"Tamten mężczyzna, tamta kobieta, tamto dziecko"
Translation:That man, that woman, that child
36 Comments
You can do it! Just remember that it has three z's (with a different letter inbetween) and someone added squiggly bits to two characters :D
This is how i learner to spell: i mispelled. And would atrwmpt it again.
Set your android/apple keyboard to polish and autocorrect will help you. You still have to be able to figure out nomnitive vs accusative. Also just try to pay attention to letter groups like cz or dz. Its a lot easier once you memorize the letter stickies
Is there are clear division between "ten/tamten", "ta/tamta", "to/tamto" = this/that? If so, where can one draw the line between them? I'm asking because some of my answers with "ten/ta/to" in the first lesson were corrected with "That" as well as "This". Thank you in advance!
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The line exists, but it's in a different place. Tamto is used either when you need to contrast it with to, or for really large distances.
For example, Spanish has 3 levels: esto, eso, aquel. Translated to English, it would be this, that, that. Translated to Polish, it would be to, to, tamto. Of course those translation are rough and they all depend on context.
Thanks for the example: since I speak both Spanish and Portuguese, I can better understand the difference that way; it's probably harder for an English native speaker, though (considering the line is somewhere else). In any case, dziękuję bardzo! You've been really helpful :)
Vytah, thank you for this answer, but sadly I'm still having trouble understanding you.
I thought ten/ta/to were "this" and tamten/tamta/tamto were "that". End of story. Can you try to explain this to me again? Sorry
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I'll use some quotes from Discworld series, both English original and official translations, with "that" used both as a pronoun and a determiner:
That's what's so stupid about the whole magic thing, you know.
To właśnie jest głupie w tej całej magii.
“In a figurative sense,” he said.
“What does that mean?
“Well, it means no,” said Cutwell.
– W sensie metaforycznym - mruknął mag.
– Co to znaczy?
– No więc... To znaczy, że nie.
"I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts," said Brutha. "That way, everyone's happy."
- Podoba mi się idea demokracji - stwierdził Brutha. - Trzeba mieć kogoś, komu nikt nie ufa. Dzięki temu wszyscy są zadowoleni.
And one day people will say: why didn't they sort it all out, back then? On the beach. Before it all started. Before all those people died. Now we have that chance. Aren't we lucky?
Aż pewnego dnia ludzie zapytają: Dlaczego wtedy nie załatwili tych spraw? Na plaży? Zanim wszystko się zaczęło? Zanim zginęło tylu ludzi? Teraz mamy tę szansę. Czyż nie sprzyja nam szczęście?
Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, stole fire from the gods. But he was unable to fence it. It was too hot. He got really burned on that deal.
Palcy-Mazda, pierwszy złodziej na świecie, wykradł bogom ogień. Ale nie mógł go sprzedać, bo towar był zbyt gorący.Mocno się sparzył na tym interesie.
Got a lil confused when "temu", "tę", and "tym" got involved, but I do understand now. Thank you :D
I still don't understand it I'm too stupid for this stuff.. Is there a clear rule maybe? Sorry..
In this thread I wrote a long, in-depth explanation: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/14767501
Just for the record, there is also an expression for large distance (although it is colloquial): "tamto tam"/"tamta tam"/"tamten tam" (that, there): "Popatrz na tamto tam drzewo" - Look at that tree, there (somewhere by the horizon).
Ten, ta, to/ci, te- this/these Tamten, tamta, tamto/tamci, tamte - these/those
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I need to keep reminding myself that mężczyzna is "man". From other languages I'm so used to words ending in "a" being female.
In Polish most -a ending words, and all other "-izna" "-yzna" ending ones are feminine as well. "Mężczyzna is an exception.
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To add to that: neuter nouns that end in -o tend to take an -a ending in their nominative-plural and genitive-singular forms.
Well if yo put it like that many masculine nous also have singular genitive ending -a , and if they are animated , also accusative. (chłopiec(boy)- chłopca(sing. gen=sing. acc), kot(cat)-kota(sing. gen=sing. acc), chleb(bread)-chleba(sing gen)
That feeling when you come to see what was the problem to discuss it so long ))
Are you able to guess which gender a noun is depending on what it is? Eg. if I didn't know the gender of the noun 'man' I'd assume it's masculine because men are males, and that 'child' would be neuter because it could be either male or female? Does it work like that or do we just have to learn them all off by heart?
For living objects in usually works mostly like that in Slavic Languages, but unanimate objects may be of all genders, and those genders not always match between the languages. For example, Polish Widelec(masculine) is Wydelka(feminine) in Ukrainian. Despite me being a native speaker of two Slavic languages, I have no slightest idea what was initial logic in giving items random genders. There seem to be no system at all, so you can only learn them.
Alright, thanks! I only speak fluent English although I'm learning various languages, but pretty much all have genders which are tough to perfect. Which gender would be the safest to assume if I have absolutely no clue? Or would it not matter the first time as long as what I'm saying makes sense?
See for example here: http://blogs.transparent.com/polish/polish-nouns-gender-masculine-feminine-neuter/
Feminine nouns end mostly with an “a”, the great majority of them, anyway. If there is no “a” at the end, but a consonant instead, the noun can still be feminine, for example: mysz (a mouse).
Masculine nouns most likely will end with a consonant, but sometimes with a vowel (as in the example above – mężczyzna).
And the poor neuter ones will have an “o”, or an “e” at the end, or something unusual like “-um”.
Other ressources:
Alright, thanks very much! That's made it a hell of a lot easier for me now haha
