Questions & Answers about Mój ślub był czwartego lipca.
Why is the number fourth written as czwartego instead of czwarty?
When expressing an exact date (meaning 'on the fourth'), Polish uses the genitive case for the ordinal number. Czwarty changes to czwartego. Notice that you do not need a preposition like na or w for 'on' - the genitive case does that job for you!
Why does the month lipiec change to lipca?
In dates, the month is also in the genitive case to mean 'of July'. When the base word lipiec takes the genitive ending -a, the last -e- disappears. This 'disappearing e' is a very common spelling rule in Polish.
So to say 'on the [date] of [month]', I just put both words in the genitive case?
Exactly! The formula for specific dates is always the genitive of the ordinal number plus the genitive of the month. Both words work together to express the exact day.
Why do we use był instead of było or była?
The past tense verb must match the gender of the subject. Ślub (wedding) is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine past tense verb był.
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