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What does “zostać” mean in Polish?

Zostać means “to stay” — zostać w domu, stay home. But give it a noun in the instrumental case and it flips to “become”: chcę zostać programistką — “I want to become a programmer,” the sentence the Czech learner in this clip drills until it sticks. One verb, two almost opposite ideas — staying put and turning into something new — sorted entirely by what follows it.

The instrumental ending is the switch: programistka (a programmer, feminine) becomes programistką after zostać. The same case follows być in professions: jestem studentką. A third life of the verb: “to be left” — zostało mi pięć złotych, “I have five złoty left.” The clip is also a sweet showcase of how far Czech gets you in Polish — Zuzanka builds her self-introduction in three minutes flat.