Breakdown of W Sylwestra tańczymy całą noc.
tańczyć
to dance
w
in / on (a day)
cały
whole, entire
noc
night
Sylwester
New Year's Eve (m)
Questions & Answers about W Sylwestra tańczymy całą noc.
Why is it w Sylwestra with an -a ending? Isn't Sylwester an inanimate concept?
You are right that New Year's Eve is an event, but grammatically, Polish treats the holiday Sylwester as masculine animate. This is because it originally comes from a person's name (Saint Sylvester). After the preposition w (which takes the accusative case here to point to a specific day), the accusative form matches the genitive, giving us w Sylwestra instead of the regular inanimate form.
Why do we use the preposition w here instead of na? Don't holidays usually take na?
While many major holidays do take na (like na Boże Narodzenie or na Wielkanoc), Sylwester is an exception. It behaves more like days of the week, which also use w (like w piątek). You simply need to memorize w Sylwestra as a set phrase.
What case is całą noc and what is the rule for using it here?
It is in the accusative case. Polish uses the accusative without a preposition to express the duration of an action, answering the question 'for how long?'. Because noc is a feminine noun whose accusative form is identical to its nominative form, only the adjective visibly changes, taking the feminine accusative ending -ą to become całą.
The verb tańczymy is in the present tense. Could this sentence refer to a future plan?
Absolutely. Just like in English, Polish often uses the present tense of imperfective verbs to talk about a confirmed future plan (such as 'We are dancing all night this New Year's Eve'). It can also describe a general yearly tradition. Context tells you which one it is.
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