Breakdown of Proszę podać swój numer PESEL.
numer
number
swój
one's own
proszę
please; here you are
podać
to hand, to pass; to give (details, a name) (perfective of podawać)
PESEL
the national identification number
Questions & Answers about Proszę podać swój numer PESEL.
Why isn't PESEL declined here, for example to PESEL-u?
Because it immediately follows the classifying noun numer (number). When an acronym acts as a specific name or identifier for a preceding generic noun, the acronym usually stays uninflected in the nominative case.
If I dropped the word numer, what gender is PESEL and how would it decline?
It is masculine inanimate, both because it ends in a consonant and because the core word of the acronym (system) is masculine. Without numer, the sentence is Proszę podać swój PESEL (accusative, which looks identical to the nominative). If you needed it in a different case, you would add a hyphen and an ending, like the genitive PESEL-u or instrumental PESEL-em.
Why does the sentence use swój instead of a formal pronoun like Pana or Pani?
The word swój is a reflexive possessive pronoun meaning 'one's own'. Whenever the person performing the action (providing the number) is the same person who owns the object (the number), swój is the grammatically correct choice. While you might occasionally hear Pana or Pani used here for extreme customer-service politeness, swój is standard and perfectly polite.
Could I use dać instead of podać to mean 'give your number'?
No, dać is primarily used for physically handing over a tangible object. When asking someone to state, supply, or provide spoken or written information like a name, password, or ID number, podać is the natural and correct verb.
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