Breakdown of Wczoraj doszliśmy do tego skrzyżowania.
ten
this (m)
do
to
wczoraj
yesterday
dojść
to reach (on foot)
Questions & Answers about Wczoraj doszliśmy do tego skrzyżowania.
Why is the verb doszliśmy instead of just szliśmy?
The prefix do- added to a motion verb like iść changes its meaning to reaching a destination. Because dojść is a perfective verb, doszliśmy emphasizes that we successfully completed the action of walking all the way to the intersection, rather than just being in the process of walking.
Why do we use do both as a prefix on the verb and as a separate preposition?
This is a very common pattern in Polish! When you use a motion verb with the prefix do- (meaning to reach a point), it is almost always followed by the preposition do (to) plus a target destination. You can think of it as saying we 'to-walked to' the intersection.
How do we get the form doszliśmy from the dictionary form dojść?
Verbs ending in -jść are built on the verb iść (to walk by foot), which has an irregular past tense. Just like iść becomes szliśmy (we walked) for a group including at least one male, dojść becomes doszliśmy. If the group was only women, children, or objects, it would be doszłyśmy.
Why do we say tego skrzyżowania instead of to skrzyżowanie?