Word
Dzieci bawią się widelcami i łyżkami.
Meaning
The children are playing with forks and spoons.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Dzieci bawią się widelcami i łyżkami.
i
and
dziecko
child
bawić się
to play / to have fun (e.g. as children do)
łyżka
the spoon
Questions & Answers about Dzieci bawią się widelcami i łyżkami.
Why do widelcami and łyżkami both end in -ami?
They are in the Instrumental plural. The verb bawić się (to play) requires the Instrumental case for the toys or objects being played with. The great news for the plural is that almost all nouns—whether masculine, feminine, or neuter—take this universal -ami ending.
Why isn't there a word for "with" before the forks and spoons?
In English, we say "play with something." In Polish, the verb bawić się doesn't use the preposition z (with) for objects. Instead, the "by means of" meaning is already built into the Instrumental case of the nouns. Saying bawią się z widelcami would sound like the children and the forks are hanging out together as friends!
The dictionary says "fork" is widelec. Where did the second "e" go in widelcami?
Widelec has what is called a "fleeting e." When you add grammatical endings to many masculine nouns ending in -ec, that last e drops out to make the word flow better. So widelec simply becomes widelcami (rather than "widelecami").
What is the singular form of dzieci?