Breakdown of Po co poszkodowany dzwonił do adwokata w nocy?
co
what
dzwonić
to call
w
in / on (a day)
do
to
po
after; for (to fetch)
noc
night
adwokat
lawyer (advocate, attorney)
poszkodowany
victim
Questions & Answers about Po co poszkodowany dzwonił do adwokata w nocy?
Why does poszkodowany act as a noun here when its ending looks like an adjective?
This is a substantivized participle, which is the focus of your current lesson. The word poszkodowany is technically a passive participle meaning harmed or injured. In this sentence, it drops the noun it would normally describe and acts as a noun itself, meaning the harmed person or the victim. Even though it acts like a noun, it still changes its endings exactly like an adjective.
Could I start this sentence with dlaczego instead of po co?
Yes, but it changes the nuance slightly. The word dlaczego asks for the cause or reason, whereas po co asks for the purpose or goal. Using po co specifically asks what the victim wanted to achieve by making a phone call at such a late hour.
Why is the lawyer in the form adwokata instead of the dictionary form adwokat?
The verb dzwonić pairs with the preposition do to indicate who you are calling. The preposition do always forces the following noun into the genitive case. Because adwokat is a masculine animate noun, it takes the -a ending in the genitive.
Since noc is a feminine noun, why does w nocy end in -y instead of a typical feminine locative ending?
While most feminine nouns end in -a in their basic form and take -e in the locative case, noc is one of the few feminine nouns that end in a consonant. For these consonant-ending feminine nouns, the locative case takes the -y or -i ending.
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