Word
Żeby mieć energię, je się zdrowe posiłki.
Meaning
To have energy, one eats healthy meals.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Żeby mieć energię, je się zdrowe posiłki.
mieć
to have
się
oneself
jeść
to eat
żeby
so that, in order to
Questions & Answers about Żeby mieć energię, je się zdrowe posiłki.
How does je się mean "one eats" here?
This is the impersonal się construction. By taking a 3rd-person singular verb like je and adding się, you create a sentence with a generic subject. It translates to "one eats", "people eat", or the general "you eat". It is the standard way to state general rules or common habits in Polish.
What case is zdrowe posiłki in, and why?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb je. A great thing about the impersonal się construction is that it acts just like an active verb. It does not change the case of the object, so you use the exact same case you would use if you said On je zdrowe posiłki.
Why do we use the infinitive mieć right after Żeby?
Żeby means "in order to" or "so that". When expressing a general goal or when the subject doing the action is the same in both halves of the sentence, you simply follow żeby with an infinitive verb. You only conjugate the verb after żeby if you want to say "so that someone else does something".
Why is it energię instead of energia?
The word energię is the accusative form of the feminine noun energia. It takes this form because it is the direct object of the verb mieć (to have). It is the thing being had!