"You are a boy."
Translation:Jesteś chłopcem.
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But only on a Friday and a full moon. This language is from Mordor! =)
So bloody true! My wife is Polish and I'm leaning so i have an idea of what the kids are saying to her...but there seems to be 15-20 exceptions to every rule....so why have a bloody rule to begin with?!
Yes - Polish nouns undergo declension. And form (case) of the object not only depends on verb but often on preposition. Book is on the table, book is under the table and book is by the table all use different case of word "table" in Polish. Sorry...
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Polish/Noun_cases Cases explained. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ch%C5%82opiec#Polish Click on "show" declension to see the word endings for boy in Polish.
Because chłopak is a synonym of chłopciec and chłopakiem is the instrumental form of chłopak
The only issue I have, here, is that "chłopakiem" has never been taught or used up to this point. It's not super fair to teach us one way, and then, at the last level, except us to know a whole new case we haven't gone over, yet ...
It is bad teaching practice not to explain or demonstrate a point very thoroughly before expecting you to use it.
verb to be doesn't take the nominative?? weird man.
For me, for Polish, there are no "Tips& Notes" available. Do you have any?
They're only available in the website version, I'm afraid.
But you can also use this link: https://duome.eu/tips/en/pl
So would it be better to use it on the website version for the sake of being able to know the tips and tricks? I didnt know there was a website version that explained it better.
@Kegan603299 Yes, I'd say that the website version is better for learning.
I totally agree. No wonder we're so confused. I was good in English and spelling but they cannot expect us to be able to write it with all the little marks. Using words like predicate. I don't remember what that means.
The sentence should say "Jesteś chłopcem.", "chłopakiem" (a form of "chłopak") indeed wasn't introduced yet. I just changed it.
What's the difference between chłopiec and chłopak (or whatever the nominative of chłopakiem is)?
Age. "Chłopiec" is usually younger, "chłopak" starts at about the age of a teenager. Also it means "boyfriend".
Generally, age. "chłopiec" is a younger boy, "chłopak" is an older one, up to a young adult.
The border between those two is very subjective. One can say that an 8-year-old is already "chłopak", one can think that the right age is 13... depends on a person.
"chłopak" can also mean a boyfriend. But it has to be "someone's chłopak".
How do you know which one Duolingo is looking for? I've answered 'Jestes clopiec' and it's told me I'm wrong and that it should be 'Jestes Chlopczykiem', which I'm sure was never a word in Basics 1.
Now i've just answered 'Jestes chlopiec' and I was wrong, it wanted 'Jestes Chlopcem'.
I'm totally confused..!!
There are at least three translations of the English word "boy". Two of them are taught in this course. Those are: [chłopiec/chłopak/chłopczyk]. Their Instrumental forms are: [chłopcem/chłopakiem/chłopczykiem].
You need Instrumental in a sentence like this one. "Jesteś chłopiec" is grammatically wrong. More info here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/16373167
As for why Duolingo suggested two different answers... well, it doesn't always suggest the main answer. Maybe it considered that "chłopczykiem" is closer to what you answered.
It seems that most of the examples have "chłopiec" for "boy" where it is nominative but examples where instrumental is required have "chłopakiem". This is a bit confusing.
In my studies I found that as well as 'chłopiec' being the diminutive if 'chłopak', 'chłopiec' itself has a diminutive: 'chłopczyka'. Surely this form should also be put into some of the examples, to keep us on our toes and give us the full flavour of the wonderful Polish language.
Well, it's good to know "chłopczyk", but there's enough confusion with chłopiec and chłopak as it is ;) Anyway, it's a really young boy, probably a kindergartener.
Am i missing something to Duolingo? Is there somewhere that it actually TEACHES us why and when to use certain forms? The previous example just said: "Ty jesteś chłopcem". We drop the "ty" and now it's "jesteś chłopakiem"? Its the ty that makes the difference?
I feel like I'm being tested on a course i never took!
The correct translations are "[Ty/] jesteś [chłopcem/chłopakiem]". "ty" can always be omitted. "chłopcem" (from "chłopiec") is a younger boy while "chłopakiem" (from "chłopak") is an older one.
A significant portion of the course has T&N (Tips and Notes) available, but they are only available from the browser version. It's the lightbulb button.
"You are a boy." Jesteś chłopakiem.
so, when to say: Jestes chlopiec or Jesteś chłopcem
some examples of when to use each one please
"Jesteś chłopiec" - do not say this because it is incorrect.
"chłopiec" should be used when a boy is the subject of the sentence. For example, "Chłopiec piję wodę." The boy is the subject, it is the boy who is drinking. What is the boy drinking? Water. Observe that normally water is spelled "woda" when it is the subject, but since it is the instrument it gets the weird ending, just like with "chłopiec"/"chłopcem".
