Breakdown of Projekt muzeum nad rzeką Wisłą został zatwierdzony przez województwo.
projekt
project
rzeka
river
muzeum
the museum
nad
above, over; by (a body of water) (+ Instrumental)
zostać
to be (passive auxiliary)
przez
by (agent of a passive verb)
zatwierdzić
to approve (officially)
Wisła
Vistula
województwo
province
Questions & Answers about Projekt muzeum nad rzeką Wisłą został zatwierdzony przez województwo.
Why do both rzeka and Wisła change to the Instrumental case (rzeką Wisłą)?
This is the geographic agreement rule. When you use a generic geographic word like rzeka (river) or miasto (city) right before its proper name, the proper name must match the case of the generic word. Because the preposition nad (on/by) requires the Instrumental case for location, both words take the Instrumental endings: nad rzeką Wisłą.
Why doesn't the word muzeum change its ending, since it means "project of the museum" and should be in the Genitive case?
It actually is in the Genitive case here! Muzeum is an exception in Polish declension. For foreign-derived nouns ending in -um, the singular forms are identical across the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative cases. It only changes in the Instrumental and Locative, or in the plural.
Why use został zatwierdzony instead of był zatwierdzony for "was approved"?
In Polish passive voice, using the auxiliary verb zostać (instead of być) shows that the action was a single, completed event (perfective). Został zatwierdzony means it got approved successfully. If you used był, it would sound imperfective, focusing on the background process or a past state rather than the finalized decision.
What case is województwo in here and why?
It is in the Accusative case. In passive sentences, the entity performing the action is introduced by the preposition przez (by), which always requires the Accusative case. Because województwo is a neuter noun, its Accusative form looks exactly the same as its Nominative form.
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