Breakdown of Prawie skończyliśmy grę, gdy zadzwonił telefon.
my
we
skończyć
to finish
gra
the game
prawie
almost
gdy
when
zadzwonić
to ring
telefon
the phone
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Questions & Answers about Prawie skończyliśmy grę, gdy zadzwonił telefon.
What does prawie mean?
prawie means “almost.” It’s an adverb used to show that an action came very close to happening or being completed.
Why is the verb skończyliśmy in the past tense, and what does the ending -liśmy indicate?
skończyliśmy is the past tense, first person plural form of skończyć. The ending -liśmy tells you that the subject is we (my) and that at least one member of the group is masculine. If the group were all feminine, you’d say skończyłyśmy.
Why is the perfective verb skończyć used here instead of the imperfective kończyć?
The perfective aspect (here skończyć) presents finishing as a bounded, completed event—even if in this sentence it was only “almost” completed. Using the imperfective kończyć would focus on the ongoing process (“we were finishing”). With prawie, perfective shows “we nearly brought it to completion.”
Why is grę in the accusative case?
grę (the game) is the direct object of skończyć (“to finish something”). In Polish, direct objects take the accusative.
What is the role of gdy in this sentence?
gdy is a conjunction meaning “when,” introducing a subordinate (time) clause. It links the main action (“we almost finished the game”) with the interrupting action (“the phone rang”).
What is the difference between gdy and kiedy?
Both translate as “when,” but:
- gdy is slightly more formal or literary.
- kiedy is more common in everyday speech.
In most cases they’re interchangeable, though gdy often appears in written or narrative contexts.
Why is there a comma before gdy?
Because gdy introduces a subordinate clause. Polish grammar requires a comma to separate the main clause from the dependent clause.
Why does zadzwonił agree with telefon in the singular masculine form?
zadzwonił is past tense, third person singular masculine. telefon is a masculine noun in the nominative case, so the verb must match its gender and number.
Why doesn’t zadzwonić need an object or preposition here—how does it differ when saying “to ring” vs. “to call someone”?
When you say telefon zadzwonił (“the phone rang”), zadzwonić is intransitive: the phone itself is the subject performing the action. To express “to call someone,” you use zadzwonić do kogoś (preposition do + genitive), which is a different construction.