"Czy lew to nie kot?"

Translation: Is a lion not a cat?

[polargorilla]

In English this question construction is highly unusual. Perhaps if someone wanted to take their pet lion into a pub, but the barman says, "Only cats are allowed inside", the person might ask, "But, isn't a lion a cat?"

A more usual translated response to this Polish question would be, "Is a lion a cat?"

[Jellei]

In Polish it means the same as your pub sentence. Yes, it's not usual, but it's a grammatical structure worth knowing.

[RuthannPi]

I love this translation. It comes across as a rhetorical device in English...something you might hear in a poem. First thing that popped into my head was Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech "Ain't I a woman?"

[Becbon88]

Why is it "to nie" and "nie jest"? Why not "nie jest" and "nie to"?

[184014169]

this confused me too

[alik1989]

The negation should precede the verb. So just think of "to nie" as an short form of "to nie jest", where the "jest" is implied.

[Tanja-m92]

Would "A lion is not a cat?" be okay, as a reaction not believing what someone else said or is the "czy" indicating, that you have to translate it to a "real" question?

[Jellei]

Yes indeed, "czy" makes it obvious that it's a real Yes/No question.

[yab401]

Why not "kotEM"? Dzięnki

[Jellei]

Either "Czy lew to kot?" or "Czy lew jest kotem?".

[yab401]

Thanks

[Omg_Ein_aLLa]

Omg the fast version of the audio file is impossible to understand xD There are like no spaces between the words ._.

[mrd815495]

I hear "is a lion not a fish [cod]" :-p

[Jellei]

Yeah, the audio is bad :|

[Mimiprincess113]

It should be 'Czy lew nie jest kotem?'

[alik1989]

I like this one better as well. But both versions are correct and accepted in the reverse exercise.