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- Topic: Polish >
- "Kobieta jest człowiekiem."
39 Comments
It confused "man" with "human." Since you wrote it in plural, it came out badly women are men hahaha
Can człowiek be translated as "person"? My answer," A woman is a person" was not accepted.
"Person" is a perfectly good way of translating człowiek, in fact, is often the most idiomatic way of rendering an English equivalent, and it's frustrating that the course head honchos don't agree.
We only disagree in sentences which clearly mean "człowiek" as a species, a human being. Of course we have nothing against translating "On jest dobrym człowiekiem" as "He is a good person".
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Good! I was just wondering if it was accepted. I did not want to try it as I was testing out and did not want to lose a heart. You're doing an amazing job! Thanks!
Can człowiek be translated as "person"? My answer," A woman is a person" was not accepted.
czlowiek is a masculine noun (or at least that's what the Duolingo tip says), so why doesn't it change to czlowiekem here? (apologies, no Polish characters on my laptop)
człowiek is a masculine noun. The ending for masc. nouns in the Instrumental case is "em", not "iem" (which is for neut. nouns in the Instrumental). Therefore: "the woman is a human" should be "kobieta jest człowiekem" IMHO...
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Ok, now I see your point. Both forms are possible. It all depends on the words. Look there: http://www.polskinawynos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/rzeczownik-zestawienie-koc584cc3b3wek1.pdf That file says that '-iem' ending for masculine is when the word ends for 'k' or 'g'. I'd add that when the word ends for '-ź' or '-dź', you change it to '-ziem'. Ref. to 'niedźwiedź', 'niedźwiedziem'.
All ć, ś, and ź become ci, si, zi in this case, so the "-em" in masculine case still stands.
Im confused about the conjegation like when do you use człowiekiem and człowiek..?
"człowiek" is the basic, Nominative form, used mostly for the subject of the sentence.
"człowiekiem" is the Instrumental form, used mostly after the verb "być" (to be).
But it will be correct to say Woman is an animal too since human is an animal... that means animals and humans are equal... so... where is my wine?
No, the word in question translates to human, not animal... also you'd get nowhere near the same meaning using "animal". I suppose humans and animals are equal in some sense. As for the wine... let's all try to stay sober, this is a family friendly, educational site/app ;)
Why is the answer "A woman is a human" ? I think the answer should be "The woman is a human" OR "This woman is a human"
A woman is a human in Polish would be Kobieta to człowiek. Please correct me if I am wrong. I do not think A woman is a human should be accepted as a correct answer.
Well, as with your other comments, "Kobieta to człowiek" and "Kobieta jest człowiekiem" don't really differ much and none of them has any "this".
Thanks Jellei. You say they "don't differ much" but I suspect there is a difference. Even if it is subtle. I have tried asking Polish speakers but they cannot tell me. Hopefully you can explain the difference?
I feel that maybe in general we can say A woman is a human = Kobieta to człowiek.
And a specific woman This woman is a human= Ta kobieta jest człowiekiem / Ta kobieta to chłowiek.
In this course we don't accept answers like "On to lekarz" for "He is a doctor". We think it's really too clumsy to use with a personal pronoun. And we don't especially love saying "Adam to lekarz" for "Adam is a doctor", although this we do accept.
What am I getting at? I'd personally say that the difference is that the 'to' construction is kinda like using an '=' sign. "Adam to lekarz" is kinda like saying "Adam = a doctor". Meanwhile, "Adam jest lekarzem" says that his profession is a doctor, but there's much more to him than what he does for a living. Generally, I think that the Instrumental construction is more... elegant.
Those sentences that you've been commenting recently are quite early in the tree. There's just not enough vocabulary nor grammar introduced to create more nuanced, better sentences.