In "Jesteś chłopiec" the subject is "Ty" (you). You already have 1 subject, but you cannot have 2. You must use "chłopcem" here.
As others have commented,
"chłopiec"/"chłopcem" - a young boy "chłopak"/"chłopakiem" - an older boy
So if you are speaking of a young boy playing on the floor with his toy trucks, you would use "chłopiec"/"chłopcem".
If you are speaking of a teenage boy smoking cigarettes after school, he is probably an older boy, so use "chłopak"/"chłopakiem".
Where to draw the line in-between is subjective, but you will probably know it when you see it.
A whole heap to remember and learn. Similar to German. Seemingly strange how such languages came to be, when it is easier to just use "boy" and "water" in one form, for example.
"chłopcem" is also a correct variant.
"Jesteś chłopcem" is for a younger boy, "Jesteś chłopakiem" for an older one.
So "Ty jesteś chłopcem/chłopakiem" would also be correct? But the "ty" isnt required as such?
In the vast majority of contexts, 'ty' will not appear. I have to admit that we've used way too many subject pronouns in the early lessons, there should have been a lot less.
Why would u need 2 say this 2 someone. "You are a boy" "I know, why did you tell me, do you think I'm thick?"
Well, that's more of a grammar exercise, although I guess children in kindergarten are a bit more likely to say things like that ;)
On a PC, install a Polish keyboard, on a phone install the app SwiftKey, on which you can use up to five languages at once.
So, would the word 'boyfriend' as an object be 'chłopak'? Google translate says it's 'chłopaka'?
Google translate says chlopakiem means boyfriend. Chlopakiem is the answer given as of Nov 2019.
"chłopak" ("chłopakiem") in general can mean "boyfriend", yes. But it should be "someone's chłopak" then. "You are a boyfriend" doesn't seem to make much sense to me.
A sentence built as "X is Y" needs Y to take the Instrumental case, if Y is a noun phrase. "Jesteś chłopiec" is ungrammatical.
See more here, especially Part 2: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/16373167
where does chłopakiem come from? I put "chłopcem" and it was also correct... but what is "chłopakiem"?
Why is it not Ty Jest chłopiec? After all we have just written ja jest kobietą i ty jest mężczyzna... Or am I wrong
You are wrong, those sentences are wrong.
"jest" is the 3rd person singular form (he/she/it is). It won't work with "ja" or "ty". Every grammatical person has a different verb form.
The exercise before this was "Jesteś dziewczynko," and gave its meaning as "Are you a girl?" Yet here it says "Jesteś chłopcem" means "You are a boy." No question mark. There's a difference between, say, "are you a boy?" and "you are a boy." The former a question, the latter a statement. ???
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It's "Jesteś dziewczynką"
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Well, Polish, like many languages, just needs to put a question mark at the end of the sentence to change a statement into a question. So you need to look at the end punctuation. There's no inversion like in English (you are -> are you), the word order stays the same. You can start a question with "Czy" if it's a yes/no question, but you don't have to use it.
In English you could say to someone"you are a boy" even if they were of old age. It doesn't not necessarily mean "you are a child, you are immature" (though i suppose it can depending on context.) Let's say hypothetically i walked up to a random man (not child) and said "jesteś chłopcem" would he intepret this as "you are male (not female)" or "you are a male child"?
I think it would have the same effect as in English, "you are immature".
What I'd personally use then would probably be "Dzieciak z ciebie" - "dzieciak" is more or less "a kid", in some contexts it can be a bit insulting. The construction is grammatically unusual, not even having a verb. Literally it's "A kid out of you" or something similar, so the literal translation makes no sense, but the meaning is "You're a kid".
That works in Ukrainian or Russian, but not in Polish. Firstly, you need the verb ("jest") in Polish, and secondly, that verb needs the following noun to take the Instrumental case. "Ty jesteś chłopcem". Grammatically it's kinda like Russian "Ты являешься мальчиком", which I understand is something correct, but rather not used.
I know you should have a verb but do polish people say just "Ty chlopiec" informaly?
Does anyone know any other languages that use the instrumental case with to be? I know Latin and Russian, both would use nominative here, and the use of the instrumental is freaking me out.
I know that Russian can use Instrumental here (Ты являешься мальчиком), but that's probably uncommon.
Past and present tense of быть require instrumental, though. And I hear that in Czech instrumental is an option in the present tense.
The subject pronoun is completely redundant, because the form of the verb "jesteś" already says what the subject is. In fact, using the subject pronoun is often unnatural.
I put in the right answer that I have checked using prompts but it gives me it saying that it is incorrect.
It would help if we knew what your answer was. If it's the same as on top of the page, then we'd need a screenshot.