Word
Wydawało mi się, że to prawda, ale okazało się, że to mit.
Meaning
It seemed to me that it was the truth, but it turned out that it was a myth.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Wydawało mi się, że to prawda, ale okazało się, że to mit.
Why do both wydawało się and okazało się end in -ło?
These verbs are in the third-person singular neuter form. When expressing impersonal ideas like 'it seems' or 'it turns out' without a specific subject, Polish uses the neuter 'it' form. The actual pronoun to (it) is usually dropped before the verb.
Why is mi used in wydawało mi się but not after okazało się?
Mi (to me) is the Dative case pronoun showing who is experiencing the feeling. You could also say okazało mi się (it turned out to me), but it is very common to drop the pronoun the second time if it's already clear who made the discovery, or if the realization is treated as a general fact.
The English translation says 'it WAS the truth', but the Polish just says to prawda (it is the truth). Why isn't there a past tense verb here?
English uses a rule where a past tense main verb changes the following verb to the past as well (called backshifting). Polish doesn't do this! In Polish, you use the tense that was true at the exact moment of the thought. At the time, you thought: 'It IS the truth' (To prawda).
Why do we use the imperfective wydawało but the perfective okazało?
Wydawało się (it seemed) describes an ongoing state or belief that lasted for a while. Okazało się (it turned out) is used for the sudden, completed moment when the truth was revealed.