Breakdown of One szły wzdłuż rzeki na stary most.
on
he / it (m)
stary
old
iść
to go
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
Questions & Answers about One szły wzdłuż rzeki na stary most.
Why is "were walking" translated as szły?
Szły is the past tense of iść (to walk/go) for non-masculine personal subjects. The verb iść is very irregular in the past tense. Because the subject is one (a group of females, children, or objects), we use szły. If it were a single female, it would be ona szła.
What would happen to the verb if there was at least one man in the group?
The pronoun for "they" would change from one to the masculine personal oni, and the verb would change to szli. So, a group of men (or a mixed group) would be oni szli.
Why does the word for river (rzeka) change to rzeki here?
The word wzdłuż means "along" and it always requires the noun following it to be in the Genitive case. For the feminine noun rzeka, the Genitive ending is -i (because the stem ends in the letter k), making it rzeki.
We are showing motion towards the bridge, so why doesn't stary most change its ending?