Breakdown of Mój brat ma coraz więcej długów.
mieć
to have
brat
brother
mój
my
więcej
more
coraz
more and more
dług
debt
Questions & Answers about Mój brat ma coraz więcej długów.
Why is długów in the genitive case here?
It is required by the quantifier więcej (more). In Polish, words expressing quantity (like dużo, mało, więcej, trochę) force the following noun into the genitive case. Since the brother has more of multiple debts, we use the genitive plural form: długów.
How exactly does coraz work in this sentence?
The word coraz is placed right before a comparative adjective or adverb to show an ongoing, progressive change. While English repeats the comparative word (saying "more and more" or "bigger and bigger"), Polish just uses coraz followed by a single comparative word. Therefore, coraz więcej translates to "more and more."
Wait, isn't dług related to the adjective for "long"?
Yes, they share the same root! The noun dług (debt) is very similar to the adjective długi (long). In fact, the nominative plural for "debts" is długi, which looks exactly like the adjective. As a B2 learner, you will often need to rely on sentence structure and context to tell if someone means "debts" or "long".
Since długów ends in a w, is it pronounced with a "v" or an "f" sound here?
It is pronounced like an "f". In Polish, voiced consonants like w become unvoiced (devoiced) when they sit at the very end of a word. So, długów sounds like "długuF".
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