Breakdown of Żołnierze nie byli ani posłuszni, ani oddani generałowi.
być
to be
nie
no / not
żołnierz
soldier
ani
neither / nor
generał
the general (m)
posłuszny
obedient
oddany
devoted
Questions & Answers about Żołnierze nie byli ani posłuszni, ani oddani generałowi.
Why is generałowi in the dative case here?
In Polish, adjectives describing obedience, devotion, or loyalty (like posłuszny and oddany) require the object receiving that loyalty to be in the dative case. Since both adjectives in this sentence govern the dative, they can perfectly share the single noun generałowi.
Why does the sentence use nie byli if ani... ani... already means "neither... nor"?
Polish requires double negation. Unlike English, where "neither... nor" is negative enough on its own, Polish conjunctions like ani... ani... must be paired with a negated verb (nie byli). Literally, it translates to "The soldiers were not neither obedient nor devoted."
Why do the adjectives end in -ni (posłuszni, oddani) instead of -ne?
The subject, żołnierze (soldiers), is masculine personal. Therefore, the adjectives describing them must also be in the masculine personal (virile) plural form. For adjectives ending in -ny, the plural ending softens to -ni (posłuszny becomes posłuszni, and oddany becomes oddani). If the subject were feminine, neuter, or non-human masculine, you would use -ne.
Could we place generałowi right after posłuszni?
You could, as in ani posłuszni generałowi, ani oddani, but keeping it at the very end is more natural. Because both posłuszni and oddani require the exact same grammatical case (dative), Polish prefers to group the adjectives together and put their shared object at the end of the phrase.
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