Breakdown of Szef wiedział wszystko, ale pracownicy nic nie wiedzieli.
nie
no / not
wiedzieć
to know
ale
but
szef
boss (m)
pracownik
employee
nic
nothing
wszystko
everything
Questions & Answers about Szef wiedział wszystko, ale pracownicy nic nie wiedzieli.
Why is it wiedział for the boss, but wiedzieli (with an e) for the employees?
This is a great example of the e/a alternation in the past tense! For the verb wiedzieć (to know), the stem changes depending on who you are talking about. In most past tense forms, it uses an a (on wiedział, ona wiedziała, one wiedziały). But for the masculine personal plural (oni), the a changes back to an e, giving us oni wiedzieli.
Why does the sentence say nic nie wiedzieli instead of just nic wiedzieli?
Polish requires double negatives. When you use a negative word like nic (nothing), you must also put nie before the verb. So nic nie wiedzieli literally means they did not know nothing, which is the standard and only correct way to express they knew nothing in Polish.
How does the word pracownik (employee) become pracownicy here?
Pracownicy is the masculine personal plural of pracownik. In Polish, masculine nouns ending in -k often change to -cy in the plural when referring to groups of people that include at least one man.
Could I use znał and znali instead of wiedział and wiedzieli in this sentence?
No, because wiedzieć is used for knowing facts or pieces of information (like knowing everything or nothing). The other verb for to know, znać, is only used for knowing people, places, or being familiar with things like languages or songs.
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