupę w tym garnku.
The cook will be cooking / will cook (habitually) soup in this pot.

Future tense (perfective – completed future result):

Kucharz ugotuje zupę w tym garnku.
The cook will cook (and finish) the soup in this pot.

Are there any articles like “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Polish has no articles like a / an / the.

So kucharz gotuje zupę w tym garnku can mean, depending on context:

A cook is cooking soup in this pot.
The cook is cooking soup in this pot.

To make something more specific, Polish often uses demonstratives like:

ten kucharz – this (particular) cook
ta zupa – this soup
ten garnek – this pot

But in your sentence, only tym garnku explicitly marks “this pot”. Kucharz and zupę are bare nouns, and their definiteness/indefiniteness comes from context, not from an article.

How is rz in kucharz pronounced?

The digraph rz is pronounced like a voiced zh sound, similar to:

the s in English measure
the g in French genre

So kucharz is pronounced roughly:

[KOO-harzh] (with a rolled or tapped r
- zh)

More precisely in IPA: [ˈkuxarʐ]

Note also:

ch in kucharz is a voiceless kh sound (like German Bach, Scottish loch), not like English ch in chair.

How is the nasal vowel ę in zupę pronounced?

Ę is a nasal vowel. In careful speech at the end of a word, like zupę, it is often pronounced as:

something between [ɛ̃] (nasal “e”) and [ɛ] with a slight nasal off-glide.

In everyday colloquial speech, final ę is very often pronounced just like e:

zupę → sounds like zup-e: [ˈzupɛ]

So you will commonly hear:

Kucharz gotuje zupę ≈ [ˈkuxarʐ ɡɔˈtujɛ ˈzupɛ]

Why is w sometimes we, and why is it w here?

The basic preposition is w (in), but before some consonant clusters it changes to we for easier pronunciation.

You usually see we:

before words starting with w or f followed by another consonant:
- we Francji – in France
- we Włoszech – in Italy
- we wrześniu – in September

In w tym garnku, the next word tym starts with t, which is easy to pronounce after w, so the normal form w is used, not we.