Po chorobie muszę bardziej dbać o zdrowie.

After the illness, I have to take better care of my health.

Breakdown of Po chorobie muszę bardziej dbać o zdrowie.

• ja: I
• musieć: to have to
• po: after
• choroba: the illness

Questions & Answers about Po chorobie muszę bardziej dbać o zdrowie.

Why is it po chorobie and not po choroba or po chorobę?

Because the preposition po in the sense of after requires the locative case.

• dictionary form: choroba = illness
• locative singular: chorobie

So:

• po chorobie = after the illness / after an illness

This is a very common pattern:

• po pracy = after work
• po obiedzie = after lunch
• po wakacjach = after the holidays

So here chorobie is simply the correct case form after po.

What exactly does muszę mean, and what verb is it from?

Muszę means I must or I have to.

It comes from the verb musieć = to have to / must.

A few present-tense forms are:

• muszę = I must
• musisz = you must
• musi = he/she/it must
• musimy = we must
• musicie = you all must
• muszą = they must

In this sentence, the subject ja = I is not stated, because in Polish the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Why is there no word for I in the sentence?