Breakdown of Wyślę wnukowi paczkę, bo ma dzisiaj urodziny.
mieć
to have
dzisiaj
today
bo
because
urodziny
birthday
paczka
package
wysłać
to send
wnuk
grandson
Questions & Answers about Wyślę wnukowi paczkę, bo ma dzisiaj urodziny.
Why does the word wnuk change to wnukowi here?
Wnuk is a masculine noun meaning "grandson". Because he is the recipient of the package (the indirect object), he needs to be in the dative case. For most masculine nouns, you form the dative singular by adding -owi, which gives us wnukowi.
The English translation says "my grandson", but where is the word for "my"?
In Polish, possessive pronouns like "my" (mój) are often dropped when the context makes it obvious. Since you are the one doing the sending, it is automatically assumed it is your grandson. You could explicitly say mojemu wnukowi, but it is not necessary here.
Wyślę looks like a present tense verb. How do we know it means "I will send"?
Wyślę comes from the perfective verb wysłać (to send). Perfective verbs focus on the completion of an action, so they do not have a true present tense. When you conjugate them using present tense endings, they automatically express the future tense!
Why does it say ma dzisiaj urodziny instead of "it is his birthday"?
In Polish, you do not say that "it is" someone's birthday. Instead, a person "has" a birthday. The verb ma means "he has". Also, notice that the word for birthday, urodziny, is a plural noun in Polish, so you are literally saying "he has birthdays today".
Why is the word for package paczkę instead of paczka?
Paczka (package) is the direct object in this sentence, because it is the thing being sent. This means it must take the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the ending changes to -ę, becoming paczkę.
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