"Macie dzieci?"
Translation:Do you have children?
44 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Probably should be "Do you all have children?" to denote the plurality of "Macie" -> You (plural) have?
Although it is nice when "you all" or "y'all" is allowed, in English this is not necessary "you" is plural as well as singular all by itself.
True. "Y'all" is almost universally used in the southern USA, but elsewhere it is considered a regional dialect and seldom heard. Though migration, and TV are bringing southern accents and expressions to other parts of the country as well.
Historically, "you" was the English plural with the singular expressed by "thou" So when speaking to one person back in the 17th century you would say"Dost thou have children?" or "Hast thou children?" Over time, "you" came to be used as a polite/formal singular, like "vous" in French. And eventually people became offended when addressed as "thou". So "you" took over as both plural and singular, formal and informal.
yes, I've been typing "y'all" and now I've gotten this one wrong -_-
I really would appreciate emphasis on the plural of (you). Pretty please.
Polar questions (yes/no) are only conveyed through intonation? Or is verb-initial word order also used as in English?
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Either by intonation, or by adding the word czy (cognate of Esperanto ĉu).
You could rephrase this question to "Czy macie dzieci?", although it could be misheard as "Trzymacie dzieci?" –Are you holding (the) children?
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Don't forget to tell that pronouncing "Trzymacie" and "Czy macie" identically is wrong ;)
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Is the difference in pronunciation that the 'rz' part of 'trzymacie' is voiced, but the 'cz' of czy isn't?
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"Rz" is voiced when it occurs after a voiced consonant: "drzewo" - "tree"; "brzeg" - "bank"/"coast" or after a vowel: "marzec" - "March". It is devoiced if it occurs after a voiceless consonant: "przed" - "before"/"in front of"; "trzymać" - "to hold". In Polish voiced consonants generally are devoiced if they're ending the word and this rule overrules previous ones: "rycerz" - "knight" is pronounced /rycesz/; "malarz" - "painter" is pronounced /malasz/ (even though "rz" is after a vowel). "Cz" is always unvoiced. The difference I was talking about is quite minor or even unnoticeable for some English speakers, but it changes the meaning of many words dramatically. Polish distinguishes between affricates and stop+fricative consonant clusters, for example: "czysta" - "clean" and "trzysta" - "three hundred". "Cz" is pronounced /tʂ/ and "trz" is pronounced /t͡ʂ/. The same difference occurs between "ts" and "c" and others.
First is 2nd person singular, the latter is 2nd person plural. So it depends on whom you're talking to, how many people.
Is "ie" pronounced as two separate letters or one? Does it depend on if it's in the middle of the word or the end?
When I hover over the words it sounds like two in "Macie" and one in "dzieci"; but when she says the whole sentence it sounds the same in both words.
More like, "ci" is pronounced together, softening the "c."
The syllables in "macie" are "ma-cie." The syllables in "dzieci" are "dzie-ci." The vowel in the second syllable of "macie" is "e." Second syllable of "dzieci" doesn't have any other vowel, so "i" is pronounced there as one (in addition to softening the "c.")
This might help (with pronunciation in general). In Polish, lots of combinations of letters end up being what we'd call one sound. http://www.pronunciationguide.info/Polish.html
Can someone tell me when to use the two forms of "you" in Polish, as in which one would be used in a formal situation and what would be used in an informal situation.
Out of two forms you know so far, it is not the case of formality. "ty" is what you will say to one person, "wy" is what you will say to two or more people.
Wait... So this can be translated into both, "Do you have children?" and "You have children?" I just started learning Polish two weeks ago, so I haven't 100% clicked onto all the different ways of saying things quite yet.
Yes. It can easily be a real yes/no question, it can also be like "what, you have children?"
I would appreciate more instruction on verb forms for each pronoun. Plus better clarity when you are referring to 'you' singular and 'you' plural. Thanks.
I think you'd find that most conjugation tables are pretty self-explanatory:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mie%C4%87#Conjugation
http://sgjp.pl/leksemy/#267480/mie%C4%87
Regarding clarity, well... it's not our fault English isn't clear about whether it's singular or plural. All we can do is accept both versions, unless one of them doesn't make sense in that context.
I feel robbed! I got the answer right but cos I'm using my phone, i typed u instead of you rolls eyes at myself
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This question ("Do you have children") came up twice in the Basics 2 practice session. My response the first time was, "Masz dzieci." This was counted as correct. The second time, I responded with "Macie dzieci." Also counted as correct. According to Jellei (MOD) in an earlier post, Masz and Macie are both correct, depending on who you are speaking to, and that Masz is first person singular and Macie is second person plural. My question: If Masz is first person singular, should the sentence not read, "I" have children, not do "you" have children?"
If you were saying "I have children" wouldn't it be "mam dzieci" cos "mam" is 1st person for I have, while "masz" is singular for you have, and plural you have is "macie".
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Thanks, rebecca, that makes total sense to say, "Mam dzieci." I'll try and let the "masz" and "macie" straight in my head. Which is full. :)
What's the exact difference between Macie and Mazs? Is Macie the feminine term?
No, in Present Tense there's no gender differences in verbs. Those appear in the Past Tense and can appear in Future Compound.
"masz" is 2nd person singular (Do you have children, John?) and "macie" is 2nd person plural (Do you have children, John and Mary?").
Ahh, how can I tell whether it is to be applied in a plural manner or not? Would it be when the sentence I use includes "One" or "Oni"? Thanks for the help by the way!
In real life: well, you usually know whom you're talking/referring to ;)
On Duolingo: in 99% of sentences, there's no context, both are equally correct. Your choice.
No, "one/oni" mean "they" and they don't have anything to do with singular/plural "you".
