Breakdown of Wczoraj nie kupiła ołówków.
nie
no / not
wczoraj
yesterday
kupić
to buy (perfective)
ołówek
pencil
Questions & Answers about Wczoraj nie kupiła ołówków.
Why is the word for pencils, ołówków, in the Genitive case here?
In Polish, when you negate a sentence using nie, the direct object automatically changes from the Accusative case to the Genitive case. If she did buy the pencils, it would be kupiła ołówki (Accusative). Since she didn't, it becomes nie kupiła ołówków (Genitive).
Why does ołówek take the -ów ending in the Genitive plural?
Ołówek (pencil) is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant. The standard Genitive plural ending for most masculine nouns is -ów. You add it directly to the stem of the word.
Where did the e from the dictionary form ołówek go?
This word has what we call a 'fleeting e'. When you add a grammatical ending to the word (like the -ów for the Genitive plural), the e in the final syllable drops out. That is why we say ołówków instead of ołóweków.
How do we know this means 'She didn't buy' if the word ona (she) isn't in the sentence?
In Polish, past tense verbs change based on the gender of the subject. The ending -ła in kupiła tells us that a female performed the action. Because the verb itself already gives us this information, the pronoun ona is usually dropped unless you want to add special emphasis.