Widownia zaczęła klaskać po refrenie.

after

Breakdown of Widownia zaczęła klaskać po refrenie.

• zacząć: to start
• refren: the chorus
• widownia: the audience

Questions & Answers about Widownia zaczęła klaskać po refrenie.

What does widownia mean here?

Here, widownia means the audience.

A useful nuance: widownia can also mean the auditorium / the seating area in some contexts, but in this sentence it clearly means the people watching.

So Widownia zaczęła klaskać = The audience started clapping.

Why is it zaczęła and not zaczęli?

Because widownia is a singular feminine noun in Polish.

Even though the audience refers to many people in real life, grammatically it is treated as one collective thing, so the verb agrees with the noun:

• widownia — feminine singular
• zaczęła — past tense, feminine singular

So Polish matches the grammar of the noun, not the number of people inside the group.

What form is zaczęła?

Zaczęła is the past tense of zacząć (to begin / to start), in the:

• 3rd person
• singular
• feminine

That is why it matches widownia.

Related forms:

• zaczął — he/it started
• zaczęła — she/it started
• zaczęło — it started (neuter)
• zaczęli / zaczęły — they started

Why is klaskać in the infinitive?