Odwaga pomaga mi mówić po polsku.

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Breakdown of Odwaga pomaga mi mówić po polsku.

• pomagać: to help
• mówić: to speak
• po polsku: in Polish

Questions & Answers about Odwaga pomaga mi mówić po polsku.

Why is it odwaga, and what role does that word play in the sentence?

Odwaga means courage and it is the subject of the sentence — the thing doing the helping.

It is in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject of a sentence in Polish. So:

• odwaga = courage
• pomaga = helps
• mi = me / to me
• mówić po polsku = to speak Polish

So grammatically, odwaga is the noun that matches the verb pomaga.

Also, odwaga is a feminine noun, which is why in the past tense you would see feminine agreement, for example odwaga pomogła mi....

Why is it pomaga mi, not something like pomaga mnie?

Because the verb pomagać / pomóc normally takes the dative case for the person receiving help.

So:

• mi = dative form of ja in its short/clitic version
• mnie = can be accusative or dative, but it is the full/stressed form

With pomagać, the normal pattern is:

• pomagać komuś = to help someone

Examples:

• Pomaga mi. = He/she/it helps me.
• Pomaga ci. = He/she/it helps you.
• Pomaga mu. = He/she/it helps him.

So mnie would not be wrong in every situation, but mi is the usual neutral form here.

What is the difference between mi and mnie?