Breakdown of Wysłaliśmy polecenie do pana Zielińskiego.
pan
sir / Mr.
do
to
wysłać
to send
Zieliński
Zieliński
polecenie
recommendation
Questions & Answers about Wysłaliśmy polecenie do pana Zielińskiego.
Why does the surname take the ending -ego in Zielińskiego?
The preposition do always requires the Genitive case. Polish surnames ending in -ski decline exactly like adjectives. Since the Genitive ending for masculine adjectives is -ego, Zieliński becomes Zielińskiego.
Why did pan change to pana here?
In Polish, titles like pan (Mr.) or pani (Ms./Mrs.) must decline along with the person's name. Because the preposition do forces the Genitive case, both the title (pana) and the surname (Zielińskiego) must be in the Genitive.
Could we say wysłałyśmy instead of wysłaliśmy?
Yes, if the group saying "we" consists entirely of women. Wysłaliśmy is the masculine personal form, used when "we" includes at least one man. Wysłałyśmy is the non-masculine form for a group of women.
Polecenie is the direct object of the verb. Why didn't its ending change?
As the direct object, polecenie is in the Accusative case. However, because it is a neuter noun (which you can tell by the -e ending), its Accusative form is exactly the same as its basic dictionary form.
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