Breakdown of To był początek historycznego wydarzenia.
to
this
być
to be
wydarzenie
event
początek
beginning
historyczny
historical
Questions & Answers about To był początek historycznego wydarzenia.
Why do we use the masculine był if the sentence starts with the neuter word to?
When you use to to say "this is" or "it was", the verb "to be" must agree with the noun that follows it. Since początek (beginning) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine past tense był, not the neuter było.
Why does the phrase end with historycznego wydarzenia instead of the dictionary forms historyczne wydarzenie?
It is in the Genitive case, which is the Polish way of expressing "of". Just like saying "the first of May" requires the Genitive case for the month in your current lesson on dates, saying "the beginning of a historical event" requires the Genitive case here to show that relationship.
How exactly do we form this Genitive ending for a neuter phrase like historyczne wydarzenie?
Neuter nouns ending in -e or -o change their last letter to -a in the Genitive singular, making wydarzenie (event) become wydarzenia. Any adjective describing it takes the ending -ego, turning historyczne (historical) into historycznego.
How is the adjective ending -ego pronounced in historycznego?
It is pronounced as if it had a "v" sound instead of a hard "g". In Polish, the letter g in the adjective ending -ego is almost always pronounced like the English "v", making it sound like "-ewo".
Why isn't the word początek in the Genitive case too?
In Polish, when you construct a sentence like "This is X" or "This was X" using the word to, the noun that immediately follows is the main subject being identified. Because of this, it stays in the Nominative case (the basic dictionary form). Only the phrase that comes after it to show possession ("of a historical event") takes the Genitive.
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