"Ty i ja idziemy."
Translation:You and I are walking.
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Polish verbs (like English) have aspects. One example of this in English is that incomplete or imperfect actions can be expressed using by adding "ing" and using to be as the modal, or auxiliary verb, e.g.:
- I am going
- He is fishing
- He is riding his bike
In all of those examples, I'm describing an action that is happening right now and is incomplete (yet to finish). It's sometimes called the continuous tense in English.
We also have perfect forms in English (just like Polish), these forms are used to express habitual or complete actions, e.g.:
- He fishes (it's his hobby)
- I go to school (this is something I do every day)
- He works at a garage (I'm telling you what his job is, not what he's necessarily doing right now)
That subtle difference in English imperfect and perfect forms , in Polish is expressed not by changing the verb ending, but by using the perfect form of the verb instead (e.g. jeść vs zjeść)
That's why it's not correct to translate "Ty i ja idziemy" (imperfect ) to "You and I walk" (perfect), the essence of the meaning is that you and I are walking (right now), not something we do on a casual or habitual basis.
There's a much more detailed post (and very useful) post about it here:
Well, but perfective verbs actually only come into the picture in the Past and Future Tenses... apart from "I am going"/"I go to school", there will be no difference between the tenses in your other examples. Only Verbs of Motion have a distinction in the Present Tense, and apart of them some verbs have a 'habitual' equivalent which is not obligatory though.
For example it is impossible to use "zjeść" in the Present Tense.
I was trying to illustrate the difference between perfect and imperfect aspects in English as opposed to presenting English sentences that would translate to Polish perfect equivalents.
The thing I'm trying to show is that perfect vs imperfect exists in English, and that most native speakers don't even realise they're already doing it.
If they can wrap their head around that, hopefully the leap to Polish won't be quite as hard.
It's a great explanation, but you are comparing the present continuous and the present simple in English.
I had "You and I are going" and it said it was wrong and should have been "You and me are going". But "me" is wrong, despite its common (mis)usage. If "Me is going" sounds wrong, then "You and me are going" is wrong too.
True, but it's so common that it's hard to reject it, or we would drown in reports for it... besides, "You and I are going" is the main answer anyway, it should have worked.
It refused you and i are going, requiring "you and i are walking" , which in my experience is rarely the meaning of idziemy
Well, it's actually the exact meaning, it just isn't used that often in English.
"you and i are going" is an accepted answer, it should have worked. "walking" is in the starred answer, so if perhaps you actually made any typo, the algorithm may have corrected the whole sentence to "You and I are walking".
In English we often use object forms in double subjects in informal speech. Some people even use the subject forms for double objects.
1005
Why not "you and I walk". I thought there was only one present form in polish so I don't understand why this is not correct. In all the other exercises both english present forms were correct.
- 810
Is Polish like English where you put yourself last in a list?
In English it would be correct to say "Bob and I went to the store", but incorrect to say "Me and Bob went to the store"
It's a nitpick in English and if you said "Me and Bob" people would understand, but it's still grammatically incorrect.
I am not aware of such a rule in Polish, although I guess it could be considered more... humble.
Shouldn't your comparison be rather between "Bob and I" vs "I and Bob", though?
Having grown up around some polish family members, i remember the term "idziemy" being used to just go anywhere, like to the store or someone's house, regardless of whether we're walking or driving. Does "idziemy" technically just refer to walking? Is it normal/colloquial in Polish to use "idziemy" if we're going somewhere, even if we're not walking?
Yes, if you consider the vehicle irrelevant, "idziemy" is fine even if you're taking a car/bus/train. You can be more specific and say "jedziemy" (we're using some wheeled vehicle), but you don't have to.