Breakdown of Spotkanie jest w piątek o trzeciej.
być
to be
w
in / on (a day)
spotkanie
meeting (n)
piątek
Friday
o
at (time)
trzeci
third
Questions & Answers about Spotkanie jest w piątek o trzeciej.
Why do we use w for "on Friday"? Doesn't it usually mean "in"?
Yes, w usually means "in". However, to say "on" a certain day of the week, Polish always uses w followed by the Accusative case. For piątek (Friday), the word doesn't change spelling because non-living masculine nouns look the same in the Accusative case as they do in the dictionary.
Why do we use trzeciej instead of the normal number trzy (three)?
For clock times, Polish uses ordinal numbers (like first, second, third) instead of counting numbers (like one, two, three). You are essentially saying "at the third".
Why does the word for "third" end in -ej here?
To say "at" a specific hour, you use the preposition o, which requires the Locative case. Because the hidden word for "hour" (godzina) is feminine, the feminine ordinal number trzecia (third) takes the feminine Locative ending -ej, becoming o trzeciej.
Is there a word for "o'clock" in this sentence?
It is completely left out! In Polish, the word for hour or o'clock is godzina. You could technically say o godzinie trzeciej, but in everyday speech it is almost always dropped. Just saying o trzeciej makes it perfectly clear you are talking about the time.
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