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- Topic: Polish >
- "Tamta mała ryba jest zła."
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Part of me hopes one day I will get to use this phrase. Another part is worried of the situation I would find myself where I would need to say this sentence.
Like a real small shark so small it might actually be cute trying to bite your leg off.
Can this sentence also translate as 'this fish is bad' as in gone bad/foul?
I would never say 'zła' about food that has gone bad. I'd say "Tamta mała ryba jest nieświeża/zepsuta".
time to yell this out when i go to Poland as my sister will chase me in a fish costume
It's funny in Russian. Tam ta ryba zlaja, means, "That fish there is angry." Hahaha
In my experience (I live in Poland for a year), zła/zły is almost always used for mad. I never really use the word for anything other than mad. So I think it is a mad fish!
In Russian, Ryba - zlaja means "The fish is angry," and
Ryba - zla means "The fish is evil."
If the adjective is masculine, though, then it's zloj for both "angry" and "evil."
Yeah. From three possibilities: bad, devious, angry for the fish one would choose third as default and after that the first one.
One can explicitly say that the fish is bad: "ta ryba jest zepsuta".- this fish is bad/rotten.
Hard to say. As a first try I would accent it differently and use some mimics: Ta ryba jest złaaa! But how to write it expressly? For other possibilities I used synonymous dictionary: http://synonim.net/synonim/zły
Just look how imprecise and universal the word "zły" in Polish is.
Ok. So now other possibilities:
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Ta ryba jest diabelna, szatańska, piekielna, demoniczna. (devil-like, devil-like, infernal, demonic)
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One of my favourites words in Polish: złowroga = zły (evil,bad) + wrogi (enemy). Ta ryba jest złowroga
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Podła ryba - this is good (I mean, to denote sth as evil) if one talks about humans, in context of everything else it means cheap and of bad quality
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Bezecny (another word I like), niegodziwy can be use only with humans
"zła" also translates into "mad" also, "do widzenia" also translates into "see you"
Ok, yes, that is true. However, "Do widzenia " and "do zobaczenia" can be intertwined. It's just that "do widzenia" is more formal. So "see you" fits both of them, just one is more casual.
Because it is "noun is adjective" sentence. In this kind of sentence adjective is in nominative case.
Thanks for the useful comment. I was asking for the grammar rule which dictates that.
The instrumental case is not needed when it is an adjective by itself. Zła is an adjective by itself so it stays in the nominative case.
Jestem zły.
Instrumental case is used when the verb być describes another noun, and any modifying adjective always matches the case of the noun that it modifies.
Jestem złym człowiekiem.
I am assuming whether you say that the fish is bad or evil just depends on context?
Yes... but generally the problem is, that the adjective "zły" is surprisingly difficult in usage, despite the fact that it seems to be so basic. It has been introduced too early, and frankly, most of the sentences with it are... bad.
This does not mean that the fish is 'not fresh', for example.
I said, "That small fish is evil," and still got it correct. I hope, when I go to Poland, I get to use this phrase.
Actually, the only accepted option should be "that". Removed "the".
If the form was "Ta mała ryba...", then all three: [This/That/The] would be acceptable.
I had to build the sentence thanks to the labels, but could not choose "bad", when "evil" was expected... According to me it's really weard to say about a fish that "it is evil". But neither English nor Polish are my mother language. Could someone check if this translation is really correct?
It is correct, it's just that the sentence is... bad. "zły" is a surprisingly difficult word to teach, despite the fact that it seems so basic. So frankly, at least in my opinions, all the sentences introducing it are... well, bad. Because it was just too early in the course.
The form of the determiner "this" has to match the noun it refers to.
"ten" is masculine, "ta" is feminine, "to" is neuter.
"tamta" is feminine but it means "that". Then you have masculine "tamten" and neuter "tamto".
Evil! lol. 'Bad' would make more sense. Depending on what this fish has done
Tamta Baracuda jest zła. Tamta mała pirania jest bardzo zła. Or they are evil characters from let us say a cartoon. Why not?
Each one is used for different genders of the noun it's referring to.
I had said correctly "bad", but they gave an alternative answer as the fish is evil. We would never say the fish is evil in a normal context. It would have to be like in a horror film some monster fish would be evil.
