Breakdown of Patrząc przez teleskop, znalazłem nowy księżyc.
nowy
new
znaleźć
to find
przez
through, across
patrzeć
to look
księżyc
moon
teleskop
the telescope
Questions & Answers about Patrząc przez teleskop, znalazłem nowy księżyc.
How is the word patrząc formed here?
It is the adverbial contemporary participle, meaning 'looking' or 'while looking'. To form it, you take the 3rd person plural ('they') form of the present tense verb (patrzą - they look) and simply add -c to the end.
Can I use patrząc if my friend was looking through the telescope while I found the moon?
No. You can only use an -ąc participle when the subject of the main verb and the subject of the participle are exactly the same person. Because the main verb is znalazłem (I found), it must be the speaker who was looking.
Patrząc describes an ongoing action, but the main verb znalazłem (I found) is in the past tense. Is this allowed?
Yes! The -ąc participle does not mean the action is happening right now; it just means it happened at the exact same time as the main verb. It shows that at the moment I found the moon in the past, I was in the middle of looking through the telescope.
Could I also attach the -ąc ending to the perfective verb znaleźć (to find)?
No, you can only create -ąc participles from imperfective verbs like patrzeć. This is because this participle always describes a continuous, ongoing background action, which is the exact job of an imperfective verb.
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