Breakdown of Sympatyczni sportowcy chodzą na basen z przyjacielem.
chodzić
to walk
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
z
with
basen
swimming pool (m)
przyjaciel
friend
sportowiec
athlete
sympatyczny
nice
Questions & Answers about Sympatyczni sportowcy chodzą na basen z przyjacielem.
Why is the adjective sympatyczni instead of sympatyczne?
Because sportowcy (athletes) refers to a group of people that includes at least one male. This makes it a virile (masculine personal) plural noun. In the Nominative case, virile adjectives usually end in -i or -y. If the group was entirely female, you would use the non-virile form sympatyczne.
The singular for athlete is sportowiec. Why does it change so much in the plural sportowcy?
Two things happen here. First, the letter -e- disappears when an ending is added, which is a common pattern in Polish words ending in -ec. Second, because athletes are male people, the noun gets a special virile plural ending. For words ending in -owiec, the plural becomes -owcy.
Why do we use na here instead of do for going to the swimming pool?
Normally, going to a closed building uses do followed by the Genitive case. However, basen (swimming pool) is a common exception that uses na followed by the Accusative case. You just have to memorize it along with other destination exceptions like going to the post office (na pocztę).
Could I use idą instead of chodzą for the verb go?
It depends on the meaning! Chodzą means they go to the pool regularly or as a general habit. If you want to say they are walking to the pool right now at this exact moment, you would use idą.
Why is the word for friend przyjacielem instead of just przyjaciel?
The word z here means with (together with someone). In Polish, when z means with, the noun that follows must take the Instrumental case. For masculine nouns like przyjaciel, you usually add the ending -em to make it przyjacielem.
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