Word
Teren był trudny, ale chcemy przejechać przez las.
Meaning
The terrain was difficult, but we want to drive through the forest.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Teren był trudny, ale chcemy przejechać przez las.
How does the prefix prze- change the verb jechać here?
Adding the prefix prze- to jechać (to go/drive) creates the perfective verb przejechać, which means to drive through or to cross. In this lesson, you will often see a prze- verb paired with the preposition przez (through) to talk about successfully crossing a space from one side to the other.
Why is las used here without an ending? Doesn't the preposition przez require the Accusative case?
Yes, the preposition przez always takes the Accusative case! However, las (forest) is a masculine inanimate noun. For masculine inanimate nouns, the Accusative form is exactly the same as the Nominative (dictionary) form, which is why it looks like it hasn't changed.
Why are we using the infinitive przejechać instead of conjugating it?
We leave przejechać in its infinitive form because it comes directly after the conjugated verb chcemy (we want). Just like in English (we want TO drive), the second verb in a double-verb chain stays in the infinitive.
The first half of the sentence is in the past tense (był), but the second half is in the present (chcemy). Is this normal?