Breakdown of Dzieci pamiętają swoje dzieciństwo.
dziecko
child
pamiętać
to remember
swój
one's own
dzieciństwo
the childhood
Questions & Answers about Dzieci pamiętają swoje dzieciństwo.
How do we get dzieci from dziecko?
The plural of dziecko (child) is highly irregular. Instead of following the normal rules for neuter nouns, the word completely changes its ending to become dzieci (children). This is one of a few common nouns in Polish that completely change their shape in the plural!
Why does the sentence use swoje instead of ich for 'their'?
Swoje is a reflexive possessive pronoun that means 'one's own'. In Polish, when the possessor is the subject of the sentence (the children are remembering their own childhood), you must use a form of swój. If you used ich, it would mean they are remembering some other people's childhood.
Why is the form exactly swoje here, rather than swojego or swoją?
The pronoun must match the noun it describes (dzieciństwo) in gender, number, and case. Dzieciństwo is a neuter noun, and here it is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb pamiętają. The accusative neuter singular form of the pronoun is swoje.
Is the word dzieciństwo related to the word for children?
Yes! Just like in English where we add '-hood' to 'child' to get 'childhood', Polish uses the suffix -ństwo to make abstract nouns out of people. Adding it to the root of dzieci gives you dzieciństwo.
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