Breakdown of Moja siostra i ja szłyśmy do biura, a oni jechali na wycieczkę.
i
and
ja
I
iść
to go
oni
they (masculine personal)
a
and / whereas (contrast)
siostra
sister
mój
my
biuro
office
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
jechać
to travel
do
to
wycieczka
trip
Questions & Answers about Moja siostra i ja szłyśmy do biura, a oni jechali na wycieczkę.
Why is the verb szłyśmy and not szliśmy?
szłyśmy has the non-virile ending -łyśmy, which is used for groups without any men. Because the subject is moja siostra i ja (my sister and I), this ending tells us that the speaker (ja) is also female. If the speaker was male, they would use the virile form szliśmy.
Why does the second part use jechali for "they were going"?
The pronoun oni means "they" for a group that includes at least one male (the virile group). Because of this, the verb must take the matching virile past tense ending -li, making it jechali. If it were a group of only females, children, or objects, the pronoun would be one and the verb would be jechały.
Why does this sentence use two different verbs (szłyśmy and jechali) for "going"?
Polish is very specific about how you travel. szłyśmy comes from the verb iść, which specifically means going on foot (walking). jechali comes from the verb jechać, which means going by some kind of vehicle, like a car, bus, or train.
The English translation says "and they were going", but the Polish word is a. Shouldn't "and" be i?
a is a common Polish word that can mean "and" or "but." It is used specifically when you are contrasting or comparing two different situations. Since the sentence contrasts what the women were doing with what the other group was doing, a is much more natural here than i.
Why is it do biura and not just do biuro?
The preposition do (to/into) always requires the following noun to be in the Genitive case. For the neuter noun biuro (office), the ending changes from -o to -a, making it biura.
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