Po obiedzie dzieci biegają w parku.

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Breakdown of Po obiedzie dzieci biegają w parku.

• dziecko: the child
• obiad: the dinner (main meal)
• biegać: to run

Questions & Answers about Po obiedzie dzieci biegają w parku.

What does po mean here, and why is obiedzie in that form?

In this sentence, po means “after” in a time sense: po obiedzie = after lunch.

In Polish, when po means “after (some event in time)”, it normally takes the locative case.

• Nominative (dictionary form): obiad – “lunch / dinner”
• Locative singular: (po) obiedzie

So the preposition po forces obiad into the locative case → obiedzie.

Why is it obiedzie and not something like obiadzie or just obiad?

Two things are going on:

1. Case change
   You cannot say po obiad in standard Polish; po here must be followed by a locative form.
   So obiad has to change to the locative: obiedzie.

2. Spelling / sound change inside the word
   The stem obiad- changes to obiedz- before the ending -ie, giving obiedzie.
   This is a regular alternation in Polish (similar changes happen in other words, e.g. dziadek → o dziadku, świat → o świecie, etc.).

So po obiedzie is simply “after lunch” with the correct locative ending and a regular stem change.