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- "Moja babcia daje jej owoce."
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There's a little ambiguity for me here. Does the Polish here mean that the grandma is giving away the fruit she owns (to anyone,) or that the grandma is just giving fruit to someone?
In short, does the "jej" have have a double meaning as both genitive and dative?
I think it means giving it to somebody. I'm not a native speaker, so I can't say for sure, but I don't think the verb "dac" alone would equate to "to give away". The possessive pronoun "swoj" in its appropriate form would probably be used to denote that it is fruit belonging to the grandmother to avoid ambiguity.
Indeed, there is an ambiguity here:
(1) Grandma gives away the fruit that belong to the other feminine (grammatically) being (jej - possessive pronoun)
(2) Grandma gives the fruit to some feminine being. (jej - dative case) The owner of the apple is unspecified.
Beware that in both sentences jej is never related to grandma.
My grandma gives away/is giving away her own fruit - Babcia rozdaje swoje owoce
So can this 'Moja babcia daje jej owoce' also mean 'My grandma gives fruit to her'? Thanks.
Not sure of "fruit". "Owoce" is plural, and I find in the wiktionary: "In senses other than the botanical or figurative ones derived from the botanical sense, the plural is fruits." "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fruit#English
"fruits" always seemed logical to me, but all the time I hear from natives that even in such sentences, it should still be 'fruit', with 'fruits' being acceptable, tops...
In English there are words like fruit and sheep which are the same in singular and plural, where the plural can be a group word. Fruits would imply a selection of different kinds e.g. an apple, a banana and an orange..
Which to me is the most logical option, if you only have one type, why not just name it? ;) But even after this argument the native speakers still claim that it should be "fruit" in almost any sentence :/
Thank you very much, there are strange things in English too, not only in Polish ...
Duolingo not accepted my answer with word "grandmother" and say that correct word is "nana"
The correct answer to this question is not provided in the multiple choice selections
Well, frankly, that seems impossible just given how the multiple choice exercises are constructed... could you tell us what were the options?
Fruit is a great word as the plural of fruit is still fruit. One apple is A fruit, two apples are fruit. It only becomes fruits when you mention different types of fruit so an apple and and orange are two fruits.
Not quite :)
Here it's an uncountable noun so there is no plural.
Fruit is both a countable and an uncountable noun.
Uncountable
One piece of fruit
Two pieces of fruit
Countable (referring as you said to varieties of fruit)
One fruit
Two fruits
This applies to other foodstuffs such as meets and cheeses.
The countable form is also used botanically and in metaphores.
Does "her fruit" here mean fruit belonging to a female or fruit to a female? Is her a possessive adjective or a pronoun (with the "to" assumed.
I believe in both languages it is almost certainly "gives fruit to her", although "gives her fruit to someone" is theoretically possible. But it would really feel better if we stated 'to whom does she give her fruit', right? Or changed the verb a bit, like "gives out"...
"dać" - to give something to someone just once
"dawać" - to give repetitively, multiple times
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Earlier in this round of questions a ' my sister...' type sentence was translated as 'siostra ..' with the explanation that the 'moja ' is not needed ( ive probably got it wrong tho!). Therefore can sentences that begin ...' my grandma '...' my dad ' etc also be translated..'Babcia..' ' 'Tata ...' etc.?(without the moja or moj)
It's clear that you can omit the possessive pronoun when the family member 'belongs' to the subject of the sentence (Widzę babcię = I see my grandma, if it wasn't my own grandma, then I'd say whose grandma it is).
It's more complicated if the family member is the subject of the sentence. But we decided that even then it's possible (just not so obvious, you need context to make it clear). Anyway, added the possibility to omit "moja" here.
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Oh, right! Thanks a lot! In my native language "owoc" means "vegetable", so it's often confusing for me
