Breakdown of Czym się interesujesz?
interesować się
to be interested in (+ Instrumental)
czym
with what, in what, by what (Instrumental of co)
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Polish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Czym się interesujesz?
Why is it Czym instead of Co for "what"?
The verb interesować się (to be interested in) requires the thing you are interested in to be in the Instrumental case. Czym is the Instrumental form of the word co (what).
Why do we need the word się here?
In Polish, the base verb interesować means "to interest" someone else. To say that you are interested in something, you add the reflexive pronoun się. You can think of it as saying "With what do you interest yourself?".
Why does the verb end in -ujesz?
The dictionary form of this verb is interesować. Verbs that end in -ować follow a special pattern: the -ować part changes to -uj- in the present tense. Then we add the standard "you" (singular) ending -esz, making it interesujesz.
I don't see words for "are" or "in" here. How does that work?
Polish handles this differently than English. You don't need a preposition like "in" because the Instrumental case (used in Czym) takes care of that connection. Also, Polish doesn't use helper verbs like "are" or "do" to form questions; the single verb interesujesz already means "are you interested".