Breakdown of Wczoraj zszedłem z tej śliskiej skały.
ten
this (m)
wczoraj
yesterday
z
from (+ Genitive)
zejść
to go down
skała
rock
śliski
slippery
Questions & Answers about Wczoraj zszedłem z tej śliskiej skały.
Why do we have the letter z twice in zszedłem z?
The first z is a prefix on the verb, changing the base motion into a perfective verb meaning to go down. The second z is a separate preposition meaning from or off of. In Polish, it is very common to pair a z- prefixed motion verb with the preposition z to explicitly mark the starting point of the downward motion.
I know the infinitive for to go down is zejść. Why does it start with z- here instead of ze-?
The prefix is technically z-, but it sometimes adds an -e- to make pronunciation easier before tricky consonant clusters. In the masculine past tense zszedłem, the cluster zsz is manageable in Polish so the e is dropped. However, a female speaker would say zeszłam because the zszł cluster would be too hard to pronounce, so the e comes back!
Why are the words tej śliskiej skały in the Genitive case?
They are following the preposition z. When z means from, off of, or down from, it always forces the following noun phrase into the Genitive case. Remember not to confuse this with the preposition z meaning with, which takes the Instrumental case.
Why does the adjective śliskiej end in -iej rather than just -ej?
The base word is śliski (slippery). For feminine Genitive adjectives, the standard ending is indeed -ej (like in tej). But because the stem of śliski ends in k, we must add an i before the e to keep the pronunciation soft. This is a strict spelling rule in Polish: we never write ke or ge, only kie or gie.
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