Breakdown of Nauczyciel pytał, ale nic nie wiedziałem.
nie
no / not
wiedzieć
to know
ale
but
nauczyciel
teacher
nic
nothing
pytać
to ask (a question)
Questions & Answers about Nauczyciel pytał, ale nic nie wiedziałem.
Why does pytał end in -ł but wiedziałem ends in -łem?
In the Polish past tense, the ending tells you who is doing the action. The -ł in pytał is the 3rd-person ending for a masculine subject, used here for "he" (the teacher). The -łem in wiedziałem is the 1st-person ending, meaning "I" (a man speaking).
Does wiedziałem tell us if the speaker is a man or a woman?
Yes! The -łem ending is specifically used by a male speaker. If a woman were saying this sentence, she would use the feminine ending -łam and say wiedziałam.
Why does it say nic nie? Doesn't that mean "nothing didn't"?
In Polish, double negation is completely normal and grammatically required. When you use a negative word like nic (nothing), you must also put nie (not) before the verb. So nic nie wiedziałem literally translates as "I didn't know nothing", which is just how you say "I didn't know anything" in Polish.
Why isn't the word for "I" (ja) in the second half of the sentence?
Polish usually drops subject pronouns like ja (I) or ty (you) because the verb's ending does the heavy lifting. The -łem on wiedziałem makes it completely obvious that "I" am the one who didn't know, so adding ja is unnecessary unless you really want to emphasize it.
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