"My siblings are eating dinner."
Translation:Moje rodzeństwo je kolację.
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It just is. We have weird words in English that confuse other people. For example, a lot of German learners of English don't understand why one pair of pants or scissors or glasses is always grammatically plural.
My scissors are missing. -> One pair or many pairs, always plural
Confuses many Germans, and undoubtedly others as well.
Why is it like that? Just because.
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Wellllll I mean... Two blades joined makes scissors, two joined leg coverings makes pants, two joined monocles makes glasses.
Could you explain this (or link to an explanation) a little more in depth? I realize that the word used is singular. As a non-native speaker, I am not yet familiar with how to know when neuter words should be kept singular even when referring to multiple people/objects. For example, I don't think you would say "Moje dziecko je śniadanie," when you actually mean that your five children are sitting together eating breakfast. (Or maybe you would say that?) So, that is why we are confused about this one. :-) For English-speakers, a sibling may be eating breakfast or many siblings may be eating breakfast. Is there a way to know when this distinction is not necessary beyond the fact that the dictionary form of the word is neuter singular? I hope my question makes sense. :-/
"Państwo je kolację" is actually grammatically correct. It just means "The state is eating dinner".
I think that possibility prevents natives from ever making such a mistake.
Also, państwo in your example is a pronoun, which is a different word type than a noun, so different rules are likely to apply.
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There I find the answer to my question ! Thank you, Jellei! And that's why peopke should read the whole thread of comments :D
Sure, not impossible, but again, is it common? Why would one choose it over brother/sister? Unless we're discussing non-binary people, of course. But then in Polish, if I had a non-binary sibling, I'd probably need to ask them how to refer to them. Using "rodzeństwo" about one person just sounds very, very strange to me.
This example makes it more confusing than it usually is.
OK, so you may know it (or most of it), but:
There are two plurals. One is virile (aka 'masculine personal plural'), it works for 'groups with at least one man'. The right form for that plural is "moi".
The other is nonvirile (aka 'not masculine-personal plural'), it works for all other plural nouns. The right form for that plural is "moje".
Given that it's "siblings", not "brothers" or "sisters", we can assume that it's at least one brother and at least one sisters. At least in Polish I wouldn't use "rodzeństwo" if they weren't of mixed gender. So we would assume that the noun should be virile and the right form would be "moi". But that's wrong.
Actually, the word "rodzeństwo" is neuter singular, which confuses people a lot... but then words like "family" can be treated as singular in English as well, right? So the reason it's "moje" here is exactly because it's neuter singular. In Nominative, the forms for neuter singular and for nonvirile are identical.