Breakdown of Zacząłem oszczędzać gotówkę, odkąd bilet miesięczny stał się drogi.
bilet
the ticket
drogi
expensive
gotówka
the cash
oszczędzać
to save
zacząć
to start
odkąd
since
miesięczny
monthly
stać się
to become
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Questions & Answers about Zacząłem oszczędzać gotówkę, odkąd bilet miesięczny stał się drogi.
What does zacząłem mean, and what tense is it?
zacząłem is the first person singular past tense of the perfective verb zacząć. It means I started or I began. The perfective aspect indicates that the action of starting took place at a specific point in time.
Why is oszczędzać in the infinitive here?
After a perfective verb of beginning like zacząłem, Polish uses the infinitive of an imperfective verb to express what action was initiated. So zacząłem oszczędzać literally means I started (to) save, showing that saving is the activity you began.
What does gotówkę mean, and why is it in the accusative case?
gotówkę is the accusative singular of gotówka (cash). Since oszczędzać takes a direct object, that object—gotówkę—appears in the accusative case. The phrase oszczędzać gotówkę means to save cash.
What is the function of odkąd in this sentence?
odkąd means since when introducing a temporal clause. It signals the starting point in time from which the main clause’s action takes place. Here it introduces bilet miesięczny stał się drogi: “since the monthly ticket became expensive.”
Why is there a comma before odkąd?
In Polish, a comma is used to separate the main clause from a subordinate clause introduced by conjunctions like odkąd. It clarifies that odkąd bilet miesięczny stał się drogi is a dependent time clause.
What does bilet miesięczny mean, and what case is it in?
bilet miesięczny means monthly ticket or monthly pass. It is in the nominative case because it functions as the subject of the subordinate clause bilet miesięczny stał się drogi.
Why is stał się used instead of był or jest?
stać się means to become, emphasizing a change of state. Saying bilet miesięczny stał się drogi highlights that the ticket wasn’t expensive before but turned expensive. był or jest would merely describe its state without underlining that change.
Why is drogi in the nominative rather than instrumental?
With stać się, predicative adjectives can appear in the nominative. Here drogi agrees in gender (masculine) and number (singular) with bilet. Although an instrumental form (drogim) is also possible, the nominative is common and perfectly correct in this context.
Could the word order be different?
Yes. Polish word order is flexible. You could say:
Odkąd bilet miesięczny stał się drogi, zacząłem oszczędzać gotówkę.
Both orders are acceptable; the original simply presents the main action first, followed by the temporal background.