Question 1

Why is there no preposition like przez before cały wieczór?

Accepted Answer

This is the bare accusative of continuous extent, which you are learning in this lesson. To express how long an ongoing action lasted, you can simply put the time phrase in the accusative case. Since wieczór is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative form. Adding przez (przez cały wieczór) is also correct, but dropping the preposition is very common and natural in Polish.

Question 2

Why do we use the preposition nad with the verb ślęczeć?

Accepted Answer

Ślęczeć means to "pore over," "sit hunched over," or "spend a tedious amount of time" working on something. Just like in English where you pore over a book, Polish uses nad (over) to show what you are focusing on. As a preposition of position, nad here requires the instrumental case, which gives us notatkami.

Question 3

What case is czytelni, and why does it end in -ni?

Accepted Answer

It is in the locative case, triggered by the preposition w to describe a fixed location. The nominative form is czytelnia (reading room). Feminine nouns ending in the soft-sounding -nia drop the -a and end in -ni for the locative, dative, and genitive singular.

Question 4

Does the verb form ślęczeliśmy tell us the gender of the people studying?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it does. The -liśmy ending marks the masculine personal (often called virile) form. This means the "we" group included at least one man. If the group had consisted entirely of women, the non-masculine-personal ending -łyśmy would have been used instead, making it ślęczałyśmy.

Ślęczeliśmy nad notatkami w czytelni cały wieczór.

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