Questions & Answers about Idę do niego.
Why does this mean "to his place" when it literally says "to him"?
In Polish, using the preposition do (to) followed by a person is the standard way to say you are going to that person's house or place. So do niego literally means "to him", but practically it means "to his place".
Why do we have to change the word on (he) here?
The preposition do (to) always requires the word that follows it to take the Genitive case. Because of this, the basic dictionary word on (he) must change to its Genitive form.
Wait, isn't the Genitive form of "he" supposed to be jego or go?
Usually, yes! But whenever a pronoun comes directly after a preposition (like do), Polish adds an n- to the beginning of it to make it easier to pronounce. That is why jego becomes niego here.
Why use idę instead of chodzę for "I am going"?
Polish has two different verbs for going on foot. You use idę when you are walking somewhere right now, in one specific direction. You use chodzę for habits or repeated round trips (like "I go to school every day"). Since this trip is happening right now, we use idę.
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