Breakdown of Co byś zrobił jako miliarder?
co
what
zrobić
to do / to make (someone something)
jako
as (in the role of)
by
would (free conditional particle: można by, trzeba by)
miliarder
billionaire
Questions & Answers about Co byś zrobił jako miliarder?
Why is it Co byś zrobił instead of Co zrobiłbyś?
In Polish conditionals, the particle by and its personal endings (like -ś for 'you') are highly mobile. While Co zrobiłbyś? is grammatically correct, it is much more natural in everyday speech to attach byś to the first stressed word in the sentence. Question words like Co act as strong magnets for this particle.
Since the sentence means 'what would YOU do', why is the verb zrobił in the third-person masculine form?
The conditional mood is built using the third-person past tense form of the verb (zrobił) plus the conditional particle and a personal ending. Because the -ś ending detached and moved to Co to form Co byś, the verb is left looking like the 'he' form. However, the personal ending on byś is what actually tells us the subject is 'you'.
We normally use the instrumental case for roles and professions. Why is miliarder in the nominative case here?
It is true that you use the instrumental case after the verb 'to be' for professions, but the word jako (meaning 'as') follows a different rule. It requires the noun following it to match the case of the person or thing it describes. Since the implied subject 'you' is in the nominative case, miliarder simply stays in the nominative.
How would this sentence change if I were asking a woman?
You would change the verb to its feminine past tense form and use the feminine equivalent of the noun. The sentence would become Co byś zrobiła jako miliarderka? The mobile particle cluster Co byś remains exactly the same.
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