Breakdown of Dziecko wskazuje na moje brudne ręce.
dziecko
child
mój
my
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
ręka
hand, arm
brudny
dirty
wskazywać
to point
Questions & Answers about Dziecko wskazuje na moje brudne ręce.
Why is the plural of ręka (hand) ręce instead of a regular plural ending?
Ręka is one of the special body parts in Polish that kept its historical dual number. A long time ago, Polish had a specific grammatical form for things that naturally come in pairs. Today, that old dual form is used as the standard plural. That is why we say ręce instead of a regular feminine plural. In this sentence, it is in the accusative case, which happens to look exactly like the nominative ręce.
Why do we use the accusative case for moje brudne ręce after the preposition na?
The verb wskazywać (to point) paired with na shows that attention is being directed at a target. When na expresses the direction or target of an action rather than a static location, it forces the following phrase into the accusative case.
Since ręce is an irregular plural, do the words moje and brudne also take irregular endings?
No, they follow the completely regular plural rules! Adjectives and pronouns modifying ręce just take the standard non-masculine-personal plural endings. The accusative plural for these modifier words is identical to the nominative plural, giving us moje brudne.
Why does the verb wskazywać (to point) look so different as wskazuje?
This is a great refresher on verbs ending in -ywać or -ować. In the present tense, that ending drops out and is replaced by -uj-. Because dziecko is third-person singular, we add the standard -e ending, resulting in wskazuje.
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