Breakdown of Proszę powyłączać monitory i światła!
i
and
prosić
to ask
światło
light (noun)
monitor
monitor
powyłączać
to turn off (many things)
Questions & Answers about Proszę powyłączać monitory i światła!
Why use powyłączać here instead of the standard perfective wyłączyć?
This is the distributive prefix po- in action! Because there are multiple monitors and lights to turn off, powyłączać emphasizes that the action is being done to many objects, usually one after another. You could use wyłączyć, but powyłączać sounds much more natural when referring to multiple items scattered around a room.
Since wyłączać is imperfective, does adding po- make powyłączać perfective?
Exactly. Distributive verbs are usually formed by adding po- to the imperfective stem (like wyłączać, not the perfective wyłączyć). However, the resulting verb, powyłączać, is perfective. It focuses on the completion of turning off all those multiple items.
Why is it Proszę powyłączać instead of using an imperative form like Powyłączajcie?
Using Proszę followed by an infinitive is a very common way to give polite but firm instructions, especially to a general audience or a group of people (like in an office or a classroom). Powyłączajcie is the plural informal imperative, which you would only use with a group of people you are on a first-name basis with.
What case are monitory and światła in, and why don't their endings change?
They are in the accusative case because they are the direct objects of the verb. For plural masculine inanimate nouns (like monitor) and plural neuter nouns (like światło), the accusative form is identical to the nominative plural. So, monitory and światła are correct for both the subject and the direct object.
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