Breakdown of W wakacje studenci zostali w domu.
dom
house
w
in / on (a day)
student
student (m)
wakacje
vacation
Questions & Answers about W wakacje studenci zostali w domu.
Why does the verb zostali end in -li?
This is the focus of our current lesson! Because studenci (students) refers to a group of people that includes at least one male, it belongs to the virile (masculine personal) group. Therefore, we use the virile past tense ending -li. If the sentence was about an all-female group of students (studentki), we would use the non-virile ending -ły, making it zostały.
Why is "vacation" translated as the plural-looking word wakacje?
In Polish, wakacje is a word that only exists in the plural form, similar to words like "scissors" or "pants" in English. Even when you are talking about just one single summer break, you always use the plural form.
In this sentence, the word w translates to both "during" (w wakacje) and "at" (w domu). How does that work?
The preposition w generally means "in". When paired with certain time periods, like w wakacje, it translates nicely to "during the vacation" or "in the holidays". When paired with a location, like w domu, it means "in the house" or "at home". Notice that dom changes its ending to domu for locations (the locative case), but wakacje doesn't change here.
How would I change this sentence to say "We stayed at home"?