# Preposition w + genitive case



## Kudasai

Hi,

I'm currently looking at this sentence:

W pewnym momencie Marcin P. przemienił się z drobnego krętacza w wielkiego oszusta.

I understand what the sentence means. However, I'm not sure about the use of the preposition w in the last part. 'Wielkiego oszusta' is clearly genitive case, but according to my grammar, the preposition w should only take either the accusative or locative case. So how come the genitive case is used here?

Thanks!


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## Ben Jamin

What makes you think it is "clearly genitive case"? It is actually the accusative case.
The genitive case of masculine animate nouns has the same form as the accusative.
If you change the gender of the expression to feminine it will be "wielką oszustkę" (undoubtedly accusative).
In the case of a masculine inanimate noun the accusative is equal to the nominative: "zamienił się w kamień" (he turned into stone). The same is true of neuter nouns form: accusative=nominative.


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## Kudasai

Hi Ben,

thanks for the superquick reply, you're right of course, I misinterpreted the case as genitive. All is well again in my grammar world.


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## Ben Jamin

Kudasai said:


> Hi Ben,
> 
> thanks for the superquick reply, you're right of course, I misinterpreted the case as genitive. All is well again in my grammar world.


Remember that the preposition "w" takes accusative only in case of movement towards or through or in the case of transformation. For stationary location "w" is used with the locative.


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## bibax

And especially: *wierzę w Boga* (acc. like in Latin: credo in Deum), *w człowieka, w miłość, w zwycięstwo*, ...


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## Ben Jamin

bibax said:


> And especially: *wierzę w Boga* (acc. like in Latin: credo in Deum), *w człowieka, w miłość, w zwycięstwo*, ...


Which are all in accusative. What is special with those words?


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## bibax

You wrote _"the preposition "w" takes accusative *only* in case of movement towards or through or in the case of transformation"_.

In the phrase _"wierzę w ..."_ I see neither movement (like in _"słońce wchodzi *w znak* zodiaku Barana"_), nor transformation (like in _"zamienił się *w kamień*_").

You must admit that there are some special cases (exceptions to your rule) and _"wierzyć w kogo/co"_ is a prominent example.


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## Ben Jamin

bibax said:


> You wrote _"the preposition "w" takes accusative *only* in case of movement towards or through or in the case of transformation"_.
> 
> In the phrase _"wierzę w ..."_ I see neither movement (like in _"słońce wchodzi *w znak* zodiaku Barana"_), nor transformation (like in _"zamienił się *w kamień*_").
> 
> You must admit that there are some special cases (exceptions to your rule) and _"wierzyć w kogo/co"_ is a prominent example.


The "only" restriction was meant for physical location/movement, not for other uses of the preposition.


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