W styczniu wracam do pracy po krótkim urlopie.

Because after w meaning in with a month name, Polish uses the locative case.

• dictionary form: styczeń = January
• locative form: styczniu

So:

• w styczniu = in January
• w maju = in May
• w grudniu = in December

This is a very common pattern with months in Polish.

Wracam is the 1st person singular present tense of wracać = to return / to be returning.

Polish often uses the present tense of an imperfective verb for a planned or expected future event, especially when there is a time expression like w styczniu.

So W styczniu wracam do pracy is natural Polish for something like:

• I’m going back to work in January
• In January I go back to work

A more explicitly future form would be wrócę, from the perfective verb wrócić:

• W styczniu wrócę do pracy

That is also possible, but wracam can sound a bit more like a plan or arrangement already in view.

Because Polish usually drops subject pronouns when they are already clear from the verb ending.

The ending -am in wracam already tells you the subject is I.

So:

• wracam = I am returning / I return

You would add ja only for emphasis, contrast, or clarification:

• Ja wracam do pracy, ale on jeszcze nie.
  I’m going back to work, but he isn’t yet.

With wracać or wrócić, Polish normally uses do + genitive to mean back to a place or destination.

So:

• do = to
• praca = dictionary form
• pracy = genitive singular

That gives:

• wracam do pracy = I’m returning to work

This is a set pattern:

• wracam do domu = I’m returning home
• wróciłem do szkoły = I returned to school

Here po means after, and in this meaning it takes the locative case.

So:

• krótki urlop = a short leave / a short vacation
• locative: krótkim urlopie

Both words change:

• krótki → krótkim
• urlop → urlopie

So:

• po krótkim urlopie = after a short vacation / after a short leave

This is an important vocabulary point.

Urlop usually means leave from work, especially time off that an employee takes. It fits this sentence very well because the speaker is going back to work afterward.

Wakacje usually means:

• school holidays
• summer break
• sometimes vacation in a broader, more everyday sense

So in this sentence, urlop sounds more precise and natural than wakacje.

Because Polish has no articles. There is no direct equivalent of a or the.

So do pracy can mean:

• to work
• to the workplace
• sometimes effectively back to the job

The exact meaning depends on context. Polish speakers do not need a separate word like the here.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English word order because case endings show grammatical relationships.

The sentence:

• W styczniu wracam do pracy po krótkim urlopie.

is natural and clear. It puts the time expression w styczniu first, which gives it some emphasis.

Other possible orders include:

• Po krótkim urlopie wracam do pracy w styczniu.
• Wracam do pracy w styczniu po krótkim urlopie.

These are understandable, but they may sound slightly different in emphasis or flow. The original version is very natural.

No. In Polish, month names are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence.

So you write:

• w styczniu
• w lutym
• w marcu

not:

• w Styczniu

This is different from English, where January is always capitalized.