Word
On chciał przeczytać tę wiadomość, a oni chcieli wyjść.
Meaning
He wanted to read this message, and they wanted to leave.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of On chciał przeczytać tę wiadomość, a oni chcieli wyjść.
on
he / it (m)
ten
this (m)
chcieć
to want
oni
they (masculine personal)
Questions & Answers about On chciał przeczytać tę wiadomość, a oni chcieli wyjść.
Why does the vowel change from 'a' in chciał to 'e' in chcieli?
This is a special vowel change that happens in the past tense for certain verbs, like chcieć (to want). In the masculine singular, the stem has an 'a' (chciał). But in the masculine personal plural ('they' including at least one man), the stem changes to 'e' before the letter 'l' (chcieli). You will see this 'a' to 'e' swap in other common verbs too, like mieć (to have: miał vs mieli).
Why is it tę wiadomość instead of ta wiadomość?
The phrase 'this message' is the direct object of the verb 'to read', so it must be in the accusative case. The word wiadomość is a feminine noun, and the feminine word for 'this' changes from ta to tę in the accusative case.
If it is in the accusative case, why didn't the ending of wiadomość change?
Most feminine nouns end in '-a' and change to '-ę' in the accusative case. However, wiadomość belongs to a special group of feminine nouns that end in a consonant. For these nouns, the accusative form looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form.
Why does the sentence use a for 'and' instead of i?