Breakdown of Podczas tego ćwiczenia skupiam się na oddechu.
ten
this (m)
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
podczas
during
skupiać się
to focus
ćwiczenie
exercise
oddech
breath
Questions & Answers about Podczas tego ćwiczenia skupiam się na oddechu.
Why is it tego ćwiczenia after podczas?
The preposition podczas (during) always requires the Genitive case. Ćwiczenie (exercise) is a neuter noun, so its Genitive form is ćwiczenia, and the pronoun to (this) changes to tego.
Could I use w trakcie instead of podczas in this sentence?
Yes, you could say w trakcie tego ćwiczenia, which means exactly the same thing. Both podczas and w trakcie are followed by the Genitive case and are used interchangeably to mean "during" or "in the course of".
Why does na oddechu use the Locative case? Doesn't na sometimes take the Accusative?
While na takes the Accusative when talking about motion to a physical place, here it is tied to the verb. The phrase skupiać się na (to focus on) strictly requires the Locative case. The Locative form of the masculine noun oddech (breath) is oddechu.
Why use the verb skupiam się rather than skupię się?
Skupiam się comes from the imperfective verb skupiać się, which describes an ongoing or habitual action ("I am focusing"). Skupię się is the perfective version, which means "I will focus" as a completed future action. Because the sentence describes what is happening continuously during an exercise, the ongoing imperfective form is needed.
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