"Why are you not taking a bag?"
Translation:Dlaczego nie bierzesz torby?
10 Comments
It's taken me all this time to catch on that dlaczego is like dla czego which, at least to my Russian speaking brain, reads as 'for what?' and so makes complete sense as 'why?' So maybe this will help someone else, too!
It's also very similar in some non-Slavic languages especially Romance, like French 'pourquoi/parce que', Italian 'perche' etc.
I honestly can't figure out how it took me so long to spot in Slavic languages!
1632
To return a favour - Your зачем is a false friend of our 'za czym=po co' ('Зачем ты идёшь в магазин' looks for me like 'What are you going to the store for'). So the mechanism is lookin almost the same from the other side ;)
I only realised after writing this how зачем and почему must come from за чем and по чему. I really don't know how I didn't spot it before, kinda feel like an idiot LOL. dla czego makes dlaczego soooo much easier to remember.
- 1632
Sorry, I thought You are a Russian native.
But to tell the truth, I learned a lot about my language since this course started ;)
No, I studied it in uni and it is enormously helpful with other Slavic languages, but sadly I'm only a native speaker of English! :'(
(Honestly, most of the English grammar I know I learned through learning other languages, especially Slavic languages! ;))
Yes. But it is so popular, that actually it often seems more (or at least equally) natural than "torba". That's why we decided to make it a starred answer as well.
As far as I know from speaking with Polish people, 'Czemu' is also often used to mean 'why', and 'czemu'='for what' ('co' in dative case)
