Would wyszedł be interchangeable for opuścił in this sentence? Thanks
Yes and no. “Wyszedł” means the same as “opuścił”, but it requires a preposition for the sentence to be grammatical. So the alternative sentence would be:
Wyszedł z pokoju bez słowa.
“Opuścić” never needs a preposition, it just takes a noun in the accusative case. It can’t stand on its own—a sentence like “Adam opuścił.” is meaningless.
“Wyjść” always needs a preposition + a noun in the case that matches that preposition. “Z” (~ “from”) will be most common, but there are also some other options. Unlike “opuścić”, it can stand on its own.
Anna wyszła z domu. (“Anna left the house”)
Alex wyszedł do sklepu. (“Alex went to the store.”)
Julia wyszła. (“Julia left.”)
Some additional usage notes:
- “Opuścić” sounds a bit formal. Nobody says “Opuściłem kuchnię i poszedłem do łazienki.” (“I left the kitchen and went to the bathroom”).“Opuścił pokój bez słowa” works just fine here because the context seems rather serious/dramatic.
- “Wyjść” stems from “iść”, which is why it can only be used when the “leaving” is done on foot. So maybe it would make more sense for you to remember it as “walk out” rather than just “leave”.
- “Opuścić” doesn’t specify the mode of movement. You can often hear “Lewandowski opuścił boisko w 30. minucie” (“Lewandowski left the field in the 30th minute”), and in this case, it is quite likely that he left it on a stretcher.
P.S. Curiously enough, “wyjść za” means… “to marry someone”. But only if it’s about a woman marrying a man:
Anna wyszła za Marcina. (“Anna married Marcin.”)
1 Like
Thanks Adam. When you wrote (opuścić) ‘can’t stand on its own’, does this mean that you have to describe the place/time the person was leaving, otherwise the sentence is meaningless?
I’ve encountered the context of ‘wyszła za’ in terms of a woman getting married in several sentences on Clozemaster. I’m curious about the etymology behind this. In this context, what is the woman said to be leaving when she gets married? The parental home? Spinsterhood? Happiness? 
Yes, opuścić is transitive (just like verbs like buy in English), so it won’t make sense without an object—in this case, some location that is being left. Specifying the time won’t do the trick. Just like with “leave”, you can also use opuścić to talk about a person, a company etc.
I’m not really sure about the etymology of wyjść za mąż, but I think I’ve heard it’s this way because in the old times the bride was supposed to walk behind the groom at the marriage ceremony, so it seems that the za in this phrase is of the kind that translates to “behind”.
1 Like
Cheers, this is appreciated. Thanks