Blaming with przez
To explain that something bad happened because of someone's fault, use the preposition przez followed by the Accusative case. While przez usually means "through," in this context it translates to "because of" or "due to."
| Everyone knows that you ruined this project because of your laziness. | Wszyscy wiedzą, że zrujnowałeś ten projekt przez swoje lenistwo. |
Expressing incompetence and inattention
When pointing out negative traits like niekompetencja (incompetence) or nieuwaga (inattention), remember that feminine nouns ending in -a change to -ę in the Accusative case.
| Because of your inattention we ruined the whole dinner! | Przez twoją nieuwagę zrujnowaliśmy całą kolację! |
| Our company has a big loss because of their incompetence. | Nasza firma ma dużą stratę przez ich niekompetencję. |
Feminine nouns that end in a consonant, such as nieostrożność (carelessness), do not change their form in the Accusative.
| Because of my carelessness I missed an important message. | Przez moją nieostrożność przegapiłem ważną wiadomość. |
Asking who is at fault and using pronouns
You can ask whose fault caused a problem by pairing przez with the interrogative pronoun czyj (whose) in the correct Accusative form, like czyje for neuter nouns.
| Because of whose laziness is there no coffee in the office? | Przez czyje lenistwo nie ma w biurze kawy? |
You can also point the blame directly at a person or a situation using pronouns like niego (him) or to (this/it).
| This is all because of him, and this loss is very serious. | To wszystko przez niego, a ta strata jest bardzo poważna. |
| Because of this you will fail this exam. | Przez to oblejesz ten egzamin. |
Stubbornness, recklessness, and failures
Other negative traits that often lead to bad outcomes include masculine nouns like upór (stubbornness) and feminine nouns like lekkomyślność (recklessness). You will frequently use these with verbs describing ruined plans, such as failing a test (oblać) or missing an event (przegapić).
| Because of your stubbornness we are not on the guest list. | Przez twój upór nie ma nas na liście gości. |
| Because of recklessness she failed a difficult exam. | Przez lekkomyślność oblała trudny egzamin. |
| Yesterday I failed the exam because of laziness. | Wczoraj oblałem egzamin przez lenistwo. |