Breakdown of Zawsze drętwieją mi ręce, kiedy długo śpię.
ja
I
spać
to sleep
zawsze
always
długo
for a long time
kiedy
when
ręka
hand, arm
drętwieć
to go numb
Questions & Answers about Zawsze drętwieją mi ręce, kiedy długo śpię.
Why does this sentence use mi ręce instead of moje ręce?
This is the dative of inalienable possession. When something happens to body parts, Polish prefers using a short dative pronoun like mi (to me) rather than a possessive adjective like moje (my). The sentence is literally saying that the hands are going numb to you.
What is the subject of drętwieją if the sentence is about me?
The subject is ręce (hands), which is in the nominative case. Even though the hands belong to you, they are the ones performing the action of going numb. Therefore, the verb drętwieją is in the third-person plural to agree with the plural noun ręce.
Does ręce refer to just hands or whole arms here?
What is the infinitive of drętwieją?
The infinitive is drętwieć (to go numb). It belongs to a group of verbs ending in -eć that describe a gradual change of state or becoming something. These verbs typically take the -eją ending in the third-person plural, just like siwieć (to go gray) becomes siwieją.
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