Breakdown of Tych pięciu ekspertów sprawdzało nowy sondaż.
ten
this (m)
nowy
new
pięć
five
ekspert
expert
sprawdzać
to check (imperfective)
sondaż
the poll
Questions & Answers about Tych pięciu ekspertów sprawdzało nowy sondaż.
Why is the verb sprawdzało in the neuter singular form when the subject is a group of masculine people?
In Polish, when the subject is a quantity of five or more, the grammatical subject is actually the number itself, not the people. The number is treated as a neuter singular concept. Therefore, the past tense verb must take the 3rd-person neuter singular form (sprawdzało) instead of the masculine personal plural (sprawdzali).
Why is the phrase for these experts in the genitive case (tych... ekspertów)?
When using numbers five and above as the subject of a sentence, they force the noun and any adjectives describing that noun into the genitive plural. That is why we use tych (genitive plural of ten) and ekspertów (genitive plural of ekspert).
Why is the number five translated as pięciu here instead of just pięć?
The word pięć changes to pięciu when it is the subject of a sentence and refers to masculine personal nouns (groups containing at least one man). For objects, animals, or groups of only women, you would just use pięć.
Why does nowy sondaż look like it is in the nominative case if it is the direct object being checked?
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb. However, because sondaż (poll) is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form is identical to its dictionary (nominative) form.
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