Log inSign up

Niestety nie mógł przyjść, ale miał ważny powód.

Niestety nie mógł przyjść, ale miał ważny powód.
Unfortunately he couldn't come, but he had an important reason.
From Lesson 152:The past tense of móc (mógł, mogła, mogli)·Polish

Questions & Answers about Niestety nie mógł przyjść, ale miał ważny powód.

Why is it mógł with an ó, and would this change if a woman couldn't come?
Yes! The verb móc (to be able to) has a vowel change in the past tense. For a masculine subject like "he", it uses ó, becoming mógł. But for feminine and neuter subjects, as well as plurals, the stem uses a regular o. So if "she" couldn't come, it would be nie mogła przyjść.
The verb miał means "he had", coming from the dictionary form mieć. Why did the e change to an a?
Just like móc changes its vowel in the past tense, mieć also has a stem alternation. Before the masculine -ł ending, the e changes to an a, making it miał. If we were talking about a group of men, the vowel would change back to an e, becoming mieli.
How do we know the sentence means "he" couldn't come if the word on (he) is missing?
In Polish, the subject pronoun is usually dropped because the verb gives it away. The past tense ending -ł in both mógł and miał tells us that a single male is the subject. If you added on, it would sound unnaturally emphatic.
Why use przyjść (to come) instead of a basic walking verb like iść?
przyjść is a perfective verb that specifically focuses on the completed result of arriving at a destination. iść just focuses on the ongoing process of walking. Since the sentence is about him failing to complete the action of showing up, przyjść is the natural choice.
What case is ważny powód (important reason), and why doesn't it have a special ending?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of miał (he had). However, powód is a masculine inanimate noun. In Polish, the accusative case for masculine inanimate nouns looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form (nominative case). That is why the ending doesn't change here.

Learn Niestety nie mógł przyjść, ale miał ważny powód and more in Polish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Polish →