Breakdown of Jestem wściekły, bo te majstry nie mogły naprawić dachu.
być
to be
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
móc
to be able to
bo
because
naprawić
to fix (perfective)
dach
roof
majster
foreman
wściekły
furious
Questions & Answers about Jestem wściekły, bo te majstry nie mogły naprawić dachu.
Why is it te majstry nie mogły instead of ci majstrowie nie mogli?
This is the depreciative form in action. Because the speaker is furious, they deliberately use non-masculine-personal (non-virile) grammar for a group of men to show contempt and frustration. They swap out the respectful masculine forms for the non-virile demonstrative te, the non-virile noun majstry, and the non-virile verb mogły.
What is the normal, respectful plural for majster?
The standard, respectful masculine personal plural is majstrowie (or sometimes majstrzy). The form majstry used here is specifically the depreciative plural, which strips away the grammatical "personhood" of the tradesmen to make them sound incompetent.
Why is the roof in the genitive case (dachu) instead of the accusative (dach) when it's the object of naprawić?
This is the "genitive of negation" at work. Even though the action verb naprawić (to fix) is in the infinitive, the main verb governing it (mogły) is negated (nie mogły). In Polish, when the main verb is negated, the direct object of its attached infinitive generally shifts from the accusative to the genitive case.
If a woman were speaking, would the depreciative forms in the second half of the sentence change?
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