"One nie słyszą konia."

Translation: They do not hear the horse.

[Ploomich]

so are all masc animals animate?

[Jellei]

Yes, they are.

[Ploomich]

thanks!

[MeganKunze1]

Yes, and tomatoes

[Jellei]

And most fruits and vegetables.

[Davoskan]

So, as for animals you're not supposed to use the Genitive but Accusative case when it comes to negation? :/

[Viersch]

No. "Konia" is both gen and acc.

[Vengir]

Just as Viersch said. That's because "koń" is a male animate noun.

[gabe81]

There's more.

For masculine singular it is taken into consideration if the noun is animate or not - animate has acc=gen (Widzę konia, psa, strażaka) , non-animate has acc=nom (Widzę stół).

For masculine plural - if the noun is personal or not - personal has acc=gen (Widzę strażaków), non-personal has acc=nom (Widzę psy, stoły, konie).

So the horses jump into the second group when in plural ;)

[JasonRheinberg]

If the masc. animate, genitive ending is -a why is it not 'kona' rather than 'konia' as written here?

[Vengir]

It's mostly an orthographical thing. The nominative for horse is „koń”. If it were „kon”, then indeed the genitive form would be „kona”. In case of „koń” you would want to also add „-a” and you would get „końa”… which is nice and all, but Polish orthography rules don't allow you to use consonants with a line above them right in front of a vowel (if it's in the same word). In cases like this you have to use „ni” instead (or just „n”, if it is in front of „i”).

[Patty6InnJYdT]

Why do they use on-e and not on-i? Does not both words mean they?

[BenConway6]

That would also be correct. Oni is used with all-male or mixed-sex groups, and one is used for all-female groups (or inanimate objects).

[AdelaideDu8]

I almost didn't hear [słysza] the horse either until I used turtle mode.

[Jellei]

I hear it fine with the normal audio as well...