Breakdown of Kto wynalazł tę technologię w dwudziestym pierwszym wieku?
ten
this (m)
kto
who
w
in / on (a day)
pierwszy
first
wiek
century
dwudziesty
twentieth
wynaleźć
to invent
technologia
the technology
Questions & Answers about Kto wynalazł tę technologię w dwudziestym pierwszym wieku?
Why are both parts of the number in the Locative case in w dwudziestym pierwszym wieku?
When expressing time in a specific century, Polish uses the preposition w followed by the Locative case. For compound ordinal numbers like twenty-first, both parts must decline to match the noun. Since wiek is masculine, the basic form dwudziesty pierwszy changes to dwudziestym pierwszym.
Why does the Locative form of wiek end in -u instead of the usual -e?
Masculine nouns typically take -e in the Locative, but nouns ending in velar consonants like k, g, or ch are exceptions. They take -u to avoid difficult pronunciation changes, which is why wiek becomes wieku.
Why does the verb wynalazł use a masculine ending when we do not know who the inventor is?
The question word kto is always treated as grammatically masculine singular. Whenever kto is the subject of a past tense sentence, the verb must take the masculine third-person singular form. The infinitive of this verb is wynaleźć.
Why is the phrase tę technologię used instead of tą technologię?
The word technologia is the direct object receiving the action, so it is in the Accusative case. The correct Accusative form of the feminine pointer word ta is tę. While you might hear native speakers use tą in very casual speech, tę is the proper grammatically correct form for the written Accusative.
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