Learn Hardcore Polish: Rano chce mi się spać, ale muszę wstać do pracy. - In the morning I feel like sleeping, but I have to get up for work.

Chcę spać = I want to sleep.
- More volitional / intentional: you decide you want to sleep.
- Feels a bit stronger and more “I choose this”.
Chce mi się spać = literally “It wants itself to sleep to me” → “I feel like sleeping / I’m sleepy.”
- Describes a spontaneous feeling or bodily need, not a conscious decision.
- Very natural for things like:
  - Chce mi się spać. – I feel sleepy.
  - Chce mi się pić. – I’m thirsty.
  - Chce mi się jeść. – I feel like eating / I’m hungry.

In your sentence, „chce mi się spać” fits better because it’s about being sleepy in the morning, not deciding to want sleep.

What does „mi” mean here, and why not „mnie”?

Both mi and mnie mean “to me” / “me” in the dative (for whom? to whom?).

mi is the unstressed form, usually used in the middle of the sentence.
mnie is the stressed form, used:
- at the beginning for emphasis, or
- when you want to highlight me (and not someone else).

In your sentence:

Chce mi się spać. – normal, neutral, the usual choice.
Mnie się chce spać. – emphasizes me, as in “I’m the one who’s sleepy.”

Using mi here is standard and sounds natural.

What is „się” doing in „chce mi się spać”? Is it reflexive?

In a way, yes: „się” is the reflexive particle, but in this construction it’s part of a very common impersonal expression.

chce się literally looks like “it wants itself”, but:
- in practice, chce mi się + verb means “I feel like … / I have the urge to …”.
- we add a person in dative: mi, ci, mu, jej, nam, wam, im.

Examples:

Chce mi się spać. – I feel like sleeping / I’m sleepy.
Chce mu się jeść. – He feels like eating / He’s hungry.
Chce nam się śmiać. – We feel like laughing.

So „się” is required; you can’t say ✗ chce mi spać.

Why is it „spać” (the infinitive) and not some other form?

After „chce mi się” you normally use the infinitive:

chce mi się
- spać / jeść / pić / płakać / śmiać się etc.

So:

Chce mi się spać. – I feel like sleeping.
Chce mi się jeść. – I feel like eating.

The infinitive here is like in English “to sleep / to eat / to drink” after “I want / I feel like”.

Could I instead say „Rano jestem śpiący”?

You can, but it’s slightly different:

Rano chce mi się spać.
- Emphasizes the urge / feeling of wanting to sleep.
- Very typical way to say “I feel sleepy in the morning.”
Rano jestem śpiący. (male speaker) / Rano jestem śpiąca. (female speaker)
- Describes a state: “In the morning I am sleepy.”
- Grammatically fine, but Poles more often say „chce mi się spać” in this context.

Both are correct; the original sentence is just more idiomatic.

Why is it „wstać” and not „wstawać”?

This is about aspect (perfective vs. imperfective):

wstać – perfective: to get up (once, as a single action).
wstawać – imperfective: to be getting up, to get up (habitually / repeatedly).

With „muszę” when you talk about a specific occasion, you usually use the perfective:

Rano chce mi się spać, ale muszę wstać do pracy.
→ In the (this/any given) morning, I have to get up (do it, complete the action) to go to work.

You would use wstawać for habits:

Codziennie muszę wstawać o szóstej. – Every day I have to get up at six.
(repeated action, hence imperfective)

Why is there no pronoun „ja” in „muszę wstać”?

Polish normally drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows the person:

muszę clearly means “I must” (1st person singular).
Saying Ja muszę wstać is possible but:
- often sounds emphatic: I have to get up (implying others don’t).
- or a bit redundant in neutral context.

So „muszę wstać” is the natural everyday way to say it.

Why is it „do pracy” and not something like „na pracę”?

„Do pracy” literally means “to work” in the sense of to the workplace (direction).

do
- genitive is used for:
  - going to a place or person:
  - iść do sklepu – go to the shop
  - jechać do szkoły – go to school
  - iść do pracy – go to work (the place)

„Na pracę” would not fit here; na + accusative expresses different meanings (onto, for, etc.) and is not used for “go to work” in the sense of the workplace.

So:

muszę wstać do pracy = I must get up (in order to go) to work.

What case is „pracy”, and what is the base form?

The base form (dictionary form) is „praca” – work / job.

In „do pracy”, pracy is in the genitive singular.

praca (nominative)
do pracy (genitive after do)

This is regular for many feminine nouns ending in -a:

szkoła → do szkoły
kawa → bez kawy
praca → do pracy

Why is it just „Rano” and not „W rano”?

In Polish, certain time expressions are used without a preposition, as adverbs of time. „Rano” is one of them:

rano – in the morning
wieczorem – in the evening
nocą / w nocy – at night (both exist)

So you say:

Rano piję kawę. – I drink coffee in the morning.
Rano chce mi się spać. – In the morning I feel sleepy.

✗ w rano is incorrect. You can say „wczesnym rankiem” (in the early morning), but that’s a different word (ranek, not rano).

Is the word order fixed? Can I move parts of the sentence around?

Polish word order is fairly flexible, though there are preferences.

Your sentence:

Rano chce mi się spać, ale muszę wstać do pracy.

Possible variants (all correct, slightly different emphasis):

Rano mi się chce spać, ale muszę wstać do pracy.
(a bit more emphasis on mi = “I’m the one who’s sleepy”)
Rano chce mi się spać, ale do pracy muszę wstać.
(emphasis on do pracy – for work I must get up)
Rano muszę wstać do pracy, chociaż chce mi się spać.
(uses chociaż “although”, flips the clauses)

Things that are not natural:

✗ Mi chce się rano spać – starting with unstressed mi sounds wrong.
✗ Chce spać mi się rano – się and the pronoun should stay near the verb.

The original word order is the most neutral and natural.

Why is there a comma before „ale”?

In Polish, you must put a comma before „ale” when it connects two clauses:

[Rano chce mi się spać], ale [muszę wstać do pracy].

Each bracketed part has its own verb (chce, muszę), so they are separate clauses.
Rule: comma + ale between two clauses is standard:

Chcę wyjść, ale nie mam czasu.
Pada, ale jest ciepło.