Breakdown of Pokazałem moją strategię w czterech ruchach.
mój
my
w
in / on (a day)
cztery
four
pokazać
to show
Questions & Answers about Pokazałem moją strategię w czterech ruchach.
Why do we use czterech instead of cztery here?
The preposition w (meaning 'in' in this context) requires the Locative case. For the number 4 (cztery), the Locative form is czterech.
Why is ruchach in the Locative plural? Don't numbers usually force the noun into the Genitive case?
Learners often expect numbers to force the following noun into the Genitive. However, that mostly happens with numbers 5 and up in the Nominative or Accusative cases. When a preposition like w forces the phrase into an 'oblique' case (like the Locative or Instrumental), the number and the noun simply agree with each other. Therefore, both czterech and ruchach take the Locative plural.
Why does the pronoun moją end in -ą while the noun strategię ends in -ę?
Both words are in the Accusative case because they are the direct object of the verb. For feminine words in the Accusative, adjectives and pronouns change their -a ending to -ą (moja becomes moją), while nouns change to -ę (strategia becomes strategię).
Why use the perfective verb pokazałem instead of pokazywałem?