Breakdown of Wszyscy wierni słuchają kazania podczas mszy.
wszyscy
everyone / all (the)
słuchać
to listen
podczas
during
msza
mass
Questions & Answers about Wszyscy wierni słuchają kazania podczas mszy.
Why is it wszyscy wierni instead of wszystkie wierne?
Wierni (the faithful) acts as a noun here referring to a group of people that includes at least one man, so it uses the masculine personal (virile) plural form. Wszyscy is the matching virile form for "all". If the group were entirely female, you would use the non-virile form wszystkie wierne.
Is wierni an adjective or a noun in this sentence?
It declines exactly like the adjective wierny (faithful or loyal), but here it functions as a noun meaning "the faithful" or "believers". This is very common in Polish, similar to how we use adjectives as nouns in English phrases like "the rich" or "the brave".
Why does the word for sermon (kazanie) change to kazania?
The verb słuchać (to listen to) is one of the common Polish verbs that requires its object to be in the genitive case instead of the accusative. Since kazanie is a neuter noun ending in -e, its genitive singular form takes an -a, making it kazania.
What case does the word podczas (during) trigger?
The preposition podczas always requires the genitive case. This is why the basic feminine noun msza (mass) drops its -a and takes the genitive ending -y, becoming mszy.