Breakdown of Te leniwe chłopy nie mogły nic dobrze zrobić.
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
dobrze
well
móc
to be able to
Questions & Answers about Te leniwe chłopy nie mogły nic dobrze zrobić.
Why does this sentence use te leniwe instead of ci leniwi?
This is the depreciative plural (forma deprecjatywna). By using the non-virile (not masculine-personal) demonstrative te and adjective leniwe for a group of men, the speaker is intentionally expressing frustration, contempt, or disrespect. It translates roughly to the tone of "those lazy louts" rather than just "those lazy men".
How is the noun chłopy formed here? Isn't the plural of chłop normally chłopi?
You are exactly right—the standard, respectful plural is chłopi. To create the depreciative form, we swap the masculine-personal ending for the non-virile ending -y. This forces the noun into the same grammatical category as animals or objects, grammatically stripping away their "human/personal" respect.
Why is the verb mogły instead of mogli?
Past tense verbs in the plural must agree with the gender category of the subject. Because the subject te chłopy has been grammatically downgraded to a non-virile form to show contempt, the verb must follow suit. Therefore, we use the non-virile mogły instead of the masculine-personal mogli.
What would this exact sentence look like if the speaker wasn't expressing contempt?
To make it a standard, neutral statement about a group of men, you would use the masculine-personal (virile) forms across the board: Ci leniwi chłopi nie mogli nic dobrze zrobić.