Breakdown of Mama kazała dzieciom pilnować chomika, kiedy sprzątała pokój.
ona
she
dziecko
the child
sprzątać
to clean
pokój
the room
Questions & Answers about Mama kazała dzieciom pilnować chomika, kiedy sprzątała pokój.
Why is it kazała dzieciom pilnować chomika and not a structure with żeby?
Polish often uses kazać + someone in the dative + infinitive to mean to tell/order someone to do something.
So:
- Mama kazała dzieciom pilnować chomika = Mom told the children to watch the hamster
The pattern is:
- kazać + komu? + infinitive
- komu? = the person receiving the order, in the dative case
You can also make similar sentences with żeby, but kazać + infinitive is very common and natural here.
For example:
- Kazała mi czekać. = She told me to wait.
- Kazał im wyjść. = He told them to leave.
Why is dzieciom used instead of dzieci?
Because dzieciom is the dative form of dzieci.
With kazać, Polish uses the pattern:
- kazać komuś coś zrobić = to tell someone to do something
So here:
- dzieciom = to the children
Compare:
- dzieci = children
- dzieciom = to the children
A native English speaker often expects the person after told to look like a direct object, but in Polish this verb requires the dative, not the accusative.
Why is it chomika and not chomik?