Breakdown of Kto przypadkiem stłukł ten nowy wazon?
ten
this (m)
kto
who
nowy
new
przypadkiem
by accident
stłuc
to shatter
wazon
the vase
Questions & Answers about Kto przypadkiem stłukł ten nowy wazon?
Why is there no się in this sentence?
This sentence uses the transitive verb stłuc (to shatter something) because an active subject (Kto) is breaking a specific object (ten nowy wazon). If you wanted to say "The vase shattered" (a spontaneous state change where it broke on its own, or you don't mention the person who did it), you would add się to make it intransitive: Wazon się stłukł.
What is the infinitive of stłukł? The spelling looks very different.
The infinitive is stłuc (to shatter or to break). It belongs to a tricky group of verbs ending in -c instead of the usual -ć (like móc or piec). When forming the past tense, the underlying k in the verb's stem comes to the surface, giving us stłukł for a male, stłukła for a female, and stłukli for a mixed plural group.
Why is the noun przypadek used here to mean "accidentally"?
Przypadek is a noun meaning "chance" or "coincidence." In this sentence, it is in the instrumental case (przypadkiem), which literally translates to "by chance" or "with coincidence." Using the instrumental form of a noun is a very common way to create an adverbial phrase in Polish. You could also use the standard adverb przypadkowo here with the exact same meaning.
Why didn't the ending of ten nowy wazon change, since it is the direct object being broken?
Because wazon is a masculine inanimate noun (a non-living object). For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative case (used for direct objects) looks exactly identical to the nominative case (the basic dictionary form). Because of this rule, the phrase ten nowy wazon doesn't change its spelling here.
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