Breakdown of Odnalazłem dowód, że urodził się ósmego stycznia tysiąc osiemset pięćdziesiątego roku.
że
that
rok
year
styczeń
January
ósmy
eighth
dowód
proof
tysiąc
thousand
urodzić się
to be born
osiemset
eight hundred
pięćdziesiąty
fiftieth
odnaleźć
to find (track down, after a search)
Questions & Answers about Odnalazłem dowód, że urodził się ósmego stycznia tysiąc osiemset pięćdziesiątego roku.
Why is there no w before the date, and why is the year in the Genitive (pięćdziesiątego roku)?
When you state a full, exact date that includes the day, the entire date shifts into the Genitive case to answer the question "when?". Because the day (ósmego) triggers this Genitive structure, you drop the preposition w and the year must also match in the Genitive. If you only mentioned the year, you would use the Locative case with w (w tysiąc osiemset pięćdziesiątym roku).
Why don't tysiąc and osiemset change their endings to match the Genitive case of the year?
When reading years in Polish, only the tens and units are treated as declinable ordinal numbers. The thousands and hundreds remain in their base, undeclined cardinal form. Therefore, only pięćdziesiątego takes the Genitive ending, while tysiąc osiemset stays exactly the same.
What is the difference between odnalazłem and znalazłem in this context?
Both are perfective verbs meaning "I found," and you could grammatically use znalazłem here. However, odnalazłem implies finding something that was specifically lost, hidden, or searched for over a long period. It adds a stronger sense of discovery or recovery to finding the proof.
Why does dowód look like it is in the Nominative case if it is the direct object of the sentence?
It is actually in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb odnalazłem. However, because dowód is an inanimate masculine noun, its Accusative form is identical to its Nominative form.
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