Breakdown of Uczę się po to, żeby zdać egzamin.
uczyć się
to learn
zdać
to pass
egzamin
exam
po to, żeby
in order to, so that
Questions & Answers about Uczę się po to, żeby zdać egzamin.
Why does this sentence use po to, żeby instead of just żeby?
Both mean "in order to," but adding po to puts extra emphasis on the purpose or goal. It sounds a bit more determined, like saying "The specific reason I am studying is to pass the exam." You could just say Uczę się, żeby zdać egzamin and it would still be perfectly correct.
I thought "to study" was studiować. Why use uczę się here?
In Polish, studiować is strictly used for being an enrolled student at a university or college (like studying law or medicine). For the everyday act of sitting down with books to learn something or prepare for a test, you always use uczyć się.
Does zdać mean "to take an exam" or "to pass an exam"?
It means "to pass." Polish distinguishes the process from the result here. Zdawać is the imperfective verb, meaning to take the test, regardless of the outcome. Zdać is the perfective verb, meaning you successfully completed and passed it. The goal here is specifically to pass.
What case is egzamin in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb zdać. For masculine inanimate nouns like egzamin, the accusative form looks exactly the same as the basic nominative (dictionary) form.