Breakdown of Te dzieci biegają dookoła huśtawki i się gonią.
i
and
ten
this (m)
dziecko
child
się
oneself
biegać
to run
dookoła
around
gonić
to chase
huśtawka
the swing
Questions & Answers about Te dzieci biegają dookoła huśtawki i się gonią.
Why is the word for swing spelled huśtawki instead of huśtawka?
The word dookoła (around) requires the noun that follows it to be in the Genitive case. Since huśtawka is a feminine noun ending in -a, its Genitive form ends in -i, making it huśtawki.
Could I use biegną instead of biegają here?
No, biegają is much better here. Polish has two types of verbs for motion. Biegną is used for running in one specific direction toward a goal. Because the children are running around the swing in circles or randomly, you need the multidirectional verb biegają.
Doesn't się mean oneself? How does się gonią translate to chasing each other?
You are right that się often makes a verb reflexive (doing an action to oneself). However, with plural subjects, się is frequently used to show a reciprocal action, meaning the subjects are doing it to each other. Here, się gonią simply means they are chasing each other.
Why is it te dzieci instead of ci dzieci? Aren't children people?
Even though children are people, the plural noun dzieci is grammatically treated as non-masculine-personal (sometimes called non-virile). Because of this, it must be paired with te instead of the masculine-personal pronoun ci.
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