Breakdown of To trudna publiczność, ale komik nadal na nią patrzy.
ale
but
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
to
is (linking copula)
trudny
difficult
patrzeć
to look
nadal
still (continuing)
komik
the comedian
publiczność
the audience
nią
her / it (accusative after preposition)
Questions & Answers about To trudna publiczność, ale komik nadal na nią patrzy.
Why does the sentence use na nią instead of na ją?
The pronoun refers back to publiczność, which is a feminine noun. The standard accusative pronoun for a feminine object is ją. However, whenever a third-person pronoun directly follows a preposition like na, Polish requires you to use its n-form. Therefore, ją becomes nią.
Publiczność ends in a consonant. Why do we use the feminine pronoun nią to refer to it?
While most feminine nouns in Polish end in -a, nouns ending in -ość (like publiczność for audience, or miłość for love) are always feminine. Because it is grammatically feminine, we must use feminine pronouns to refer back to it, even though it translates to the gender-neutral 'it' in English.
Doesn't the preposition na usually require the locative case? Why is nią in the accusative?
The preposition na takes the locative when describing a static location (answering 'where?'). However, it takes the accusative when describing a directed action or motion. The verb patrzeć (to look) directs your gaze at a target, so the phrase patrzeć na always requires the accusative case.
Why is it To trudna publiczność instead of using the instrumental case like To jest trudną publicznością?
When you use the word to to mean 'this is' or 'it is' without the verb jest, you simply use the nominative case. If you included a normal pronoun and the verb jest (as in Ona jest...), you would need the instrumental case. Using just To plus the nominative is very common and natural for identifying things.
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