Question 1

How do we form the verbal nouns bieganie and pływanie used in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Both come from imperfective verbs ending in -ać: biegać (to run) and pływać (to swim). For most verbs with this ending, you simply drop the final -ć and add the suffix -nie. This creates a noun that describes the activity itself, exactly like English gerunds ending in -ing (running, swimming).

Question 2

What gender are verbal nouns like bieganie, and how does that affect the sentence?

Accepted Answer

All verbal nouns ending in -nie and -cie are neuter. Because bieganie is the subject of the sentence (in the nominative case), any adjective describing it must be in the neuter nominative form. That is why we use męczące instead of the masculine dictionary form męczący.

Question 3

The word męczące translates to tiring. How is this word formed?

Accepted Answer

It is an active adjectival participle, which just means it is an adjective created from a verb. It comes from the verb męczyć (to tire or exhaust). By replacing the verb ending with -ący, -ąca, or -ące, you get a word describing what something is doing. Here it uses the neuter ending -ące to match bieganie.

Question 4

How does the structure tak samo ... jak work for comparisons?

Accepted Answer

This phrase is used to say that two things are exactly equal, translating to 'as ... as' or 'just as ... as' in English. You place tak samo (exactly the same) before the adjective, which is męczące here, and jak (as) right before the second thing you are comparing it to, which is pływanie.

Bieganie jest tak samo męczące jak pływanie.

Breakdown of Bieganie jest tak samo męczące jak pływanie.

Questions & Answers about Bieganie jest tak samo męczące jak pływanie.

Learn Bieganie jest tak samo męczące jak pływanie and more in Polish