Breakdown of Pamiętam, że babcia jadywała obiad dopiero o szesnastej.
obiad
dinner / lunch (midday meal)
babcia
the grandmother
że
that
o
at (time)
pamiętać
to remember
szesnasty
sixteenth
dopiero
not until / only just
jadywać
to eat (habitually)
Questions & Answers about Pamiętam, że babcia jadywała obiad dopiero o szesnastej.
How does jadywała differ from just saying jadła?
Jadła is the regular imperfective past tense, meaning she ate or was eating. Jadywała uses the frequentative suffix -ywać to specifically emphasize a repeated, habitual action in the past. It translates best to 'used to eat' or 'would eat', showing this was a regular routine.
What is the infinitive of jadywała and how is it formed from the basic verb 'to eat'?
The infinitive is jadywać. To form it, we take the past-tense root of jeść (which is jad-, as seen in jadł) and add the frequentative suffix -ywać. Because it describes an ongoing habit, frequentative verbs are always imperfective.
Why is dopiero translated as 'only' here instead of tylko?
Tylko means 'only' in the sense of limitation or exclusion (like 'only one apple'). Dopiero means 'only' or 'not until' in relation to time or sequences. It implies that four PM is quite late for lunch, or later than one might generally expect.
Why do we say o szesnastej and what noun is implied here?
When talking about clock time in Polish, we use the preposition o plus the locative case of an ordinal number. It is short for o szesnastej godzinie (at the sixteenth hour). You must use the feminine form of the ordinal number because the implied word godzina (hour) is feminine.
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