Word
Podbiegliśmy do zamku, ale nie poszliśmy poza mur.
Meaning
We ran up to the castle, but we did not go beyond the wall.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Podbiegliśmy do zamku, ale nie poszliśmy poza mur.
nie
no / not
ale
but
do
to
pójść
to go (on foot)
Questions & Answers about Podbiegliśmy do zamku, ale nie poszliśmy poza mur.
Why does poza take the accusative case (mur) here instead of the instrumental case?
The preposition poza takes the accusative case when it describes motion to a new location, like going "beyond the wall" in this sentence. If you were describing a static location—for example, "we are standing beyond the wall"—you would use the instrumental case (poza murem).
What does the prefix pod- add to the verb in podbiegliśmy?
The base verb is biec (to run). Adding the prefix pod- gives the sense of approaching or moving right up to the edge of something. Together with the preposition do, podbiec do translates perfectly as "to run up to."
Why is the genitive form of zamek (castle) zamku and not zamka?
The preposition do requires the genitive case. For masculine inanimate nouns, the genitive ending can be either -a or -u. While there are no absolute rules, the -u ending is typically used for buildings and large structures, such as zamek (zamku) and dom (domu).
What does the ending -liśmy in podbiegliśmy and poszliśmy tell us about the group "we"?