Breakdown of Brzuch mnie boli po obiedzie.
obiad
dinner / lunch (midday meal)
po
after; for (to fetch)
boleć
to hurt, to ache
brzuch
belly, stomach
Questions & Answers about Brzuch mnie boli po obiedzie.
Why does the sentence use "mnie" (me) instead of a word for "my"?
In Polish, we usually don't say "my stomach hurts." Instead, the structure is "the stomach hurts me." The body part (brzuch) is the subject doing the action, and the person feeling the pain (mnie) is the object. You don't need to add the word for "my" (mój) because it is already clear whose stomach is hurting.
Why is the pronoun "mnie" placed before the verb "boli"?
In Polish, pronouns like mnie (me) prefer to sit in the middle of a sentence rather than at the very end. They usually avoid the very first or the very last position. Saying Brzuch boli mnie wouldn't be grammatically wrong, but Brzuch mnie boli sounds much more natural to native speakers.
What case is "obiedzie" and why?
It is in the locative case. The preposition po means "after" when talking about time, and in this meaning, it always forces the noun that follows it to take the locative case. That is why the basic word obiad (lunch) takes a locative ending here.
Why does the spelling change so much from "obiad" to "obiedzie"?
This is a classic spelling change in the Polish locative case. When adding the -e ending to a masculine noun ending in -d, the consonant softens to -dzi. Because of this consonant change, the vowel just before it also shifts from a to e. So, obiad becomes obiedzie.
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