"She is a girl."
Translation:Ona jest dziewczynką.
18 Comments
Can someone please explain the difference between dziewczyną and dziewczynką??? Thanks. The tool tip says instrumental but I dont understand why you would use that case here?
Thanks alot!
1748
'Dziewczynka'is a diminutive form of 'dziewczyna' ('dziewczynka'=little girl, 'dziewczyna'=girl). Both forms should be accepted, so report it, if it is not.
Nevermind polish grammar tells me witht he verb to be the instrumental is used.
- 1475
Is 'jest' necessary in this sentence? I believe there are some slavic languages where it can be omitted. Maybe not in Polish.
You should avoid using the "to" construction after a personal pronoun. "Anna to dziewczynka" seems okay, "Ona to dziewczynka" - not really.
I have a question: I noticed that sometimes nouns like kobieta are written like kobietą or kobieta. First i thought it has something to do with determined and indetermined pronouns but for me it seems all mixed up...so what are these ą actually for?
- 1475
In Polish (and in many other languages) nouns change, depending on their function in the sentence. When you use 'Kobieta' or 'Dziewczynka' as a subject, it is in the nominative. When used as an object, it is in the accusative or dative, in this case 'Kobietą' or 'Dziewczynką'.
If I'm correct, it's the same in German, but there only the article changes (ex. der -> dem/den).
Dative is for indirect object. "kobietą" and "dziewczynką" are Instrumental.
In an "X is Y" sentence, when Y is a noun phrase, it takes Instrumental. There is also a possibility of saying it as "X to Y" with both X and Y in Nominative, but not if X is a pronoun, as here.
It is, but because most of the people don't have the Polish keyboard, they can't type the ą (same goes with the rest of the letters).
Could you put 'dziewczynkom' as an answer here? I know the kom ending is often used on words but not entirely sure if it's appropriate here
Yes, dziewczynką is pronounced somewhat similiar to that. But dziewczynkom is a word that exists too : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dziewczynkom#Polish , but is the dative plural form, and is not relevant in this sentence.
What' the difference between 'je' and 'jest'? I can't seem to figure out why 'Ona je dziewczynką' is wrong and 'Ona jest dziewczynką' is right.
'jest' is the third-person present tense of the verb być(to be), so it means "is". 'But 'je' is a different word with a few different meanings - you've likely seen it on Duolingo as the third-person present tense of the verb jesć(to eat), so it means "eats", which changes the meaning of the sentence :)
