Breakdown of Czyje stado owiec chodzi pośród tych drzew?
ten
this (m)
chodzić
to walk
czyj
whose
drzewo
tree
owca
sheep
pośród
amidst
stado
herd
Questions & Answers about Czyje stado owiec chodzi pośród tych drzew?
Why do we use the Genitive case for tych drzew?
The preposition pośród (among/amidst) always requires the noun phrase following it to be in the Genitive case. That is why the Nominative te drzewa (these trees) changes to the Genitive plural tych drzew.
Why do the words owiec and drzew lack standard Genitive plural endings like -ów?
Many feminine and neuter nouns form their Genitive plural by simply dropping their final vowel, resulting in a 'zero ending'. Drzewo (tree) becomes drzew. Owca (sheep) drops the a, but an extra e is inserted to make it easier to pronounce, giving us owiec.
The English translation says 'is walking'. Why use chodzi instead of idzie?
Polish distinguishes between walking in one specific direction (idzie) and walking around without a single destination (chodzi). Because the herd is just wandering around among the trees rather than heading from point A to point B, the multidirectional verb chodzi fits perfectly, even if it is happening right now.
Why is 'whose' translated as Czyje here instead of Czyj or Czyja?
The question word must agree in gender, number, and case with the main noun it modifies. Since stado (herd) is a neuter noun in the Nominative case, we must use the neuter form Czyje.
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