Breakdown of Przyszła ledwie garstka gości, z pięć osób.
pięć
five
gość
guest
przyjść
to come, to arrive
osoba
person
Questions & Answers about Przyszła ledwie garstka gości, z pięć osób.
Why does the sentence use z pięć? Doesn't z usually mean "with" or "from"?
In everyday spoken Polish, the preposition z is often used as a particle to mean "about" or "approximately" when placed directly before a number. So z pięć osób simply means "about five people."
If z means "about" here, could I just use około instead?
Yes, but the grammar would change. The formal word około requires the genitive case, so you would have to say około pięciu osób. When you use z for approximation, it acts like a particle and doesn't change the case of the number, allowing pięć to stay exactly as it is.
Why is the verb przyszła in the feminine singular if we are talking about multiple guests?
The grammatical subject of the sentence is garstka (a handful), which is a feminine singular noun. The verb agrees directly with garstka, rather than with the plural gości (guests), which is in the genitive case here answering "a handful of whom?".
What is the base word for garstka?
It is a diminutive of garść, which means "a handful" (literally, what fits in a cupped hand). Garstka is used both literally for small physical amounts and figuratively for a small group of people or things, just like in English.