Breakdown of Dlaczego boisz się tej zmiany?
ten
this (m)
dlaczego
why
bać się
to be afraid
zmiana
change (modification)
Questions & Answers about Dlaczego boisz się tej zmiany?
Why do we say tej zmiany instead of using the Accusative case?
The verb bać się (to be afraid) is a verb that requires its object to be in the Genitive case. Because of this rule, the feminine noun zmiana (change) and its matching pronoun ta (this) both take their Genitive forms to become tej zmiany.
In English we say we are afraid "of" something. Where is the word for "of" in Polish?
Polish doesn't use a preposition here. The relationship is shown entirely by putting the object into the Genitive case. The grammar case itself does the job of the English preposition "of"!
Is się here to mean "you are afraid of yourself"?
No, you aren't scaring yourself! While się is often used to show you are doing an action to yourself, bać się is an inherently reflexive verb. This means the się is just a permanent, required part of the verb and doesn't translate to "oneself" in English.
The word boisz looks very different from the dictionary form bać się. What is the pattern here?
The present tense of bać się has a stem change that you just have to memorize. The stem changes from ba- to boj-. For the "you" form, we add the standard ending to get boisz się (and the "I" form is boję się).
Learn Dlaczego boisz się tej zmiany and more in Polish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free