Learn Polish: Jeśli twój laptop działa wolno, musisz zaktualizować system, żeby skończyć projekt. - If your laptop is slow, you must update the system to finish the project.

Word

Jeśli twój laptop działa wolno, musisz zaktualizować system, żeby skończyć projekt.

Meaning

If your laptop is slow, you must update the system to finish the project.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Polish

Lesson

Purpose clauses (żeby)

Breakdown of Jeśli twój laptop działa wolno, musisz zaktualizować system, żeby skończyć projekt.

Questions & Answers about Jeśli twój laptop działa wolno, musisz zaktualizować system, żeby skończyć projekt.

Why is żeby followed by the infinitive skończyć here?

Żeby expresses purpose, meaning "in order to". Because the person doing both actions is the same (you must update the system, and you will finish the project), Polish simply uses żeby followed by the infinitive verb skończyć.

The English translation says the laptop "is slow", but Polish uses działa wolno. Could I say jest wolny?

You could, but native speakers prefer to describe how devices function using the verb działać (to work or function). Therefore, a laptop "works slowly" (działa wolno) rather than "is slow". Notice that wolno is an adverb here.

Both zaktualizować (to update) and skończyć (to finish) are perfective verbs. Why?

Both of these actions are viewed as single, completed goals. You need to fully complete the update in order to fully complete the project. That is why perfective verbs are used, rather than their imperfective equivalents which would just mean spending time on the process.

Are system and projekt in their dictionary (nominative) forms here?

They are actually in the accusative case because they are the direct objects receiving the actions of the verbs. However, because system and projekt are masculine inanimate nouns, their accusative forms are identical to their dictionary forms.