Breakdown of Miałem sprawdzić to archiwum trzeciego sierpnia dwa tysiące pierwszego roku.
ten
this (m)
dwa
two
rok
year
pierwszy
first
trzeci
third
sprawdzić
to check
sierpień
August
tysiąc
thousand
mieć
to be supposed to
archiwum
archive
Questions & Answers about Miałem sprawdzić to archiwum trzeciego sierpnia dwa tysiące pierwszego roku.
Why is there no preposition w before the date in this sentence?
When you state a full, exact date that includes the day, the entire date phrase is put into the Genitive case, and the preposition w (in/on) is dropped. If you were only mentioning the year, you would use w plus the Locative case (w dwa tysiące pierwszym roku). Because the specific day is included here (trzeciego), the year shifts to the Genitive to match it, and the preposition disappears.
Since the date is in the Genitive case, why is it dwa tysiące instead of dwóch tysięcy?
When expressing years in the 2000s, the words dwa tysiące act as a frozen, indeclinable block. Only the tens and units (in this case, pierwszego) decline into the Genitive. So it is always dwa tysiące, never dwóch tysięcy, when reading a calendar year like 2001, 2015, or 2024. If it were a physical quantity, like two thousand people, it would decline, but years have this special exception.
Does miałem sprawdzić mean 'I had checked' or 'I was supposed to check'?
It means 'I was supposed to check' or 'I was meant to check'. Using the past tense of mieć (to have) followed by an infinitive is the standard way to express an unfulfilled obligation, an expectation, or a plan in the past. Polish does not use this structure to form a past perfect (had done) tense.
What case is to archiwum in here, and why didn't its ending change?
It is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb sprawdzić (to check). However, neuter nouns ending in -um (like archiwum, muzeum, centrum) are indeclinable in the singular. They have the exact same form in all singular cases and only change their endings when pluralized.
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