W muzeum najciekawsze obrazy przyciągają cichych uczniów z biblioteki.

In the museum the most interesting paintings attract quiet students from the library.

Breakdown of W muzeum najciekawsze obrazy przyciągają cichych uczniów z biblioteki.

• w: in
• uczeń: the student
• z: from
• biblioteka: the library
• cichy: quiet
• muzeum: the museum
• najciekawszy: most interesting
• obraz: the painting
• przyciągać: to attract

Questions & Answers about W muzeum najciekawsze obrazy przyciągają cichych uczniów z biblioteki.

Why is w muzeum using the locative case and not the accusative? How would you say “to the museum” instead?

The preposition w (“in/at”) when indicating a static location requires the locative case. For the neuter noun muzeum this case form is identical to the nominative (muzeum).
If you want to express movement towards the museum, you use do + accusative. Since muzeum is indeclinable in the singular, the accusative is also muzeum, so you say do muzeum (“to the museum”).

What case are najciekawsze obrazy in, and why?

Najciekawsze obrazy is the subject of the sentence, so both the adjective najciekawsze and the noun obrazy are in the nominative plural. Subjects always stand in the nominative.
• obrazy is a plural masculine inanimate noun, whose nominative plural ending is -y
• The superlative adjective najciekawsze agrees in number (plural), gender (masculine inanimate) and case (nominative), hence the ending -e.

How is the superlative najciekawsze formed?

In Polish, most adjectives form the superlative by prefixing naj- to the comparative. For ciekawy (“interesting”):

1. Comparative: ciekawszy (m. s.), or with the neuter/inanimate ending -sze → ciekawsze
2. Superlative: naj-
   • ciekawsze → najciekawsze (“the most interesting”).

Why is cichych uczniów in that form? Why uczniów instead of uczniowie, and cichych instead of cisi?

Cichych uczniów is the direct object, so it takes the accusative case. Polish animate nouns in the plural use the same form for accusative as for genitive:
• uczniowie (nominative plural) → uczniów (genitive/accusative plural for animate)
• The adjective cichy agrees with that form (acc./gen. pl., masculine personal) → cichych.

What case does z biblioteki use and why?

The preposition z (“from/out of”) requires the genitive case. The genitive singular of biblioteka is biblioteki, so z biblioteki means “from the library.”

What person and number is the verb przyciągają, and why does it end in -ają?

Przyciągają is 3rd person plural present tense of przyciągać (“to attract, draw”). For verbs ending in -ać, the standard ending for oni/one is -ają. You attach that ending to the verb stem (przyciąg-) to get przyciągają.

Why is muzeum spelled the same in nominative and locative? Isn’t it declined?

Muzeum is a neuter noun ending in -um, and it is indeclinable in the singular. All its singular cases (nom., gen., dat., acc., inst., loc.) have the same form muzeum. Only the plural changes (e.g. muzea, muzeów).

Is the word order fixed? Can you move parts around?

Polish word order is relatively flexible. The neutral order here is:

1. Adverbial of place (W muzeum)
2. Subject (najciekawsze obrazy)
3. Verb (przyciągają)
4. Object (cichych uczniów)
5. Adverbial of origin (z biblioteki)
   You can shift elements for emphasis, e.g.
   • Cichych uczniów przyciągają w muzeum najciekawsze obrazy z biblioteki. (emphasizes “quiet students”)

When do you use z vs ze before a noun?

The preposition z sometimes becomes ze to avoid awkward consonant clusters. Use:
• z + single initial consonant (e.g. z biblioteki)
• ze + initial clusters of two consonants (e.g. ze szkoły, ze statku)