"Nowa kaczka je chleb."

Translation: The new duck is eating bread.

[Upl1fted]

Nothing strange here. Imagine you're a male duck (a drake) who had a duck girlfriend who hated bread, but you have a new one who likes it. So the new kaczka je chleb, and you're a happy couple.

[RattusColumba]

Just take your upvote.

[Aleks778302]

the new Kaczka libe chleb unlike the kaczka girlfriend

[Snowflower313]

New duck? Like duckling? Where did this duck come from?

[Gerardd88]

No, it's quite strange. Maybe you could say that in some context, for example if you had 20 ducks, bought a new one and wanted to emphasize that THIS new duck is eating bread.

[szmannz]

wow look at your badges i wish I have learned that many

[tanaid]

Really? Where would you happen to say this sentence? Btw, im native Polish speaker.

[Cosmopoiesis]

You're at the lake feeding the ducks. But none of them want it. They know better. They've seen you before. You're bread is stale and hard as a rock. But the new duck... she doesn't know. Look! The new duck is eating bread!

[MikalRysla]

I would rather used: This duck is eating the bread. Or that duck... but not the new...

[s.syed01]

How do I know when to use nowy nowa or nowe?

[tanaid]

Nowy is always for masculine nouns, nowa - feminine nouns, nowe - neuter.

[dale577148]

I thought nowe was for neuter

[Jellei]

And you're right. And also for 'not masculine-personal plural'. But here it has to be "nowa", feminine.

[TomOczkowski]

Sorry, but could you just clarify why is has to be feminine?

[Yola448704]

The adjective has to agree with the noun:

The noun "Kaczka" is a singular feminine noun, so the adjective "nowa" has to be singular feminine adjective
to form the combination "nowa kaczka" - the new duck.

[k3stin]

So, duck is feminine in polish?

[Yola448704]

The noun "kaczka" - "duck", just like the noun "Kobieta" - "woman", ends
with an "a", so it is called a feminine noun. The feminine nouns follow the same grammatical rules.

[JosefSocho]

How would you translate "The new duck eats bread"?

[alik1989]

Same way.

[sigexp]

So, nowy/nowa can be applied to animate nouns as well as inanimate? There is no distinction between "new" and "young"?

[Jellei]

That's just a grammar exercise in matching the adjective to the noun, plus at this point in the course there was very little vocabulary used so there's not much to choose from. "nowa kaczka" is as unusual as English "a new duck".

"young" is "młody" (here: "młoda kaczka").

[sigexp]

Very interesting, thanks for the explanation.

While we're at it, is there an "animate-specific" word for "old" as well? English seems to miss it, actually. "Elderly" is kind of a niche term, and certainly can't be used when talking about ducks.

[Jellei]

Nothing comes to my mind, apart from the fact that "starszy" (the comparative form of "stary", so literally "older") is often used with people and is considered more polite, just like "elderly" in English.