Breakdown of Nowa fontanna jest otoczona ławkami.
być
to be
nowy
new
fontanna
fountain
otoczyć
to surround
ławka
bench
Questions & Answers about Nowa fontanna jest otoczona ławkami.
Why does the word otoczona end in -a here?
otoczona is a passive adjectival participle, which means it behaves just like a regular adjective. Because it describes the feminine noun fontanna in the nominative case, it takes the feminine nominative ending -a. Its base masculine form is otoczony.
What verb does the participle otoczona come from?
It comes from the perfective verb otoczyć (to surround). To make it a passive participle, the ending is changed to create otoczony (surrounded). As you can see in this sentence, it then declines to match the noun it describes.
Where is the word for "by" in this sentence? Why is ławkami used?
Polish doesn't use a preposition like "by" or "with" in passive sentences like this. Instead, the thing doing the surrounding (the agent or instrument) is simply put into the instrumental case. ławkami is the instrumental plural of ławka (bench).
If the fountain was surrounded by just one bench, how would ławkami change?
It would become ławką, which is the feminine singular instrumental form. The ending -ami used in the sentence is the standard instrumental plural ending for almost all Polish nouns.
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