Breakdown of Dyplomacja jest ważna, więc zależy nam na stabilności.
być
to be
ważny
important
więc
so, therefore
nam
us (dative)
zależeć na
to care about
stabilność
the stability
dyplomacja
the diplomacy
Questions & Answers about Dyplomacja jest ważna, więc zależy nam na stabilności.
How does zależy nam na translate to "we care about"?
In Polish, expressing that you care about something uses an impersonal structure. Instead of saying "We care", you essentially say "It matters to us". The verb is always in the third-person singular (zależy), the person who cares takes the Dative case (nam means "to us"), and the thing they care about is introduced by na followed by the Locative case.
Why does the word for stability change to stabilności here?
The phrase zależeć na always requires the following noun to be in the Locative case. The base word is stabilność (stability), which is a feminine noun ending in a consonant. For these types of nouns, the Locative form takes an -i at the end, giving us stabilności.
I learned before that zależeć means "to depend". How do we know it means "to care" here?
You can tell by the preposition! When zależeć is paired with od (plus Genitive), it means "to depend on" (like To zależy od dyplomacji - It depends on diplomacy). But when it is paired with na (plus Locative) alongside a Dative person like nam, the meaning shifts to "to care about" or "to be important to".
Could I change the word order and say więc nam zależy na stabilności?
You could, but zależy nam sounds much more natural. Short pronouns like nam do not carry stress. Because of this, they generally prefer to tuck in right after the verb rather than sitting directly after a conjunction like więc.
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