Breakdown of Musisz podzielić wszystko sprawiedliwie, po dwa kawałki dla każdego.
dwa
two
musieć
to have to
wszystko
everything
dla
for
kawałek
piece
każdy
every, each; everyone
podzielić
to divide
po
each (distributive)
sprawiedliwie
fairly
Questions & Answers about Musisz podzielić wszystko sprawiedliwie, po dwa kawałki dla każdego.
How does the word po change the meaning of dwa kawałki here?
It acts as a distributive preposition meaning 'each' or 'apiece'. Without po, the phrase would just mean 'two pieces for everyone' (which could be misinterpreted as two pieces total). With po, it explicitly means 'two pieces each'.
Doesn't the preposition po usually require the locative case?
It does when it means 'after' or 'around' (like in po obiedzie). However, when used distributively to mean 'each' with numbers 2 and above, po actually requires the accusative case! Since kawałek (piece) is an inanimate masculine noun, the accusative phrase dwa kawałki happens to look exactly like the nominative.
Why did we use the perfective verb podzielić instead of the imperfective dzielić?
You are talking about completing a single, specific action. The focus is on getting the entire amount completely divided up and finishing the task, rather than the ongoing process of dividing it, so the perfective podzielić is the natural choice.
Why is the word każdy changed to każdego at the end of the sentence?
The word każdego is the genitive masculine/neuter singular form of każdy (everyone/each). It takes this form because the preposition dla (for) always forces the word that follows it into the genitive case.
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