Breakdown of Kierowcy przez godzinę narzekali w korkach.
w
in / on (a day)
kierowca
driver
godzina
hour; o'clock
przez
for (a period of time)
Questions & Answers about Kierowcy przez godzinę narzekali w korkach.
How does przez godzinę work to mean "for an hour"?
In Polish, you express how long an action lasts (duration) by using the preposition przez followed by the Accusative case. Since godzina (hour) is a feminine noun, it takes its standard Accusative ending to become godzinę.
The singular word for driver is kierowca. Why does its plural form kierowcy look like a masculine word?
Even though kierowca ends in "-a" and follows feminine rules in the singular, it is actually a masculine noun because it describes a person. In the plural, it acts like a normal "masculine personal" noun, giving us kierowcy.
Why does the past tense verb end in "-li" (narzekali) instead of "-ły" (narzekały)?
The -li ending is used for the "masculine personal" plural, meaning the group of kierowcy (drivers) includes at least one man. If we were talking about a group of female drivers, the sentence would use the non-masculine past tense ending: narzekały.
I thought korek meant "cork". Why does it mean "traffic jams" here?
You are right! The literal meaning of korek is a "cork" or "plug". However, in everyday Polish, it is the most common word for a "traffic jam" (imagine cars plugging up the street). Here, it is used in the Locative plural form, w korkach, because it follows the preposition w (in) to show location.