Breakdown of Szkoła podstawowa trwa osiem lat.
osiem
eight
rok
year
trwać
to last
szkoła podstawowa
primary school
Questions & Answers about Szkoła podstawowa trwa osiem lat.
Why is the word for years lat here instead of lata?
After numbers five and higher, Polish requires the noun to be in the genitive plural case. The word for year, rok, is highly irregular. Its basic plural is lata, and its genitive plural is lat. So, for one year you say jeden rok, for two to four years you use lata (like dwa lata), but for five or more it becomes lat (like osiem lat).
Why is the adjective podstawowa placed after the noun szkoła?
In Polish, adjectives that classify a noun into a specific official type or category usually come right after the noun. Since podstawowa (which literally means basic or foundational) tells us the exact category of the institution, it follows szkoła. Regular descriptive adjectives like good or big would normally come before the noun.
What case is the phrase osiem lat in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case, which is used here to express the duration of time. For the number osiem (eight), the accusative form looks exactly the same as its dictionary form. Remember that it is the number osiem that is in the accusative here, and it forces the following noun (lat) into the genitive plural case.
Can I use trwać to say a task takes me a certain amount of time?
Not quite. The verb trwać specifically means to last or to continue, usually referring to an event or a period of time independently of a person's effort. If you want to say that doing a task takes up someone's time, you would normally use the verb zajmować. For example, To zajmuje mi osiem godzin means that takes me eight hours.
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