Breakdown of Gdy podróżuję, chętnie poznaję nowych ludzi.
nowy
new
ludzie
people
podróżować
to travel (make a journey)
chętnie
gladly / willingly
gdy
when (conjunction, = kiedy, more written)
poznawać
to get to know
Questions & Answers about Gdy podróżuję, chętnie poznaję nowych ludzi.
How does the verb poznawać fit the -awać imperfective pattern from this lesson?
The root verb is znać (to know). Adding the prefix po- makes it the perfective verb poznać (to meet / to get to know). To make it imperfective again so it can describe a repeated action during your travels, we use the suffix -wać, resulting in poznawać.
If the infinitive is poznawać, why is the form in the sentence poznaję instead of "poznawam"?
Verbs that use the suffix -awać to become imperfective (like dawać, poznawać, wstawać) follow a specific present-tense conjugation rule. They drop the -wa- and insert a -j- before the ending. This is why poznawać becomes poznaję (I get to know), poznajesz (you get to know), and so on.
Why is it nowych ludzi instead of "nowi ludzie"?
The verb poznawać requires its direct object to be in the accusative case. Because ludzie (people) is a masculine personal noun, its plural accusative form looks identical to its genitive form. This gives us nowych ludzi rather than the nominative nowi ludzie.
Could I say lubię poznawać instead of chętnie poznaję to mean I like meeting new people?
Yes, they mean almost the same thing! While lubię poznawać directly translates to "I like to get to know", Polish native speakers very often use the adverb chętnie (gladly / willingly) alongside a verb as a natural way to express that they enjoy doing an action.
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