Questions & Answers about W zeszłym roku dużo pracowałem.
Why does the phrase use zeszłym roku instead of just zeszły rok?
To say "in" a certain year, Polish uses the preposition w followed by the Locative case. The noun rok (year) changes to roku, and the adjective zeszły (last or previous) takes the Locative masculine ending to become zeszłym.
How do we know the speaker is male in this sentence?
The verb pracowałem ends in -łem, which is the first-person masculine past tense ending. If a woman were saying this, she would use the feminine past tense ending and say pracowałam.
Why do we use the imperfective verb pracowałem instead of a perfective one?
The word dużo (a lot) shows that the focus is on the continuous activity or the sheer amount of time spent working over the year. Imperfective verbs are used to describe ongoing actions, processes, or routines in the past without focusing on a single, completed result.
Is it okay to change the word order and say Dużo pracowałem w zeszłym roku?
Yes, Polish word order is very flexible. Starting the sentence with w zeszłym roku simply sets the time frame right away, which is a very natural way to give a life update, but putting the time at the end is perfectly correct too.
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