Breakdown of Mam tę kartkę. Jutro wyślę ją wujkowi.
ona
she / it (f)
mieć
to have
ten
this (m)
jutro
tomorrow
wysłać
to send
wujek
uncle
kartka
card (greeting card, note, piece of paper)
Questions & Answers about Mam tę kartkę. Jutro wyślę ją wujkowi.
Why does the word for uncle end in -owi in the second sentence?
The dictionary form is wujek, but it changes to wujkowi because the uncle is the receiver of the action (you are sending the card to him). This uses the dative case. Most masculine nouns form the dative singular by taking the -owi ending. Notice that the "e" in wujek disappears here, which is a common pattern when adding endings to Polish nouns.
Why do we use the pronoun ją for a greeting card? Doesn't that mean her?
In Polish, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they are replacing. The word for greeting card, kartka, is a feminine noun. Therefore, you have to use the feminine accusative pronoun ją. Even though in English a card is an "it", grammatically in Polish it is a "she".
Why is wyślę translated as a future tense (I will send) without a helper word like będę?
Wyślę comes from a perfective verb, which focuses on the completion of an action. In Polish, when you put a perfective verb into what looks like a present-tense conjugation, it automatically creates the future tense. So, wyślę all by itself means "I will send (and finish sending it)".
Why is tę used instead of ta in the first sentence?
The verb mieć (to have) requires its direct object to be in the accusative case. The basic feminine word for "this" is ta, but it changes to tę in the accusative to match the noun it describes, which has also changed to kartkę.
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