Breakdown of Paleontolodzy twierdzą, że ten szkielet to bardzo stara skamieniałość.
ten
this (m)
bardzo
very
stary
old
to
is (linking copula)
że
that
twierdzić
to claim
paleontolog
paleontologist
szkielet
skeleton
skamieniałość
fossil
Questions & Answers about Paleontolodzy twierdzą, że ten szkielet to bardzo stara skamieniałość.
Does the verb twierdzić always need że to connect to the next clause?
Yes. When expressing a claim with twierdzić (to claim or assert), you connect it to the stated fact using że (that) followed by a normal indicative sentence. Unlike in English, where you can often drop the word 'that' (e.g., 'They claim this skeleton is...'), in Polish the że is strictly mandatory and must be preceded by a comma.
Why does the second part of the sentence use to instead of jest?
We use to here because it equates two Nominative phrases: ten szkielet and bardzo stara skamieniałość. If you used jest, the noun phrase following it would have to take the Instrumental case (ten szkielet jest bardzo starą skamieniałością). Using to is a very natural way to state what something is while keeping both nouns in their base dictionary form.
The word skamieniałość ends in a consonant. Why does it take the feminine adjective stara?
Almost all nouns ending in the suffix -ość in Polish are feminine, despite ending in a consonant rather than the typical feminine -a. Because it is a feminine noun, it requires the feminine forms of any attached adjectives or pronouns, hence stara rather than stary.
Why does paleontolog change to paleontolodzy in the plural?
Paleontolog is a masculine personal noun. In the Nominative plural, these nouns undergo a consonant shift to soften the ending. The -g changes to -dz, and we add the plural ending -y. You will see this exact same pattern in other professions, like biolog becoming biolodzy or psycholog becoming psycholodzy.
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