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Questions & Answers about Mieszkam obok parku.
Why isn't there a word for "I" before mieszkam?
In Polish, the ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The -am at the end of mieszkam already means "I live." You can say ja mieszkam, but Polish speakers usually drop the ja (I) unless they want to add emphasis.
Why does the word for park change to parku here?
Polish nouns change their endings depending on their role in the sentence (this is called grammatical case). The word obok (next to) always forces the noun that follows it to take the Genitive case. For the masculine word park, that means adding a -u to the end, making it parku.
How do I know whether to add -u or -a to a masculine noun like park?
It is a bit of a memorization game, but there are helpful patterns. Many non-living things (like places, buildings, or concepts) take the -u ending in the Genitive case. Living things (people and animals) almost always take -a. Since park is a place, it takes -u.
Can I use mieszkam to say "I live a happy life"?
No, mieszkam specifically means "I reside" or "I inhabit a place." If you want to talk about being alive or experiencing life, you would use the completely different verb żyć.