Breakdown of Pamiętam rok, kiedy pomagaliśmy w dwudziestu schroniskach.
w
in / on (a day)
rok
year
dwadzieścia
twenty
kiedy
when
pomagać
to help (imperfective)
pamiętać
to remember
schronisko
the shelter
Questions & Answers about Pamiętam rok, kiedy pomagaliśmy w dwudziestu schroniskach.
Why do we use dwudziestu instead of dwadzieścia here?
The preposition w (in) requires the Locative case to express a location. For numbers 5 and above, the forms for the Locative case (as well as Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental) usually end in -u. Therefore, the base number dwadzieścia changes to dwudziestu.
I thought numbers 5 and above force the noun into the Genitive case. Why is it schroniskach (Locative) instead of schronisk (Genitive)?
Numbers 5 and above only force the noun into the Genitive case when the phrase is in the Nominative or Accusative. In oblique cases like the Locative, Dative, or Instrumental, that 'Genitive rule' disappears. Instead, both the number and the noun simply take the required case. Since w needs the Locative here, both dwudziestu and schroniskach are in the Locative plural.
The verb pamiętać takes the Accusative case. Why didn't rok change its ending?
Because rok (year) is a masculine inanimate noun. In Polish, masculine inanimate nouns have the exact same form in the Accusative case as they do in the Nominative case, so the word stays exactly the same.
What does the ending of pomagaliśmy tell us about the group who helped?
The -liśmy ending is the masculine personal form for 'we'. This means the group of people who helped included at least one man. If the group consisted entirely of women, you would use the non-masculine form pomagałyśmy instead.
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