Breakdown of Ten sweter jest teraz mniejszy, bo się skurczył.
być
to be
ten
this (m)
teraz
now
się
oneself
bo
because
mniejszy
smaller
sweter
jumper, sweater
skurczyć
to shrink
Questions & Answers about Ten sweter jest teraz mniejszy, bo się skurczył.
Why do we use się with skurczył in this sentence?
In Polish, the base verb skurczyć is transitive, meaning someone shrinks something else (like when you wash clothes in hot water). By adding się, we make it an intransitive, spontaneous action that just happens to the subject. So się skurczył simply means the sweater shrank.
What is the base form of the adjective mniejszy?
The base form is mały (small). Mniejszy is its irregular comparative form, meaning smaller. It has the masculine ending here to agree with sweter.
Why does skurczył take a masculine past tense ending when a sweater is an object?
Even though a sweater is an inanimate object, the noun sweter is grammatically masculine in Polish (which is why we use ten sweter). Because of this, the verb must take the masculine past tense ending -ł.
Could I put się at the very end of the sentence, making it bo skurczył się?
It is better to put it before the verb in this case. Polish generally avoids placing the pronoun się at the very end of a sentence or a clause. Placing it right after the conjunction bo sounds much more natural.
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