"The children have seen a dolphin."

Translation: Dzieci zobaczyły delfina.

[Glen624972]

I don't understand the difference between "widzialy" and "zobaczyly." Any help would be appreciated.

[AngelikaKr15]

i think widzialy is a more accurate translation....if the sentence was the children saw a dolphine, zobaczyly would be more appropriate

[vytah]

Agreed.

Polish perfective vs imperfective doesn't exactly match English perfect vs imperfect.

[xanderofszki]

I do think that this is to be true but I do believe "widzialy" and "zobaczyły" and "zobaczyly" should be accepted her as the sentence here in English can be interpreted as the past and present.

[random8042]

Is zobaczyły feminine? What is the masculine version?

[Jellei]

In plural, there is no distinction between masculine/feminine/neuter.

Instead, there's "masculine personal" (aka "virile") and "not masculine-personal plural" (aka "non-virile").

Masculine personal would be used for plurals of masculine words for people. Not masculine-personal is used for every other plural. The masculine personal form is "zobaczyli", "zobaczyły" is the other plural.

Technically "children" may easily involve some boys, so masculine persons - but the singular word "dziecko" (a child) is neuter, so its plural is "not masculine-personal". That's what makes "zobaczyły" correct here.