Po studiach chciałabym mieć własne mieszkanie.

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Breakdown of Po studiach chciałabym mieć własne mieszkanie.

• mieć: to have
• po: after
• chcieć: would like (infinitive)

Questions & Answers about Po studiach chciałabym mieć własne mieszkanie.

Why is it po studiach and not po studia or po studium?

Because po meaning after requires the locative case in Polish.

The base form is studia (studies, university education), but after po it changes to studiach.

So:

• studia = base form
• po studiach = after (one’s) studies / after university

Also, studia is a noun that is normally used only in the plural in this meaning, so studiach here is locative plural.

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What exactly does po mean here?

Here po means after in a time sense.

So po studiach means:

• after finishing university
• after my studies
• once I’m done with higher education

Be careful: po can mean different things in other contexts too, such as along, around, or after, depending on the sentence. In this sentence, it clearly means after.

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Why is chciałabym used instead of chcę or chciałam?