23 Comments
To jest niedobry przykład, bo [EDITED]:
- "Mężczyźni słuchają kobiety." (genitive, singular) = The men are listening to the woman. / The men are obedient to the woman.
- "Mężczyźni słuchają kobiet." (genitive, plural) = The men are listening to the women. / The men are obedient to the women.
Only if you say to someone, that you are ready to listen to that person, meaning that you are ready to take orders or help that person, you use accusative instead of genitive:
- "Tak, słucham panią." (accusative, singular) = Yes, I listen to you, ma'am (I am ready to take your order)
- "Tak, słucham panie." (accusative, plural) = Yes, I listen to you, ladies (I am ready to take your order)
(see słuchać )
ADDITION: full declension of noun KOBIETA
Kobieta - woman; female declension type VI with special forms in Dative (C), Locative (M) singular
KOBIETA ż IV
| Case PL | Sample Questions | Case EN | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Mianownik | kto? co? (jest) | Nominative | kobieta | kobiety |
| 2.Dopełniacz | kogo? czego? (nie ma) | Genitive | kobiety | kobiet |
| 3.Celownik | komu? czemu? (się przyglądam) | Dative | kobiecie | kobietom |
| 4.Biernik | kogo? co? (widzę) | Accusative | kobietę | kobiety |
| 5.Narzędnik | z kim? z czym? (idę) | Instrumental | z kobietą | z kobietami |
| 6.Miejscownik | o kim? o czym? (myślę) | Locative | o kobiecie | o kobietach |
| 7.Wołacz | o! | Vocative | kobieto! | kobiety! |
1625
Unfortunately, You are wrong.
According to sjp.pwn.pl (http://sjp.pwn.pl/poradnia/haslo/dopelniacz-czy-biernik;13519.html) - 'słuchać' needs a genitive, so only the answer given in the course is true.
UPDATE: also in wikipedia - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/s%C5%82ucha%C4%87
Yes, thank you. I've just put it the other way around. But now it is correct. And, thanks for the link.
Yup, unfortunately for learners, Polish has many more of such Genitive/Accusative quirks. On the other hand, practically no one would say słucham kobietę, one would say słucham, co (kobieta / ona) mówi or jak ona śpiewa.
And the phrase with genitive (słucham tej kobiety, słucham tamtego mężczyzny) may also mean just ‘I am listening to what she/he speaks’… Depending on the context. Just like English ‘listen to’, I believe.
With objects, the two also are possible: słucham ich nową płytę or słucham ich nowej płyty for ‘I am listening to their new album’.
Why does słuchajã not make kobieta accusative? When I learn a verb do I have to know the noun after it’s case?
The Genative case shows ownership, measurement, association, or source. That is to say that we "They listen to the women (who generated, or made) the sound"
It helps, until you get used to it, to ask yourself, does the verb's action depend on another person's action? Hope that helps
Ehm... I'm not exactly saying that you're wrong, but how does what you wrote explain that "słuchać" (to listen to) takes Genitive but "słyszeć" (to hear) takes Accusative? I think that often there isn't really any special reason why the verb takes the given case, it's just something you have to remember...
I could not understand the chain of comments. I still believe my answer should be correct: The men are listening to the woman. I believe this should be genitive, therefore, the genitive version of "woman" or "kobieta" would be "kobiety". No?
So Slucha and Potrzebuje require genitive nouns and not accusative?
Are there any other verbs that require genitive rather than accusative? I believe Szuka may be another?
Thanks
Yes, yes and yes. :)
br0d4 compiled a list of such verbs in his post here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16569658
How come "the" is the only accepted article in the translation back to English? I tried with "The men are listening to a woman". Is there something that I am missing?
It's an oversight and it was caused by not accepting "the men" in one of the potential answers. Anyway, will work now.
Why is "mężczyzna" written with "z" while "mężczyźni" is written with "ź"?
It's rather "mężczyźni" that's irregular here, the ending got softened. I cannot really explain why.
It's part of Polish declention. The n gets 'softened' because it adds i, and therefore the z before it gets softened. To soften a consonant: z > ź/zi, s > ś/si, t > ć/ci, n > ń/ni, ł > l, k > c, g > dz, r > rz.
This 'softening' generally occurs when declining adjectives in the masculine human plural in the nominative case, and generally when declining singular nouns in the locative or dative case (although there are excpetions).
Myślałem że tylko mnie to sprawi problem... I'm a polish guy and I have no idea that this is about a women or woman, this is out of context so I guess they might listen to a one woman, tej kobiety (sing.)
"słuchać" wymaga dopełniacza, więc słuchają jednej kobiety. Inaczej byłoby "kobiet".
It is incorrect because men is plural so should be "the men ARE listening to the women"
