Word
Ta restauracja zatrudnia czterech kucharzy.
Meaning
This restaurant employs four cooks.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ta restauracja zatrudnia czterech kucharzy.
ten
this (m)
restauracja
restaurant
zatrudniać
to employ
kucharz
cook
Questions & Answers about Ta restauracja zatrudnia czterech kucharzy.
Why use czterech kucharzy instead of cztery kucharze?
Because kucharz (cook) is a masculine personal noun (referring to a male person). When counting 2, 3, or 4 men, you must use the special virile numbers dwóch, trzech, or czterech. In this structure, the number forces the noun that follows it into the Genitive plural case, which gives us kucharzy.
Why does the Genitive plural kucharzy end in -y instead of the common -ów?
While many masculine nouns add -ów in the Genitive plural, nouns that end in a 'soft' or 'historically soft' consonant like -rz, -sz, or -cz usually take -y or -i. Since kucharz ends in -rz, its Genitive plural is kucharzy.
Why is czterech kucharzy in the Genitive case if it is the direct object of the sentence?
The verb zatrudniać (to employ) takes the Accusative case for its direct object. However, for masculine personal nouns and their numbers, the Accusative form is identical to the Genitive form. So czterech kucharzy is acting as the Accusative object here, even though it looks exactly like the Genitive.
What if the restaurant employed four female cooks?