Breakdown of Psy mają świetny słuch i duże uszy.
pies
dog
i
and
mieć
to have
duży
big
świetny
great
ucho
ear
słuch
hearing
Questions & Answers about Psy mają świetny słuch i duże uszy.
Why is the plural of ucho (ear) uszy instead of a regular neuter ending like ucha?
Body parts that naturally come in pairs, like ears, eyes, and hands, often have irregular plurals in Polish. This is a leftover from an old grammatical concept called the dual number. So, instead of following the normal rules for neuter nouns, ucho always becomes uszy in the plural.
What case are świetny słuch and duże uszy in this sentence?
They are in the accusative case because they are the direct objects of the verb mają (have). For masculine inanimate nouns like słuch and non-masculine-personal plurals like uszy, the accusative form is identical to the nominative (dictionary) form.
Why is the adjective for ears duże?
Uszy is a non-masculine-personal plural noun. In the plural, Polish adjectives only have two forms: one for groups including human men, and one for everything else (animals, objects, body parts). The non-masculine-personal plural ending for duży (large) is duże.
Where did the e go in the word psy (dogs)?
The e in pies (dog) is a fleeting E. This means that when you add an ending to make it plural or change its case, that e drops out. Since dogs fall into the non-masculine-personal category in the plural, the word takes the -y plural ending, resulting in psy.
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