Breakdown of Czy on pozwala swoim pracownikom pożyczać samochody?
samochód
car
on
he / it (m)
czy
[question particle]
pracownik
employee
Questions & Answers about Czy on pozwala swoim pracownikom pożyczać samochody?
Why is 'his employees' translated to swoim pracownikom?
The verb pozwalać (to allow) requires the person receiving permission to be in the Dative case. Since there are multiple employees, we need the Dative plural. In the Dative plural, almost all nouns take the ending -om (pracownikom), and adjectives or pronouns take -ym or -im (swoim).
Could I say jego pracownikom instead of swoim pracownikom?
If you said jego pracownikom, it would mean he is allowing someone else's employees to borrow cars. We use the reflexive pronoun swój (which becomes swoim here) whenever the object belongs to the subject of the sentence. It translates literally to 'his own'.
The word pożyczać is translated here as 'to borrow'. Doesn't it also mean 'to lend'?
Yes, it means both! In Polish, the verb pożyczać covers both sides of the transaction (borrowing and lending). You have to rely on the context of the sentence to know which one makes sense.
What case is the word samochody in this sentence?
It is in the Accusative plural because it is the direct object of the action (what is being borrowed). For masculine inanimate nouns like samochód, the Accusative plural is exactly the same as the Nominative plural (the basic dictionary form).