W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.

In the desk drawer I keep notebooks and old cinema tickets.

Breakdown of W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.

• w: in
• i: and
• do: to
• trzymać: to keep
• zeszyt: the notebook
• kino: the cinema
• bilet: the ticket
• stary: old
• biurko: the desk
• szuflada: the drawer

Questions & Answers about W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.

Why is it w szufladzie and not w szuflada or w szufladę?

The preposition w can take two different cases:

• Locative: when something is in / inside a place (static position)
• Accusative: when something is into a place (movement)

In this sentence nothing is moving; the notebooks are simply located in the drawer, so you need the locative case:

• szuflada (drawer) – basic (nominative) form
• w szufladzie – locative singular (feminine noun ending in -a)

If you talked about putting something into the drawer (movement), you would use the accusative:

• Wkładam zeszyty do szuflady. – I am putting notebooks into the drawer.

So here, because it’s a location, w szufladzie (locative) is correct.

Why do we say szufladzie biurka instead of just szuflada biurko?

Polish does not form noun-noun compounds the way English does (like desk drawer). Instead, it uses the genitive case to express relationships such as possession or “part of something”.

• szuflada biurka literally means the drawer *of the desk*.
• biurko (desk) – nominative singular
• biurka – genitive singular

In the sentence, w szufladzie biurka = in the drawer of the desk.

You cannot simply put two nouns side by side (szuflada biurko) to mean desk drawer; you must mark one of them (here, biurko) in the genitive: szuflada biurka.

Why is the order W szufladzie biurka trzymam... and not Trzymam... w szufladzie biurka?

Both orders are grammatically correct:

• W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.
• Trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina w szufladzie biurka.

Polish word order is relatively flexible. The difference is mainly about emphasis and style:

• Starting with W szufladzie biurka puts focus on where you keep these things. It sounds a bit more descriptive, almost like “As for the desk drawer, in there I keep…”.
• Ending with w szufladzie biurka sounds more neutral, closer to English “I keep notebooks and old cinema tickets in the desk drawer.”

So the given version slightly emphasizes the location first, but both are fine.

What is the difference between trzymam and mam here? Could you say Mam zeszyty w szufladzie biurka?

Yes, you can say:

• Mam zeszyty w szufladzie biurka.

But trzymam and mam are not identical:

• mam = I have / I own
  Focus on possession.
• trzymam = I keep / I store / I hold
  Focus on where/how you keep something, often suggesting a deliberate choice of place.

So:

• Mam zeszyty w szufladzie biurka. – I have notebooks (and they happen to be in the drawer).
• W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty... – I keep/store the notebooks there on purpose.

In this context, trzymam is a bit more natural, because the sentence is about where you keep things.

What form and case is zeszyty, and why does it look the same as the basic plural form?

• zeszyt – notebook (nominative singular)
• zeszyty – notebooks (nominative plural)

In the sentence, zeszyty is in the accusative plural, functioning as the direct object of trzymam (I keep what? → notebooks).

For masculine inanimate nouns like zeszyt, the accusative plural is the same form as the nominative plural:

• nominative plural: zeszyty
• accusative plural: zeszyty

So it looks like the “dictionary” plural, but grammatically here it is accusative plural.

Why is it stare bilety, not stary bilety or starzy bilety?

There are two things going on: gender/animacy and case agreement.

1. bilet – ticket

   • gender: masculine inanimate
   • plural: bilety

2. The adjective stary (old) must agree with bilety in:

   • number: plural
   • gender/animacy: masculine inanimate plural
   • case: accusative plural (because it’s part of the object of trzymam)

For masculine inanimate plural in the accusative, the adjective takes the ending -e:

• stare bilety – old tickets

Forms you mentioned:

• stary bilety – wrong (mixed singular adj + plural noun)
• starzy bilety – wrong (adj form used for male persons, not inanimate things)

So stare bilety is the correct agreement.

What exactly does bilety do kina mean? Why do kina and not do kino or na kino?

bilety do kina literally means tickets to the cinema, and in practice it means cinema tickets.

• do always takes the genitive case.
• kino – cinema (nominative singular)
• kina – genitive singular

So do kina is required by the preposition do.

Use:

• bilet do kina – a ticket to the cinema (entrance ticket to the venue)
• bilet na film – a ticket for a (specific) film

You do not say do kino (wrong case), and na kino is generally wrong in this meaning.

Here do kina shows the destination/purpose: tickets for going to the cinema, even though in this sentence you are just storing them.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” (articles) in this sentence?

Polish simply does not use articles like English the, a, an.

• W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.

can mean, depending on context:

• I keep *notebooks and old cinema tickets in the desk drawer.*
• I keep *the notebooks and the old cinema tickets in the desk drawer.*
• even some notebooks and some old cinema tickets.

Definiteness or indefiniteness is usually understood from:

• context
• word order
• sometimes demonstratives (e.g. te zeszyty = these notebooks)

But there is no separate grammatical category of articles to mark this.

Why is there no ja (“I”) before trzymam? How do I know it means “I keep”?

In Polish, subject pronouns (like ja, ty) are usually dropped, because the verb ending already shows the person.

• trzymam – 1st person singular (I keep / I hold)
• trzymasz – you keep
• trzyma – he/she/it keeps

So:

• (Ja) trzymam zeszyty.
  Normally you just say Trzymam zeszyty.

You use ja mainly for emphasis or contrast:

• To ja trzymam zeszyty w szufladzie, a nie ty. – It’s *me who keeps the notebooks in the drawer, not you.*

Here, there is no special emphasis, so ja is omitted.

Why is it w szufladzie, but we would say na biurku for “on the desk”?

Polish distinguishes clearly between in and on:

• w
  • locative → in / inside
    
    • w szufladzie – in the drawer
    • w szafie – in the wardrobe
• na
  • locative → on / on top of
    
    • na biurku – on the desk
    • na stole – on the table

A drawer is an enclosed space → w szufladzie (in the drawer).
The working surface of a desk is a flat top → na biurku (on the desk).

So you say:

• W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty. – I keep notebooks in the desk drawer.
• Na biurku trzymam lampkę. – I keep a lamp on the desk.

Can the adjective go after the noun, like bilety stare instead of stare bilety?

In normal, everyday Polish, adjectives almost always come before the noun:

• stare bilety, nowe zeszyty, duże biurko.

Putting the adjective after the noun (e.g. bilety stare) is:

• rare
• feels poetic, archaic, or strongly stylistic

So in standard speech and writing you should use:

• stare bilety do kina, not bilety stare do kina.

What cases are used for the main nouns in this sentence, and why?

Sentence: W szufladzie biurka trzymam zeszyty i stare bilety do kina.

Main nouns and their cases:

1. szufladzie – locative singular

   • required by the preposition w (location: in the drawer)

2. biurka – genitive singular

   • szuflada biurka = drawer of the desk (possession/“of” relationship)

3. zeszyty – accusative plural

   • direct object of trzymam (I keep what? → notebooks)

4. bilety – accusative plural

   • direct object of trzymam (I keep what? → tickets)

5. kina – genitive singular

   • required by the preposition do (tickets to the cinema)

So the sentence combines:
locative (place), genitive (possession/purpose), and accusative (objects of the verb).