Distributive preposition (po)

Estate Planning

When discussing legal matters like estate planning, you need vocabulary to talk about wills and inheritances.

Our grandfather drew up his will yesterday.
Nasz dziadek spisał wczoraj swój testament.
He left a large inheritance.
Zostawił duży spadek.

When an inheritance (spadek) is divided among the heirs (spadkobiercy), you often describe how things were split:

The heirs divided the estate equally.
Spadkobiercy równo podzielili majątek.

The Distributive Preposition "po"

To specify exactly what each person received—for example, "a house each" or "one plot of land each"—use the preposition po.

For this distributive meaning, po is followed by the Locative case.

Notice how the objects below take their Locative forms (domu, działce, and milionie):

Each heir received one house.
Każdy spadkobierca dostał po domu.
Each son inherited one plot of land.
Każdy syn odziedziczył po działce.
We got one million zlotys each.
Dostaliśmy po milionie złotych.

This pattern works seamlessly with verbs like zostawić (to leave) and przepisać (to sign over) when distributing physical assets:

My father signed over an apartment to each of them.
Mój ojciec przepisał im po mieszkaniu.
Our grandmother left us one painting each.
Nasza babcia zostawiła nam po obrazie.
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