Breakdown of Rozmawialiśmy o ośmiorgu niemowlętach w fotelikach i o tym, jak je zapiąć.
to
this
i
and
jak
how
one
they (non-masculine personal)
rozmawiać
to talk
w
in / on (a day)
o
about
niemowlę
baby, infant
ośmioro
eight (collective)
fotelik
child seat
zapiąć
to fasten
Questions & Answers about Rozmawialiśmy o ośmiorgu niemowlętach w fotelikach i o tym, jak je zapiąć.
Why do we use ośmiorgu here instead of the basic collective numeral ośmioro?
The preposition o (about) requires the locative case. While the nominative is ośmioro, collective numerals take the ending -u in oblique cases (genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative), making it ośmiorgu. Importantly, unlike in the nominative where the noun is forced into the genitive (ośmioro niemowląt), in oblique cases the noun matches the case of the numeral (o ośmiorgu niemowlętach).
Why does the word for infant (niemowlę) change so drastically to niemowlętach?
Neuter nouns ending in -ę that refer to young beings (like niemowlę for infant, or zwierzę for animal) expand their stem by adding -ęt- in all plural cases. The nominative plural is niemowlęta, and adding the standard locative plural ending gives us niemowlętach.
Why does the sentence say o tym, jak instead of translating "and about how" directly as i o jak?
Polish prepositions cannot directly attach to a subordinate clause starting with a question word like jak or co. You need a placeholder pronoun in the correct case to bridge them. Since o requires the locative, we use tym to literally say "and about that, how to fasten them."
What exactly does the pronoun je refer to in jak je zapiąć?
It means "them" and is the accusative plural pronoun for non-masculine-personal nouns. It refers back to the infants (niemowlęta). Conveniently, if the speaker meant fastening the child seats (foteliki), the pronoun would still be je, as both nouns belong to the same grammatical gender category in the plural.
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