Questions & Answers about Nigdy wcześniej mi się to nie zdarzyło!
Why do we use mi (to me) here instead of a regular subject pronoun like ja (I)?
The verb zdarzyć się (to happen) takes a Dative experiencer. In Polish, events happen to someone, so the person experiencing the event goes in the Dative case. mi is the short Dative form of ja.
Why are the short words mi, się, and to grouped together in the middle of the sentence?
These are short, unstressed pronouns. In Polish, they naturally cluster together and prefer to sit in the second position of a sentence, right after the first stressed phrase (here, Nigdy wcześniej). You should avoid putting these short forms at the very beginning or the very end of a sentence.
Why does the verb take the neuter ending in zdarzyło?
The verb is not matching the speaker (who is the Dative experiencer mi). Instead, it matches the grammatical subject of the sentence, which is to (that/it). Because to is a neuter pronoun, the past tense verb must take the neuter ending -o.
Why do we need nie before the verb if the sentence already starts with Nigdy (never)?