Word
Zamiast masła dodałem trochę oliwy.
Meaning
Instead of butter, I added a little olive oil.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Zamiast masła dodałem trochę oliwy.
trochę
a little / some
zamiast
instead of
masło
butter
dodać
to add
Questions & Answers about Zamiast masła dodałem trochę oliwy.
Why does the sentence use masła instead of the dictionary form masło?
The preposition zamiast (instead of) always requires the noun that follows it to be in the Genitive case. Since masło is a neuter noun ending in -o, its Genitive form takes an -a, becoming masła.
Why is olive oil also in the Genitive case (oliwy)?
The word trochę (a little) acts as a quantifier that expresses an amount. Just like prepositions of exception or substitution, quantifiers force the noun that follows them into the Genitive case. Therefore, the feminine noun oliwa becomes oliwy.
Is oliwa the general Polish word for cooking oil?
No, oliwa specifically means olive oil. If you wanted to say you added a little of a regular cooking oil, like sunflower or rapeseed oil, you would use the word olej, which would become oleju after trochę.
Why is the perfective verb dodałem used here instead of the imperfective dodawałem?
Adding the oil is framed as a single, completed action in this context (like a step in a recipe), so the perfective verb dodałem is required. Note that a female speaker would say dodałam.