Question 1

Why does the sentence start with Psu instead of Pies?

Accepted Answer

This lesson is about the word wolno (is allowed). It is an impersonal word, meaning it does not take a standard subject. Instead, the person or animal that receives the permission is put in the Dative case. The Dative form of pies is psu, so the sentence literally translates to 'to the dog it is not allowed'.

Question 2

What happened to the 'e' in pies when it changed to psu?

Accepted Answer

It disappeared because pies has a 'fleeting e'. This is a vowel that drops out when you add grammatical endings. You have likely seen this before in the Genitive case with psa. In the Dative case, the stem ps- takes the -u ending, becoming psu instead of 'piesu'.

Question 3

Does the word wolno ever change its form depending on who has permission?

Accepted Answer

No, it never changes. It is an impersonal predicate, which means it acts like a verb but does not conjugate for person, gender, or number. Whether it is a dog, a group of people, or you, the word remains wolno and is usually followed by an infinitive verb like biegać.

Question 4

What grammatical case is luzem and how does it function here?

Accepted Answer

The word luzem is actually the Instrumental case of the noun luz (slack or looseness). In Polish, putting certain nouns into the Instrumental case turns them into adverbs. Here, it functions as an adverb meaning 'loose' or 'freely'.

Question 5

Just as a quick refresher, why do we say w parku?

Accepted Answer

The preposition w (in) requires the Locative case when you are talking about a static location. Since park is a masculine inanimate noun (and a foreign loanword), it takes the -u ending in the Locative case, giving us w parku.

Psu nie wolno biegać luzem w parku.

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