Breakdown of Gadaliśmy przez telefon dwie godziny.
telefon
phone
przez
through, across
godzina
hour; o'clock
dwie
two (f)
Questions & Answers about Gadaliśmy przez telefon dwie godziny.
Why use gadaliśmy instead of mówiliśmy or rozmawialiśmy?
Gadać is a colloquial verb meaning to chat. While rozmawialiśmy (we conversed) is perfectly fine and more formal, gadaliśmy gives a casual, friendly feeling, much like 'we chatted' in English. Mówiliśmy means 'we were saying' or 'we spoke', which focuses more on the one-way act of speaking rather than having a two-way conversation.
English says 'on the phone', but why does Polish use przez?
The preposition przez literally means 'through'. In Polish, you communicate through a device, so you talk przez telefon (through the phone) or przez internet (through the internet). Przez requires the accusative case, and since telefon is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form looks exactly like its basic dictionary form.
Where is the word for 'for' in dwie godziny (for two hours)?
In Polish, you can express how long an action lasted simply by stating the time period, without any preposition. You could technically say przez dwie godziny, but it is extremely common and natural to drop przez and just say dwie godziny when talking about the duration of an event.
Why is it dwie instead of dwa?