Breakdown of Odkąd mam pasiekę, muszę być spokojny wbrew swojej woli.
być
to be
mieć
to have
musieć
to have to
spokojny
calm
swój
one's own
odkąd
since
wbrew
contrary to / against (expectations, will)
pasieka
apiary
wola
will
Questions & Answers about Odkąd mam pasiekę, muszę być spokojny wbrew swojej woli.
Why does the feminine noun wola change to woli here?
The preposition wbrew requires the Dative case. The base phrase is swoja wola (one's own will). For feminine nouns ending in -a after a soft consonant like the 'l' in wola, the Dative ending is -i. The pronoun swoja also changes to its feminine Dative form, swojej.
Could I say wbrew mojej woli instead of wbrew swojej woli since the subject is 'I'?
While mojej would be understood, Polish strongly prefers the reflexive possessive pronoun swój (and its forms like swojej) whenever the owner is the subject of the sentence. Using swojej is the most natural way to express 'my own' in this context.
I thought the verb być (to be) took the Instrumental case. Why is it być spokojny (Nominative) here?
When you use a lone adjective to describe the subject with the verb być, the adjective typically stays in the Nominative case. You only use the Instrumental case if there is a noun alongside it. For example, you would use Instrumental if you said muszę być spokojnym pszczelarzem (I have to be a calm beekeeper).
Does odkąd mean 'since' in the sense of 'because' or 'since' in the sense of time?
Odkąd strictly refers to time, meaning 'ever since' or 'from the time that'. If you wanted to say 'since' meaning 'because', you would need to use a different word like ponieważ or skoro.
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