Breakdown of Niech ja się tym zajmę.
to
this
ja
I
niech
let
zająć się
to take care of, see to (perfective, + Instrumental)
Questions & Answers about Niech ja się tym zajmę.
How does niech create a command here, since zajmę just means 'I will take care of'?
To make a first-person singular command ('Let me...'), Polish pairs the particle niech with the regular first-person verb form. Because zająć się is a perfective verb, we use its future tense form, zajmę. If it were an imperfective verb, you would use the present tense.
Polish usually drops subject pronouns like ja. Why is it included in this sentence?
While subject pronouns are typically dropped in Polish, adding ja is extremely common and natural after niech for first-person imperatives. It adds a slight emphasis, politely contrasting yourself with someone else ('Let me do it, instead of you'), and helps the sentence flow better.
Why is the word for 'this' in the instrumental case (tym) instead of the accusative?
The verb zająć się (to take care of, to deal with) specifically requires its object to take the instrumental case. Therefore, the basic pronoun to must become tym.
Could I change the word order and put się at the end, like: Niech ja tym zajmę się?
No, that would sound unnatural. The reflexive pronoun się is a short, 'weak' word that prefers to anchor itself in the middle of a clause. It generally avoids the very beginning or the very end of a sentence, making its second-position placement right after ja the most natural choice here.
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