Breakdown of W zimie spacery zawsze się skracają.
zawsze
always
w
in / on (a day)
spacer
walk (m)
zima
winter
skracać się
to shorten (to become shorter, imperfective)
Questions & Answers about W zimie spacery zawsze się skracają.
Why use the imperfective verb skracają się rather than the perfective skrócą się?
Because of the word zawsze (always), this describes a repeated, habitual action. Imperfective verbs are used for ongoing processes, habits, and gradual changes. If you were talking about one specific instance where walks will get shorter in the future, you would use the perfective skrócą się.
Why is się needed in this sentence?
In English, the verb shorten can mean you shorten something (transitive) or something gets shorter (intransitive). Polish requires the reflexive się to create the intransitive meaning. Without it, skracają would imply the walks are physically shortening something else!
I've learned to say in winter using the instrumental case: zimą. Is w zimie different?
No, they mean exactly the same thing. You can use the instrumental zimą or the preposition w with the locative case (w zimie) interchangeably. Both are fully correct and very common.
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