Breakdown of Szliśmy prosto przez las i nagle się zgubiliśmy.
i
and
iść
to go
las
forest
przez
through, across
Questions & Answers about Szliśmy prosto przez las i nagle się zgubiliśmy.
Why doesn't szliśmy look anything like its infinitive form iść?
The verb iść (to walk, to go on foot) is highly irregular in the past tense. Its stem changes completely to sz-. The ending -liśmy tells us that 'we' were walking, and that the group included at least one male.
How would this change if it was a group of women saying 'we were walking'?
If the group was entirely female, the verb would change to szłyśmy. The masculine personal ending -liśmy is used when there is at least one man in the 'we' group, while -łyśmy is used for groups of women. Likewise, zgubiliśmy would change to zgubiłyśmy.
Why do we use the imperfective verb szliśmy in the first half, but the perfective verb zgubiliśmy in the second half?
This is a classic storytelling pattern. Szliśmy (we were walking) is imperfective because it describes an ongoing background action. Zgubiliśmy (we got lost) is perfective because it describes a sudden, completed event that interrupted the walk, which is emphasized by the word nagle (suddenly).
What case is las in after the word przez?
It is in the accusative case. The preposition przez (through) always requires the accusative. Because las (forest) is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its basic dictionary form.