Breakdown of Od tej pożyczki zapłacono wysokie odsetki.
ten
this (m)
wysoki
tall / high (of a fee/price)
zapłacić
to pay (perfective)
od
from
pożyczka
loan
odsetki
interest (financial)
Questions & Answers about Od tej pożyczki zapłacono wysokie odsetki.
Why does zapłacono end in -no instead of a normal past tense ending?
The -no ending forms the impersonal past tense. It shows that an action was completed in the past, but it doesn't specify who did it. While the English translation uses the passive voice ("was paid"), the Polish form functions more like an active verb meaning "unspecified people paid."
Is wysokie odsetki in the nominative case because it's the subject of "was paid"?
No, it is actually in the accusative case, acting as the direct object! Because zapłacono acts like an active verb ("someone paid"), the thing being paid is still the object. The accusative plural for non-masculine-personal nouns like odsetki looks exactly the same as the nominative, which makes it easy to confuse with an English-style passive subject.
Why do we use od (from) to mean "on" this loan?
Prepositions often don't translate word-for-word. In Polish, when you are talking about paying interest, taxes, or fees generated by something, you use od plus the genitive case. So "interest on a loan" is literally expressed as "interest from a loan" (odsetki od pożyczki).
Why is "interest" translated to a plural word (odsetki)?
In Polish financial contexts, "interest" is almost always a plural noun (odsetki). The singular form, odsetek, exists, but it usually means "a percentage" or "proportion" of a group, rather than the money charged on a loan.
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