Breakdown of Ziewałem całą godzinę, bo nie zmrużyłem oka.
nie
no / not
bo
because
cały
whole, entire
godzina
hour; o'clock
Questions & Answers about Ziewałem całą godzinę, bo nie zmrużyłem oka.
Why is całą godzinę in the accusative case here without a preposition?
In Polish, you can express continuous duration—how long an action lasted—by putting the time phrase directly into the accusative case, without any preposition. This is the "bare accusative." While you could say przez całą godzinę (for a whole hour), dropping przez is very common and sounds completely natural, especially with imperfective verbs like ziewałem.
What is the literal translation of nie zmrużyłem oka?
Literally, it translates to "I didn't squint an eye" or "I didn't narrow an eye." The verb zmrużyć usually means to squint, but the full phrase nie zmrużyć oka is a fixed idiom that equates perfectly to the English "not sleep a wink."
Why does the word for 'eye' take the form oka instead of oko here?
This is a great refresher on the Genitive of Negation. Normally, a direct object like "eye" would take the accusative case (which is oko for a neuter noun). However, because the verb is negated by nie, the direct object must flip to the genitive case. The genitive form of oko is oka.
Why is ziewałem imperfective, but zmrużyłem perfective?
Ziewałem is imperfective because it describes an ongoing, continuous action taking place over a stretch of time (a whole hour). Zmrużyłem, on the other hand, is perfective. Even though it is negated, it refers to the failure to achieve a single, specific result: the momentary action of closing your eyes to finally fall asleep.