"The old people are eating cookies."
Translation:Starzy ludzie jedzą ciasteczka.
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That moment when it'sa multiple choice question, and Duo gives you the option 'Starzy ludzie jedzą dzieci'
There's no "ci" in the main translation, although is is accepted.
"ci" = "these" for the masculine-personal plural. "ludzie" include at least one man (by definition), so the word is masculine personal.
Often when in English you use "the", in fact the meaning is more like "this"/"these". So this is why it's accepted. Because sometimes it just makes more sense than the literal translation.
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you said people (ludzie) included at least one man by definition so "ludzie" is concerned as masculine. So we say "starzy ludzie". But don't "dzieci" include at least one boy by definition so it is also masculine? Good children is "dobre dzieci", not "dobrzy dzieci". Why?
It also has to be a grammatically masculine noun. But dzieci (singular: dziecko) is neuter.
Mostly phonetics. "rzi" is not a cluster of sounds you're likely to see in Polish. This is something that just feels natural to a native, not something that we 'consciously know'.
The English sentence lacks hints for the correct verb tense in the multipart hints (which show up first), which ends up that burying the correct verb tense to third place and in a split screen - someone who's still not acquainted with the endings may stumble and pick "jesz" or "jecie" instead. I've already reported it :)
Yes, "stary" is definitely wrong here because it's masculine singular, and you have plural here.
Nominative masculine personal plural: starzy.
Starze for all other nominative plurals.
Old people!? Not the elders people?! Try to say woman that she is old!!! :-D
Did you mean "elderly"? It works, but technically the translation is "starsi" (lit. "older") - this is also more polite in Polish.
Why STARSI ludzie is not accepted, while in the same exercice : STARSI mężczyźni was translated by : the old men. ? So this should be : elderly men ?
You're right. It's accepted in similar exercises, but not here. Added now.
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Okay I put "To starzy ludzie" (instead of ci) so I was wrong anyway sigh! but it says "The" old people not just "Old people" so it should be specific people not just any old people...
The article "the" has no translation in Polish, it just 'vanishes'. However, we accept interpreting "the" as "this" or "these" and translating those determiners - which here would result in "ci starzy ludzie".
"To starzy ludzie" does not mean "these old people" but "These are old people". It's not a determiner here (it's a wrong form for the determiner), using it here would mean that it's a dummy pronoun. If you wanted to write a full sentence "To starzy ludzie jedzą ciasteczka", it's somehow correct, but in an even different way: "It is the old people who eat the cookies" (as in "Someone eats cookies, who is it? Oh, it's the old people!").
Not here. You don't really have "are" as a form of the verb "to be" here. You have "are eating", a form of "to eat". There is only one verb to translate in this sentence.