Breakdown of Chcę dostarczyć paczkę do odbiorcy dopiero wieczorem.
chcieć
to want
wieczorem
in the evening
do
to
paczka
package
dopiero
not until / only just
odbiorca
recipient
dostarczyć
to deliver
Questions & Answers about Chcę dostarczyć paczkę do odbiorcy dopiero wieczorem.
The English translation says "I don't want to", but the Polish sentence starts with Chcę (I want). Why is there no negative word here?
This is the magic of the word dopiero! In English, we often use a negative verb with "until" (like "I don't want to deliver it until..."). In Polish, dopiero already carries the meaning of "not earlier than" or "only as late as". Because dopiero itself limits the time, the verb remains positive. You are literally saying "I want to deliver it only-as-late-as the evening."
Could I use tylko (only) instead of dopiero here?
No, because tylko just means "only" in a general sense or for quantities. When you are talking about time and want to express that something is happening later than expected ("only then" or "not until"), you must use dopiero.
Why is the word for recipient odbiorcy here instead of odbiorca?
The preposition do (to) always requires the noun following it to be in the Genitive case. The base word is odbiorca (recipient). Even though it describes a male person, it ends in "-a", so it takes feminine-style endings. Just like the feminine word praca becomes do pracy, odbiorca becomes do odbiorcy.
Why is wieczorem in the Instrumental case here?
In Polish, times of day are put into the Instrumental case to say "in the" or "during the" that time. The base word is wieczór (evening), and adding the Instrumental ending gives us wieczorem (in the evening). You will see the same pattern with words like rankiem (in the morning) or nocą (at night).
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