Breakdown of Czy mogę pomniejszyć to okno w systemie?
to
this
czy
[question particle]
okno
window
w
in / on (a day)
móc
to be able to
system
the system
pomniejszyć
to reduce (scale down or deduct)
Questions & Answers about Czy mogę pomniejszyć to okno w systemie?
How is the verb pomniejszyć formed in this sentence?
It is a factitive verb—a verb that describes causing a change in state or size. It is built from mniejszy, which is the comparative form of the adjective mały (small). By adding the prefix po- and the verb suffix -yć, it becomes a perfective verb literally meaning "to make something smaller" or "to scale down."
The lesson mentions using the prefixes z- or s- for these verbs. Could I use zmniejszyć instead of pomniejszyć here?
You could, but they have a slightly different nuance. Zmniejszyć generally means "to decrease" or "to reduce" (like a price, a volume, or an abstract amount). Pomniejszyć specifically focuses on making an object or image physically or visually smaller (like scaling down a photo, or minimizing a window on a computer screen). For computer interfaces, pomniejszyć is the more precise choice.
Why doesn't the ending of to okno change, even though it's the direct object?
It actually is in the accusative case here, which is the required case for the direct object of the verb pomniejszyć. However, for all neuter nouns (like okno) and their matching demonstrative pronouns (like to), the accusative form happens to be exactly identical to the basic dictionary (nominative) form.
Why does system change to systemie after the preposition w?
The preposition w (in) describes a location here, so it requires the locative case. For masculine inanimate nouns ending in a hard consonant like -m, the locative ending is -ie. Notice that the i in this ending softens the preceding m, changing the pronunciation to sound like "m-ye" at the end.
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