| Grammar Notes: The Polish sentence "Wojna czy pokój? To od nas zależy, co zostanie zapisane w podręcznikach historii." translates to "War or peace? It depends on us what will be written in the history textbooks." Let's break down each word and the grammar: 1. Wojna: "War" - This is a noun in its basic form (nominative case). 2. czy: "or" - A conjunction used to offer a choice between two options. 3. pokój: "peace" - Another noun in the nominative case, indicating the second option in the choice. 4. To: "It" - This is a pronoun referring back to the subject or situation being discussed, here implying "the choice" or "the matter". 5. od nas: "from us" or "depends on us" - od: A preposition meaning "from". - nas: A pronoun in the genitive case, meaning "us". 6. zależy: "depends" - The 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb "zależeć" (to depend). 7. co: "what" - A pronoun introducing a relative clause. 8. zostanie: "will be" - The 3rd person singular future tense form of the verb "zostać" (to become, to be left, to remain). It's used here in a passive construction. 9. zapisane: "written" - The passive participle of the verb "zapisać" (to write down, to record), agreeing in gender and number with the subject it refers to, which is implied to be something neutral or general (like "the thing"). 10. w: "in" - A preposition indicating location. 11. podręcznikach: "textbooks" - The locative plural form of "podręcznik" (textbook), following the preposition "w", which requires the locative case. 12. historii: "history" - The genitive singular form of "historia", used here to modify "podręcznikach", indicating "of history" or "history's". Grammar Tip Related to the Sentence: This sentence illustrates the use of the future tense in Polish, specifically the compound future tense for verbs that are not inherently future (like "zostać" here combined with "zostanie" to form the future tense). It also demonstrates the use of the passive voice ("zostanie zapisane"), which is less common in Polish than in English but is used here to focus on the action rather than who performs it. In Polish, the construction of the future tense can involve either the simple future (for perfective verbs) or the compound future (using "być" in the future tense plus the past participle for imperfective verbs). The choice between simple and compound future depends on the aspect of the verb—perfective for completed actions and imperfective for ongoing or repeated actions. This sentence uses the passive voice in a future tense, which requires understanding of both verb aspect and the appropriate use of auxiliary verbs. |
