Questions & Answers about Dziecko zrobiło pierwszy krok.
Why is dziecko treated as neuter, even though it refers to a person?
In Polish, grammatical gender and natural gender are not always the same thing. Dziecko is grammatically neuter, so adjectives and past-tense verbs must agree with it as neuter.
That is why you get:
- dziecko zrobiło
- not dziecko zrobił or dziecko zrobiła
This is very common with some nouns referring to young humans, for example niemowlę is also neuter.
Why is the verb zrobiło and not zrobił or zrobiła?
Because this is the past tense, and in Polish past-tense forms agree with the subject in gender and number.
The subject is dziecko, which is:
- singular
- neuter
So the correct past-tense form is zrobiło.
Compare:
- mężczyzna zrobił = a man did/made
- kobieta zrobiła = a woman did/made
- dziecko zrobiło = a child did/made