Breakdown of Ten Amerykanin szuka świątyni po całym mieście.
ten
this (m)
miasto
city
cały
whole, entire
po
along, on (a surface)
szukać
to look for
Amerykanin
American
świątynia
temple
Questions & Answers about Ten Amerykanin szuka świątyni po całym mieście.
The word for American is Amerykanin. Does that -in ending stay there in other cases?
In the singular, yes! You keep the -in for all singular cases (for example, the accusative/genitive is Amerykanina). However, the tricky part about nouns ending in -anin is that the -in disappears completely in the plural. So, while this sentence has one Amerykanin, multiple Americans would be Amerykanie.
Why is the temple świątyni instead of the direct object accusative świątynię?
The verb szukać (to look for) is a common verb that demands the genitive case for its object, not the accusative. The base word is świątynia (temple), which is a feminine noun ending in -nia. In the genitive case, that ending softens to -ni, giving us świątyni.
Doesn't the preposition po usually mean 'after'? Why does it mean 'all over' here?
While po does mean 'after' in time expressions (like po południu), it has a different meaning when talking about physical space. When combined with a location in the locative case, po expresses movement 'around' or 'all over' an area. So po całym mieście translates nicely to 'all over the city'.
What are the base forms of całym mieście, and how do they change here?
The base forms are the adjective cały (whole/entire) and the neuter noun miasto (city). Because they follow the spatial preposition po, they must be in the locative case. Miasto undergoes a consonant and vowel shift to become mieście, and the adjective matches it by taking the neuter locative ending -ym, becoming całym.
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