Breakdown of Zabójca uciekł z więzienia.
z
from (+ Genitive)
więzienie
prison
uciec
to escape
zabójca
killer (m)
Questions & Answers about Zabójca uciekł z więzienia.
Why does zabójca end in -a if it takes the masculine verb uciekł?
Polish has a group of masculine personal nouns that end in -a in the nominative case, just like mężczyzna (man) or kierowca (driver). Even though they look feminine, they are grammatically masculine. This is why the verb takes the masculine past tense form uciekł, not the feminine uciekła.
The infinitive is uciec (to escape). Why does the past tense have a -k- in uciekł?
Verbs ending in -c in the infinitive usually hide a historical -k- or -g- in their root. In the past tense, this hard consonant reappears before the -ł ending for masculine forms. So uciec becomes uciekł (he escaped), just as móc (to be able to) becomes mógł.
Why do we use the preposition z here instead of od for 'from'?
We use z because the killer is escaping from the inside of a closed space or institution (the prison). If he were escaping from a person or a general direction, you would use od, for example, uciekł od policji (he escaped from the police).
What case is więzienia and how is it formed?
It is in the genitive case, which is required by the preposition z when it means 'out of'. The base noun is więzienie (prison), which is neuter. Neuter nouns ending in -e drop the -e and add -a to form the genitive singular.
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