Breakdown of Wczoraj obejrzałyśmy ciekawą wystawę.
ciekawy
interesting
wczoraj
yesterday
wystawa
the exhibition
obejrzeć
to watch (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Wczoraj obejrzałyśmy ciekawą wystawę.
Why is the verb obejrzałyśmy used here instead of oglądałyśmy?
Obejrzałyśmy is the perfective form of the verb. In Polish, you use the perfective aspect to show that an action was completely finished. Because they watched the whole exhibition and the event is over, we use the perfective obejrzeć instead of the imperfective oglądać (which would focus on the process of watching).
What does the -łyśmy ending on obejrzałyśmy tell us about the speakers?
It tells us two things: it is the past tense form for we, and the group consists entirely of females (or at least, no men are present). If there were even one man in the group, the ending would change to -liśmy, making the word obejrzeliśmy.
Why do the words for interesting exhibition change to ciekawą wystawę?
The exhibition is the direct object of the sentence because it is the thing being seen. This means it needs the Accusative case. For feminine nouns that normally end in -a (like wystawa), the ending changes to -ę. Feminine adjectives ending in -a (like ciekawa) change to -ą.
Why isn't the word my (we) used in this sentence?
In Polish, the verb ending itself tells you who is doing the action. The -śmy part of obejrzałyśmy already means we. Adding my at the beginning is grammatically correct but usually left out unless you want to add special emphasis, like pointing out that WE saw it, not someone else.
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