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Questions & Answers about Sąsiedni korytarz ma niski sufit, ale kolorowe światła dodają mu uroku.
What does sąsiedni mean and how is it pronounced?
sąsiedni means neighboring or adjacent. The letter ą is a nasal vowel pronounced like the on in French bon, so sąsiedni sounds roughly like son-SHED-nee.
Why is sąsiedni in the form sąsiedni and not sąsiednia or sąsiednie?
Because it modifies korytarz, a masculine singular noun. Polish adjectives agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe. The masculine singular nominative ending is -i, giving sąsiedni korytarz.
What case are niski and sufit in after ma and why don’t they change their endings?
The verb ma (“has”) takes its direct object in the accusative. Sufit is an inanimate masculine noun, so its accusative form is identical to the nominative (sufit). The adjective niski likewise stays the same in accusative masculine inanimate singular.
What is the gender and number of światła, and why are both kolorowe and światła in the same form?
The noun światło is neuter. Its nominative (and accusative) plural is światła. Adjectives agree, so kolorowe is the neuter plural form, giving kolorowe światła (“colorful lights”).
Why is dodają used here and what subject does it agree with?
Dodają is the 3rd person plural present tense of dodawać (“to add”). It agrees with the plural subject kolorowe światła, which is what “adds” charm.
What does mu refer to and why is it in this form?
Mu is the short dative pronoun (from niemu), meaning to it or to him. In dodawać komuś czegoś (“to add something to someone/something”), the indirect object goes in the dative, so we use mu to refer back to korytarz.
Why is uroku in the genitive form?
Uroku is the genitive singular of urok (“charm”). When using dodawać in the sense “to add a quality,” Polish requires the direct object in the genitive (dodawać czego? – uroku).
I notice there are no words for the or a. How do I know if it means “the corridor” or “a corridor”?
Polish doesn’t have articles. Context tells you specificity. Sąsiedni korytarz can be translated as the neighboring corridor or a neighboring corridor depending on the situation—most often it’s understood as the corridor already mentioned or known.