Questions & Answers about Mój nowy budzik zawsze dzwoni o wpół do siódmej.
Why does the Polish sentence use siódmej (seven) when the English translation says 'six'?
In Polish, the phrase wpół do literally means 'halfway to'. While English looks back at the hour that just passed ('half past six'), Polish looks forward to the next hour ('halfway to seven').
Why does the word for seven change to siódmej?
It is in the Genitive case. The preposition do (to) always requires the word following it to take the Genitive case. When telling time, you use the ordinal number for the hour, so the base word siódma (seventh) becomes siódmej.
Do I always need to put o in front of wpół do?
Only when you are saying that an event happens at a specific time. The preposition o translates to 'at' for clock times. If you just want to state what time it is right now ('It is half past six'), you drop the o and simply say: Jest wpół do siódmej.
Is the verb dzwoni used for anything besides alarm clocks?
Yes, dzwonić means 'to ring' but it is also the everyday verb for 'to call' on the phone. You will use it when a phone rings, a doorbell rings, or when you are making a phone call yourself.