Breakdown of Małe dziecko płacze, a mama spokojnie je przytula.
Questions & Answers about Małe dziecko płacze, a mama spokojnie je przytula.
In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number and case.
- dziecko is grammatically neuter singular (even though it refers to a boy or girl).
- The neuter singular form of the adjective mały (small) in the nominative is małe.
So:
- mały chłopiec – small boy (masculine)
- mała dziewczynka – small girl (feminine)
- małe dziecko – small child (neuter)
You must use małe to match the neuter gender of dziecko.
In Polish, grammatical gender is not always the same as natural gender (biological sex).
- dziecko is just one of those nouns that is always neuter, regardless of whether the child is a boy or a girl.
- This affects:
- adjectives: małe dziecko, wesołe dziecko
- pronouns: ono / je (it)
If you want to make the gender explicit, you usually switch to words with natural gender:
- chłopiec (boy) → mały chłopiec, on / go
- dziewczynka (girl) → mała dziewczynka, ona / ją
je can mean two different things in Polish, depending on context:
Verb: 3rd person singular of jeść (to eat)
- On je. – He eats / He is eating.
Pronoun: accusative form of ono (it)
- Widzę je. – I see it.
In Mama spokojnie je przytula, je is the pronoun:
mama (subject) przytula (hugs) je (it – the child).
We know it’s a pronoun here because:
- There is already a main verb (przytula).
- Having je as eats would require a different structure (and would give a strange meaning).
Polish has two very common conjunctions often translated as and:
- i – neutral and, simply adding information.
- a – also often translated as and, but it usually shows contrast, difference, or a sort of gentle opposition between parts.
In this sentence:
- Małe dziecko płacze – the child is crying.
- a mama spokojnie je przytula – and the mother, in contrast, is calm.
So a nicely highlights the contrast: crying child vs. calm mother.
You could say i mama…, but a sounds more natural because of the contrasting moods/actions.
In Polish, you normally put a comma before a when it joins two separate clauses (two mini‑sentences):
- Małe dziecko płacze – clause 1
- mama spokojnie je przytula – clause 2
Joined: Małe dziecko płacze, a mama spokojnie je przytula.
This follows a general rule: when a conjunction like a, ale, lecz, więc connects full clauses, there is a comma before it.
spokojnie is an adverb: calmly.
spokojna is an adjective: calm (feminine form).
In the sentence:
- spokojnie je przytula literally: she hugs it calmly.
You want to describe how she hugs (the manner of the action), so you need an adverb:
- spokojna mama – a calm mother (describes the noun mother)
- mama spokojnie przytula dziecko – the mother hugs the child calmly (describes the verb hugs)
You can say Spokojna mama przytula je (A calm mother hugs it), but that changes the focus:
- Spokojna mama przytula je – describes what kind of mother she is (a calm mother).
- Mama spokojnie je przytula – describes how she hugs (she hugs it calmly).
Both are grammatically correct, but spokojnie (adverb) in the original sentence focuses on the manner of the action, which matches the typical English interpretation.
This is about aspect in Polish verbs:
- przytulać – imperfective (ongoing, repeated, or not viewed as a single completed act)
- mama przytula je – mom is hugging it / hugs it.
- przytulić – perfective (a single, completed act)
- mama przytuli je – mom will hug it / mom hugged it (depending on context).
In the sentence, we are describing what is happening right now, at the same time as the crying. So we use the imperfective present: przytula.
płacze is:
- tense: present
- aspect: imperfective
- person/number: 3rd person singular (he/she/it cries / is crying)
In Polish, the simple present of an imperfective verb usually covers both English:
- cries and is crying.
So:
- Dziecko płacze. – The child cries / The child is crying.
Forms like jest płaczące are possible but much less common and feel more descriptive, almost like is a crying child, not just is crying. The natural verb for is crying is simply płacze.
Polish word order is relatively flexible. You could say:
- Mama spokojnie je przytula. – neutral; slight focus on calmly.
- Mama je spokojnie przytula.
- Mama przytula je spokojnie.
- Spokojnie mama je przytula.
All are possible and understandable. Differences are mostly about emphasis and rhythm.
However, be careful with:
- Mama je spokojnie.
This usually means Mom eats calmly, because now je is strongly read as the verb eats, not the pronoun it.
Having przytula right after removes that ambiguity.
Małe dziecko is in the nominative case (mianownik), used for the subject of the sentence.
- Kto? Co? – Małe dziecko płacze. (Who/what is crying? The small child.)
je is the accusative case (biernik) of the pronoun ono (it), used for the direct object.
- Kogo? Co? – mama przytula je. (Whom/what does mom hug? It.)
So the overall structure is:
- Subject (nominative): Małe dziecko, mama
- Verb: płacze, przytula
- Object (accusative): je
For the neuter 3rd person pronoun ono (it), the basic singular forms are:
- Nominative (subject): ono – Ono płacze. (It is crying.)
- Accusative (object): je – Mama przytula je. (Mom hugs it.)
- Genitive: jego (formal/literary go) – often in more complex contexts.
Compare with:
- on (he): nominative on, accusative go / jego
- ona (she): nominative ona, accusative ją
In this sentence, dziecko is neuter, so the matching object pronoun is je.
Polish doesn’t have articles like a/an or the.
- małe dziecko can mean:
- a small child
- the small child
- just small child (generic), depending on context.
Definiteness and indefiniteness are usually understood from context, word order, and what has been mentioned before, not from separate words like a/the.