Breakdown of Po pierwsze musisz dużo czytać.
czytać
to read
dużo
a lot / much
musieć
to have to
po pierwsze
firstly (po pierwsze..., po drugie...)
Questions & Answers about Po pierwsze musisz dużo czytać.
Why is it po pierwsze and how does it work?
As a set phrase, it translates to "firstly" or "first of all." Pierwsze is the neuter form of the ordinal number pierwszy (first). You can use this pattern to make a list of points: po drugie (secondly), po trzecie (thirdly), and so on.
Why is czytać in the infinitive form rather than conjugated?
When you use a modal verb like musisz (you must / you have to), the main action verb that follows stays in its basic dictionary form (the infinitive). So it is musisz (conjugated) plus czytać (infinitive), which is very similar to how it works in English.
Why does the sentence use the imperfective verb czytać instead of the perfective przeczytać?
Because the sentence is giving advice about a general habit or continuous action ("reading a lot"). You use imperfective verbs like czytać for repeated actions, routines, or processes. You would use the perfective przeczytać if you were talking about reading and finishing one specific book.
Does the word dużo change the grammatical case of anything in this sentence?
In this specific sentence, no. Here, dużo (a lot) is simply acting as an adverb describing the verb czytać. However, if you added a noun to say "a lot of books", dużo is a quantity word that would force that noun into the genitive case: dużo książek.
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