Breakdown of Czy pani wyznaczyła go swoim następcą?
czy
[question particle]
pani
madam / Mrs.
go
him / it
swój
one's own
wyznaczyć
to designate
następca
successor
Questions & Answers about Czy pani wyznaczyła go swoim następcą?
Why is następcą in the Instrumental case here, and where is the Polish word for "as"?
Verbs of naming, electing, and appointing—like wyznaczyć (to designate/appoint)—take the Instrumental case for the role or title being assigned. You don't need a word for "as" (like jako) in Polish when using these verbs; the Instrumental case itself handles that meaning. So, wyznaczyła... następcą directly means "designated... as a successor".
Następca is a masculine noun, but the Instrumental ending in następcą looks feminine. Why is that?
Masculine nouns that end in -a in their base Nominative form (like następca, mężczyzna, or kolega) decline exactly like feminine nouns in the singular. Therefore, they take the typically "feminine" -ą ending in the Instrumental case. However, adjectives modifying them still use masculine endings, which is why we see the masculine Instrumental modifier swoim directly in front of it.
Why do we use swoim instead of pani to mean "your" successor?
The reflexive possessive pronoun swój (here in the Instrumental case as swoim) refers back to the grammatical subject of the sentence. Since the subject is pani, using swoim clearly means "your own". If you used pani następcą, it would sound awkwardly repetitive or could theoretically imply a different woman's successor. As a reliable rule: if the possessor is the subject of the clause, use swój.
Could I put go at the end of the sentence: Czy pani wyznaczyła swoim następcą go?
No, that would sound very unnatural. Short pronouns like go are unstressed "clitics", meaning they cannot stand alone and naturally gravitate to the position immediately following the verb (or early in the sentence). You should avoid putting short pronouns at the very end of a sentence. If you specifically wanted to emphasize "him", you would use the long, stressed form jego instead.
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