Breakdown of To ten klej, co go dałem robotnikom.
to
this
ten
this (m)
go
him / it
dać
to give
robotnik
worker
co
that, which (relative)
klej
glue
Questions & Answers about To ten klej, co go dałem robotnikom.
How does the co go structure work here?
In casual Polish, the unchanging word co often replaces który (which/that). Because co doesn't change its form to show its grammatical role in the relative clause, we add the personal pronoun go (it) to indicate that the glue is the direct object of the verb dałem (I gave).
What would this sentence look like in standard, formal Polish?
In formal writing or careful speech, you would use który. The sentence would be: To ten klej, który dałem robotnikom. Notice that the pronoun go is dropped because the accusative form of który already shows that the glue is the object being given.
Could I just say To ten klej, co dałem robotnikom without the go?
In very fast, casual speech, native speakers sometimes drop the pronoun if the meaning is completely obvious. However, the standard way to form this colloquial structure requires keeping go. Without it, the clause lacks a grammatical marker showing that the glue received the action.
Why does the word for workers end in -om here?
Robotnikom is in the dative case (celownik). The verb dawać (to give) requires the dative case for the recipient of the action. The ending -om is the standard dative plural ending for almost all nouns in Polish, regardless of their gender.
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