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- "Wysocy mężczyźni patrzyli na…
"Wysocy mężczyźni patrzyli na samochód."
Translation:The tall men were looking at the car.
17 Comments
Because the Simple form 'looked' needs a perfective verb, one that means "they took a look", "they took a glance". I guess the best one would be 'spojrzeli', although 'popatrzyli' would work as well.
I know patrzyli is the past tense form for the verb patrzyć, but would "patrzeli" for the verb patrzeć also work here? If not, what's the difference between the two verbs?
Past forms of „patrzeć” are technically correct, but so unpopular in actual language, that I think quite a few natives would correct you, if you were to use them – it might be healthier to think of „patrzeć” as a verb without past forms and use only „patrzyć” in the past tense. ;)
PWN:
„Patrzałem to forma wciąż poprawna, choć przestarzała. Czasownik patrzeć/patrzyć ma w większości klatek paradygmatu formy oboczne, najwięcej w czasie przeszłym, np. patrzyli, rzadziej patrzeli i patrzali.”
So no, other than being rare, „patrzeli” is (also) correct. ;)
Sorry, but could you please point me to a link to explain why 'wysoki' changes to 'wysocy' for masculine personal plural in the nominative case. Thanks.
What can I say, an adjective ending in -ki in masculine will end in -cy in masculine personal.
Masculine personal is generally usually quite different from the other genders.
Many thanks. I don't think I've seen enough adjectives ending in 'ki' to recognise the pattern!!
"patrzyli" is the perfect form ("patrzyć"). Why are we using it here for "were looking at"? Wouldn't that be "patrzeli"?
Why wouldn't it accept, "The tall men were looking at the automobile?"
At some point we decided to accept "automobile", therefore - added now.
