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- "Nie jestem psem, jestem kote…
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When do I use "kotem" instead of "kot"? or "psem" instead of "psa" or pies? Or does another lesson describe that in notes? If not which one?
"Kot" and "pies" are in Nominative case and "kotem" and "psem" are in Instrumental. "Psa" is Genitive. Although it might seem bit strange for a non-native speaker, we use Instrumental case with verb być (to be) talking for example about your/someone else's job/nationality/identity. There is some explanation about Instrumental case here: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/pl/Defining.
The only situation when negation changes the case (but a very common situation), is when a verb that took a direct object in Accusative gets negated - it takes Genitive instead.
Other cases (like here you have Instrumental) stay unchanged.
You can read more about it here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/28545847