Breakdown of Sąsiad nie pozwala nam zbliżać się do swojej własności.
nie
no / not
my
we
do
to
sąsiad
neighbor
swój
one's own
pozwalać
to allow
zbliżać się
to approach (to get closer)
własność
property (ownership)
Questions & Answers about Sąsiad nie pozwala nam zbliżać się do swojej własności.
Why do we use nam instead of nas here?
The verb pozwalać (to allow) requires the person receiving the permission to be in the Dative case. nam is the Dative form of my (we). Think of it as the neighbor not giving permission 'to us'.
Why is it swojej własności instead of jego własności?
Because the neighbor (the subject of the sentence) is the owner of the property. Polish uses the reflexive possessive pronoun swój (and its declined forms, like swojej) when the object belongs to the subject. If you used jego, it would mean he doesn't let us approach some other man's property.
Why is the imperfective verb zbliżać się used instead of the perfective zbliżyć się?
When a verb like pozwalać is negated to express a general rule or prohibition, Polish strongly prefers the imperfective aspect for the following infinitive. It emphasizes that the action of approaching is completely off-limits at any time, rather than just forbidding one specific, completed attempt.
Why does the word for property, własność, end in -i here?
The phrase uses the preposition do, which always requires the Genitive case. The word własność is a feminine noun that ends in a soft consonant sound in its dictionary form. Such feminine nouns typically take an -i ending in the Genitive, becoming własności.
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