Breakdown of Boję się wysokości, dlatego nie polecę.
nie
no / not
polecieć
to fly
bać się
to be afraid
dlatego
therefore
Questions & Answers about Boję się wysokości, dlatego nie polecę.
Why does the word wysokość change to wysokości in this sentence?
This is the main rule of this lesson! The verb bać się (to be afraid) always forces the thing you are afraid of into the Genitive case. The Genitive form of the feminine noun wysokość is wysokości.
The English translation says "heights" (plural). Is wysokości plural here?
Actually, no. While we say "heights" in English, Polish usually uses the singular noun wysokość (height) for this phobia. Because it is a feminine noun ending in a consonant, its singular Genitive form happens to be wysokości.
Why do we need się after boję?
The verb "to be afraid" in Polish is bać się. It is an inherently reflexive verb, which means it always needs the pronoun się to be complete. You cannot drop it, even though we don't translate it as "I fear myself" in English.
Why is the verb polecę used instead of lecę or będę lecieć?
Polecę is the future tense of the perfective verb polecieć. The speaker is talking about a specific, single action in the future—refusing to take a particular flight. Będę lecieć (imperfective) would focus on the continuous process of flying, which doesn't fit the context of declining a single trip.