Breakdown of Owe założenia są naiwne.
być
to be
naiwny
naive
ów
that aforementioned (m) / owa / owe
założenie
assumption
Questions & Answers about Owe założenia są naiwne.
Why is the sentence using owe instead of the more common te for "those"?
Owe is a formal or literary demonstrative pronoun meaning "those." It is the non-masculine-personal plural form of the word ów. While te is standard in everyday speech, you will frequently see ów and its various forms in journalism, literature, or formal essays to refer back to a previously mentioned idea or subject.
How does the noun założenia (assumptions) connect to the verb założyć?
Similar to how verbs of motion take on abstract meanings in this lesson, verbs of placement do too. You likely first learned założyć in the physical sense of putting on clothes. In abstract intellectual contexts, it means "to assume" or "to set up" (like a company). A założenie is its verbal noun, representing a premise that has been mentally "laid down" as the foundation of a thought or argument.
Why do the modifiers owe and naiwne both end in "-e" in this sentence?
They must agree with założenia, which is the plural form of the neuter noun założenie. In the plural, Polish grammar categorizes all abstract concepts, objects, animals, and groups of women as non-masculine-personal. Therefore, they take the non-masculine-personal endings owe and naiwne, rather than the masculine-personal forms owi and naiwni which are strictly reserved for groups containing at least one man.
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