Breakdown of Nasz turniej skończy się za trzy godziny.
się
oneself
nasz
our
trzy
three
skończyć
to finish
za
behind; in (time)
godzina
hour; o'clock
turniej
tournament
Questions & Answers about Nasz turniej skończy się za trzy godziny.
Why do we use za to mean 'in' for time expressions here?
In Polish, when you want to say that an event will happen 'in' a certain amount of time from now, you use the preposition za. If you were to literally translate the English word 'in' and use w, it would sound wrong to a Polish speaker. Za is specifically used to point forward to a future moment.
What case is trzy godziny in after the preposition za?
It is in the Accusative case. When talking about time in the future, za always takes the Accusative. For feminine nouns like godzina (hour), the plural Accusative looks exactly the same as the Nominative (dictionary) plural. That is why it stays as trzy godziny.
Why doesn't the verb use będzie to make the future tense here?
The verb skończyć is perfective, which means it describes a single, completed action. Perfective verbs form the future tense simply by adding present tense endings to the stem, without needing the helper word będzie. Therefore, skończy by itself means 'will end'.
What is the purpose of the word się in this sentence?
The word się is a reflexive pronoun. Without it, skończyć means to finish an object (for example, 'I will finish the tournament'). By adding się, the action happens to the subject itself, so turniej skończy się means 'the tournament will end'.
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