Breakdown of W zeszłym tygodniu opublikowaliśmy kilkanaście nowych postów.
nowy
new
w
in / on (a day)
tydzień
week
zeszły
last, previous (as in "last week")
Questions & Answers about W zeszłym tygodniu opublikowaliśmy kilkanaście nowych postów.
Why is it nowych postów instead of nowe posty?
The word kilkanaście (a dozen or so) is an indefinite numeral. In Polish, these numerals force the noun and the adjective that come after them to take the Genitive plural case. That is why the basic plural nowe posty changes to nowych postów.
Exactly how many is kilkanaście?
It means an unspecified amount anywhere from 11 to 19. You can easily spot the ending -naście, which is the exact same ending used for the Polish teen numbers like jedenaście (11) and piętnaście (15). In English, we usually translate it as a dozen or so.
Why does the word tydzień (week) look so different in w zeszłym tygodniu?
Time expressions using the preposition w (in) to mean in a certain week or year require the Locative case. Tydzień is an irregular noun where the vowel drops out and the consonants shift when grammatical endings are added, transforming the base word into tygodniu.
I know post is an English loanword. Does it decline like a regular Polish word?
Yes! Even though it is a borrowed word for an internet post, it acts just like a standard masculine inanimate noun. Because it follows kilkanaście, it takes the regular Genitive plural ending -ów, giving us postów.