"Ona mówi po angielsku i po polsku."
Translation:She speaks English and Polish.
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1252
Both can be translated to "ona mówi po angielsku".
You can say (and I think it's more commonly used) "ona zna angielski" – "she knows English" to speak about the skill.
'po angielsku', 'po polsku' - are adverbs, because they answer the questions 'how?' or 'what way?' and they are examples of two-words adverbs (adverb phrases).
First word is 'po' and second is an archaic declination of an adjective ending with 'u'. Other examples:
-Chodzę po cichu = I walk quietly
-Czytam po ciemku = I read in darkness
-Robię to po mojemu = I do this my way
-Ta książka jest napisana po angielsku = This book is written in english
As you see in the last example: 'po' stands for 'in'. Sometimes you can replace it with a normal, one-word adverb, for example:
-Chodzę cicho = I walk quietly
but mostly you can't do it, you don't say: 'ta książka jest napisana angielsko'. Some adverbs evolved from two-words to one-word expression. For example:
-Jem pomału = I eat slowly
it's confusing, I know...
I think the issue is that, with Spanish and German, I'd already been studying them for years before I joined Duo. Although I have been exposed to Polish from a young age, I've never studied it and so have zero knowledge or understanding of anything you just said! Once I get to a certain basic level, I may have to do a grammatical course as well.
3448
English - [język] angielski
Speak english - mówić po angielsku. It's dative case, but it's used only in this sentence. In any other sentences you will use dative form "angielskiemu" (like "I gave it for the english boy - dałem to angielskiemu chłopcu"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/angielski - full declension of angielski
(sorry for my English, ;) )
It isn't something that is necessarily a problem; the audio said "Ona mòwi po angielsku i po polsku," but due to it defaulting to slow, I had typed and entered my answer before "po polsku" was said. But I was also not able to hear the "i" before that because it is spoken so softly; I should honestly simply pay more attention to it...
It's better not to think that a preposition 'means' something, there are different meanings depending on the context.
Here we have a very specific construction: "po + an adjective for a language, in a form ending with -u" is used for 'speaking a language'. So it's closest to "in", because you can "speak in English"... but it has nothing to do with let's say "being in prison" :D
Why is it specific? This form of an adjective is not used anywhere else. It's not any of the modern grammatical cases, it's a remnant of the grammar of old Polish.
We can also say that "po polsku" means "Polish-style" or "in a Polish way", because it's also used this way. A popular Christmas (and not only) dish in Poland is "ryba po grecku", which is "Greek-style fish". Apparently the Greeks have nothing to do with it, though.