"They are old."

Translation: Oni są starzy.

[RedViperMartell]

Why does the "r" turn into an "rz" in "starzy"?

[immery]

Przymiotniki kończące się na -y tworzą formę mianownika rodzaju męskoosobowego ze zmianami:
adjectives ending with -y form Nominative masculine-personal with changes:

r → rz (stary → starzy, mądry → mądrzy)
s → ś (żałosny → żałośni)
końcówka -ty → -ci (popielaty → popielaci)
końcówka -ły → -li (biały → biali)
końcówka -ny → -ni (wolny → wolni, czytany → czytani)

from https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Aneks:Język_polski_-_przymiotniki

[TimothyHar770036]

It's people like you and these responses that are giving me hope learning Polish.
Thanks for the time and effort!

[Jacek_Szulc]

Ufff. Czasami zapominam jak trudny do nauki może być mój język. Hm, może więc ten angielski nie jest taki trudny jak mi się wydaje... ;-)

[BTLJKS]

I wish more people posted comments on Polish here. I have a lot of fun reading in your language.

[sue898]

Oh Lord --- thanks! I am gonna learn this language somehow!

[Elliot2560]

It would really be helpful if the "adjectives 1" lesson had a tips and notes page that explains the masculine animate plural ending.

[helendrev]

i chose all 3 options and all of them show as incorrect!

[luless]

Oni są starzy - Masculine personal plural. One są stare - Everything else plural. Gender has to match, so any mixes like 'oni są stare' are not allowed.

[Carl6271]

Oni should be allowed, because when it ask to translate from English there is no gender so oni and one are both correct

[Donoav]

'oni' is correct, but 'oni' has to be followed by 'starzy,' not 'stare'

[Marijo333]

thanks i now understand why my "oni" was shown wrong.

[KrystynaBu7]

Thank you for the clear explanation! Very helpful.

[Sara277074]

I have the version where you click on the words to make the sentence, and the only option I have for "they" is One, yet it gets marked wrong because I should choose "Oni", which as I said isn't even a choice!

[Jellei]

Firstly, the base sentence is "Oni są starzy", so it's rather unusual that "oni" wasn't a choice... but anyway, the question is what your whole answer was. Cause you can answer either "Oni są starzy" or "One są stare".

[Sara277074]

The rest of the word choices were for "są" and "starzy", which makes sense that it was flagging "One" as wrong, but then "Oni" should have been in the word bank. I flagged the question but there was not an option to explain the problem, so I mostly posted the problem here to bring it to someone's attention.

I was using a web browser, so ultimately I changed to the keyboard option to type in the correct answer, but if I were using the app this would not have been an option and I would have been stuck in a loop, unable to answer the question correctly.

[Jellei]

I have to say that this is really weird... if anything like that happens again, could you provide a screenshot? Without a screenshot we are not really able to investigate it further or bring it to the staff...

On a separate note, "Są starzy" itself would be accepted. But it's not a starred option, so it's not what the exercise should expect from you, it's just an acceptable answer... all the words from the main answer have to be in the word bank and if they're not, that looks like a serious bug.

[Sara277074]

I'd be happy to provide a screenshot if I see it happen again. How should I submit it?

[Jellei]

You have to upload it on some image-hosting website and then just post the link.

[Becky57701]

I've just had (typed) 'Oni są starszy' rejected. I'll try to work out where I can put a screenshot for you to see.

[random8042]

With the s in starszy, this means "they are older" not "they are old"

[Becky57701]

Thank you, random8042!

[Becky57701]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/isAjzdL8wfWUj7tt5

Does that work?

[serkatt]

Could one not use the dummy pronoun and say "To sa stare?"

[Jellei]

In generally that would be possible, but that would mean "These/Those/They are the old ones". (e.g. "To są nowe kanapki, a to są stare" = "These are the new sandwiches, and those are the old ones")

[O_Fred_O]

"one są starzy" was counted wrong

[Donoav]

because it's either 'oni są starzy' (oni = men or a man + anyone else) or 'one są stare' (one = not a single man there)

[Malu713891]

Why "one są starymi" is wrong? The verb "być" takes the instrumental form.

[Jellei]

It takes a noun phrase with the Instrumental form ("One są starymi kobietami"). But the adjective just stays in Nominative.

[Malu713891]

Dziękuję!

[RebekahGreatGran]

You cannot have a typo for "Oni" when the tile says "One".

[alik1989]

We'd really need a screenshot of this.

[RebekahGreatGran]

If it occurs again, I will try to do this.

[Anonymoose.__.]

From my choices I only had 'One' and it said I had a typo in my answer and it should have been "Oni".

[Jellei]

Well, what was your whole answer? The question is whether you matched the gender of the pronoun and the adjective correctly. It's either "Oni są starzy" or "One są stare".

[deactivated user]

Why "Oni są stare" is wrong?

[Jellei]

The pronoun and the adjective don't match each other. Basically you have two options:

1. "they" include at least one male person, so it's 'masculine personal plural', aka 'virile'. The right pronoun is "oni" and the right form of the adjective is "starzy".

2. "they" do not include any male people, so it's 'not masculine-personal plural' aka 'non-virile'. The right pronoun is "one" and the right form of the adjective is "stare".

In most Duolingo sentences there's not enough context to say which option is meant, which makes both options equally correct.