Learn Hardcore Polish: Ostatnio częściej wychodzę na spacer po pracy, żeby się zrelaksować. - Lately I go out for a walk after work more often in order to relax.

Ostatnio means “lately / recently / these days” and usually refers to a period extending up to now, often with a repeated or ongoing situation:

Ostatnio częściej wychodzę na spacer… – Lately I’ve been going for a walk more often…

Niedawno is more like “not long ago / a short time ago”, usually tied to one or a few specific past events and more often goes with past tense:

Niedawno wyszedłem na spacer. – I went for a walk not long ago.

So ostatnio fits better here because we’re talking about a habitual change over a recent period, not a single event.

Why is it częściej and not something like bardziej często?

Częściej is the comparative form of the adverb często (“often”):

często → częściej (more often) → najczęściej (most often)

In Polish, most common adverbs form the comparative with special endings, not with bardziej:

szybko → szybciej (more quickly), not bardziej szybko (except in some rare stylistic cases)
głośno → głośniej (louder), not bardziej głośno

So:

częściej = “more often”
bardziej często sounds clumsy and is normally avoided in standard Polish.

Why is wychodzę in the simple present, even though in English we might say “I’ve been going out more often recently”?

Polish uses the simple present much more broadly than English. It covers:

general habits:
Codziennie wychodzę na spacer. – I go for a walk every day.
current trends / recently changed habits (where English often uses present perfect continuous):
Ostatnio częściej wychodzę na spacer. – Recently I’ve been going for a walk more often.

So wychodzę here means “I (regularly) go / I’ve been going”, and Polish doesn’t need a separate tense like English have been going to express that ongoing change.

Why do we say na spacer with na + accusative here? Could it be something else?

Na spacer is the standard way to say “for a walk”:

wychodzić na spacer – to go out for a walk
iść na spacer – to go for a walk

Here na takes the accusative (na + spacer) to show movement towards a goal (going somewhere to do something). Compare:

Idę na spacer. – I’m going for a walk. (direction/goal)
Jestem na spacerze. – I’m on a walk. (location, locative: spacerze)

You could also use chodzić na spacery (“to go for walks” in general):

Ostatnio częściej chodzę na spacery. – Lately I go for walks more often.
(plural spacery = “walks” as repeated events)

But na spacer (singular) is perfectly natural for “I go out for a walk” in this specific-habit context.

What exactly does po pracy mean, and which case is pracy?

Po pracy means “after work” (time-related “after”).

The preposition po here takes the locative case.
Praca (work) → locative singular pracy.

Common time expressions with po + locative:

po szkole – after school
po obiedzie – after lunch
po kolacji – after dinner

Be careful: po can also take the accusative with a different meaning (“for / in search of”):

Idę po chleb. – I’m going (to get) bread.

In po pracy, it’s clearly “after work”, so locative is used.

Why do we use żeby and an infinitive (żeby się zrelaksować) instead of a full clause like “so that I relax”?

Żeby introduces a purpose clause and often corresponds to “in order to / so that”.

When the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence, Polish very often uses:

żeby + infinitive:
- Wychodzę na spacer, żeby się zrelaksować.
  Literally: I go out for a walk, in order to relax.

If the subject is different, you usually use żeby + a finite verb:

Wychodzę na spacer, żebyś ty się zrelaksował.
– I go out for a walk so that you can relax.

Here the subject is the same (“I go out” / “I relax”), so żeby + infinitive is the natural pattern.

Why do we say zrelaksować się and not just zrelaksować?

In Polish, relaksować się / zrelaksować się is a reflexive verb meaning “to relax (oneself)”.

relaksować się – to relax (imperfective, ongoing process)
zrelaksować się – to relax, to get relaxed (perfective, reaching a relaxed state)

The reflexive pronoun się is part of the verb’s normal form; without it, zrelaksować would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in this sense (there’s no common transitive “to relax something” use in standard Polish here).

So you must include się when you mean “(to) relax (oneself)”.

What’s the difference between relaksować się and zrelaksować się in this sentence? Could we say żeby się relaksować?

Yes, both forms exist, but their aspect is different:

relaksować się – imperfective, focuses on the ongoing process
- Wychodzę na spacer, żeby się relaksować.
  – I go out for a walk in order to be relaxing / to relax (as an ongoing activity).
zrelaksować się – perfective, focuses on reaching a result / state
- Wychodzę na spacer, żeby się zrelaksować.
  – I go out for a walk to (end up) relaxed / to get relaxed.

In everyday speech, żeby się zrelaksować is much more natural here, because the goal of the walk is to end up feeling relaxed, not just to be in the process of relaxing.

Why is się placed before zrelaksować? Can we say żeby zrelaksować się instead?

Both żeby się zrelaksować and żeby zrelaksować się are grammatically correct.

Polish clitics like się often appear just after the first stressed element or after the first verb. In an infinitive phrase:

żeby się zrelaksować – very common, sounds natural and slightly more neutral.
żeby zrelaksować się – also correct; some speakers may feel it’s a bit more formal or slightly marked, but it’s fully acceptable.

In practice, żeby się zrelaksować is the go‑to version in everyday speech.

Could we say Częściej ostatnio wychodzę na spacer… or Wychodzę ostatnio częściej na spacer…? How flexible is the word order?

Polish word order is quite flexible, and all of these variants are possible, but they slightly change emphasis:

Ostatnio częściej wychodzę na spacer… – neutral; “lately” sets the time frame, then “more often” adds the change.
Częściej ostatnio wychodzę na spacer… – puts a bit more emphasis on “more often”, then narrows it to “lately”.
Wychodzę ostatnio częściej na spacer… – starts with the action “I go out”, then modifies it with “lately, more often”; also natural.

All three are understandable and correct; the original version is probably the most neutral and common.

Could we just say Ostatnio częściej wychodzę po pracy, żeby się zrelaksować, without na spacer?

Yes, that’s grammatically correct, but the meaning changes slightly:

wychodzić na spacer – to go out for a walk (specific activity)
wychodzić (alone) – to go out / to leave (more general: leave home, leave work, go out somewhere)

So:

Ostatnio częściej wychodzę na spacer po pracy…
– Lately I go out for a walk after work…
Ostatnio częściej wychodzę po pracy…
– Lately I go out / leave after work more often… (maybe you stay at work late usually, or now you go out with friends, etc.)

If you specifically mean walks, keep na spacer.