Breakdown of Dlaczego ci pracownicy zostają w biurze?
ten
this (m)
w
in / on (a day)
biuro
office
pracownik
employee
dlaczego
why
zostawać
to stay (imperfective)
Questions & Answers about Dlaczego ci pracownicy zostają w biurze?
Why does the verb zostać look like zostają here?
This is actually the imperfective verb zostawać (to stay, to be staying). We form it from the perfective zostać by inserting the -awa- suffix. Since the action is ongoing, we need the imperfective form. In the present tense, verbs ending in -awać drop the -wa- and take -j- endings, giving us zostają.
Why is the word for 'these' ci instead of te?
Pracownicy (employees) is a masculine personal noun, meaning it refers to a group of people that includes at least one man. In the plural nominative case, masculine personal nouns require the special pronoun ci, whereas all other nouns take te.
The singular word for employee is pracownik. Why does the plural end in -cy instead of -ki?
Masculine personal nouns ending in -k undergo a sound change in the plural, where the k softens to c and the ending becomes -y. Therefore, pracownik becomes pracownicy.
Why does the word biuro change to biurze?
The preposition w (in) requires the Locative case when describing a physical location. For neuter nouns like biuro, we add an -e ending. This forces the consonant r to soften to rz, resulting in w biurze.
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