Breakdown of Rozmawiałem z kimś o tej książce.
książka
book
ta
this (f)
rozmawiać
to talk
z
with
ktoś
somebody
o
about
Questions & Answers about Rozmawiałem z kimś o tej książce.
Why does the word for "someone" change to kimś here?
After the preposition z (meaning "with"), Polish requires the Instrumental case. The basic word for "someone" is ktoś, and its Instrumental form is kimś.
Why is rozmawiałem used instead of a perfective verb like porozmawiałem?
Rozmawiać (imperfective) focuses on the process or the general fact that a conversation happened. In Polish, when you just want to state that a conversation took place, the imperfective is the most natural choice. You would use the perfective porozmawiać to emphasize completing a specific, usually brief, chat.
Why does książka change to książce in this sentence?
The preposition o (meaning "about") requires the Locative case. For feminine nouns ending in -ka, the k changes to a c in the Locative, so książka becomes książce. The word ta ("this") also changes to its Locative feminine form, tej.
How would this sentence change if a woman were speaking?
The verb rozmawiałem has a masculine past tense ending. A female speaker would use the feminine ending and say Rozmawiałam z kimś o tej książce.
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