Breakdown of Od czasu do czasu odwiedzam babcię.
babcia
the grandmother
odwiedzać
to visit (people) / to visit (a place)
od czasu do czasu
from time to time
Questions & Answers about Od czasu do czasu odwiedzam babcię.
Why does the phrase od czasu do czasu use the word czasu instead of the dictionary form czas?
The prepositions od (from) and do (to) both require the Genitive case. Because of this, the masculine noun czas (time) takes the Genitive ending -u. The whole expression translates perfectly word-for-word to "from time to time".
I've also learned the verb zwiedzać for "to visit". Why is odwiedzam used here?
In Polish, there are two different verbs for "to visit" depending on what you are visiting. You must use odwiedzać when visiting people (like babcię), and zwiedzać when visiting places or sightseeing (like a city or a museum).
Why does the word for grandmother end in -ę (babcię) here?
Babcię is the direct object of the verb odwiedzam (I visit), which means it must take the Accusative case. For feminine nouns that end in -a in their basic dictionary form (babcia), the ending changes to -ę in the Accusative.
The translation says "my grandmother", but I don't see the word for "my" (moją) in the Polish sentence. Is it implied?
Yes! In Polish, possessive pronouns are usually dropped when it is obvious from the context whose family member or body part you are talking about. You could say odwiedzam moją babcię, but it sounds much more natural to native speakers to leave the pronoun out.
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