Breakdown of Ta nowa pielęgniarka w szpitalu pomaga starszej pacjentce.
ten
this (m)
nowy
new
w
in / on (a day)
szpital
hospital
starszy
older
pomagać
to help (imperfective)
pacjentka
female patient
pielęgniarka
the nurse
Questions & Answers about Ta nowa pielęgniarka w szpitalu pomaga starszej pacjentce.
Why do we say starszej pacjentce instead of starsza pacjentka?
The verb pomagać (to help) always requires the person receiving the help to be in the Dative case. Because of this, both the adjective and the noun must change into their Dative forms.
What is the rule for making feminine adjectives Dative, like starszej?
To form the Dative singular for a feminine adjective, you replace the usual Nominative -a ending with -ej. So, the basic form starsza (older) drops the -a and becomes starszej.
Where did the "c" come from in the word pacjentce?
The dictionary form of this noun is pacjentka. When we put feminine nouns ending in -ka into the Dative case, the k softens and changes to a c before we add the -e ending. It is a common spelling change that makes the word easier to pronounce.
Why is it w szpitalu instead of w szpital?
The preposition w (in) requires the Locative case when you are describing a static location. For many masculine nouns like szpital (hospital), the Locative ending is -u, which gives us w szpitalu.
Does starszej just mean "older", or is there another meaning?
Literally, it is the comparative form of stara (old), meaning "older". However, in Polish, using the word for "older" is the standard, polite way to refer to someone who is "elderly" or a "senior citizen". Calling a patient stara pacjentka (old patient) would sound very rude!
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