Odliczanie zaczyna się teraz.

now

Breakdown of Odliczanie zaczyna się teraz.

• zaczynać się: to start
• odliczanie: the countdown

Questions & Answers about Odliczanie zaczyna się teraz.

What does odliczanie mean, and what kind of word is it?

Odliczanie is a noun meaning countdown.

It comes from the verb odliczać / odliczyć, which means to count off or to count down depending on context. In this sentence, odliczanie is a verbal noun: a noun built from a verb, similar to English counting in some contexts.

Grammatically, odliczanie is:

• singular
• neuter
• in the nominative case here, because it is the subject of the sentence

So the structure is basically:

Odliczanie = the countdown
zaczyna się = is beginning / begins
teraz = now

Why is it zaczyna and not zaczynają?

Because the subject, odliczanie, is singular.

The verb zaczynać się means to begin / to start, and here it has to agree with the subject:

• odliczanie zaczyna się = the countdown begins
• if the subject were plural, you would use zaczynają się

For example:

• Zawody zaczynają się teraz. = The competitions are starting now.

Since odliczanie is one thing, Polish uses zaczyna się.

What does się do here?