"Potrzebujesz kawy!"

Translation: You need coffee!

[Naylor1993]

Why not "you need a coffee"?

[AstroVulpes]

Coffee is an uncountable noun, like milk, water, tea, sugar, and flour. You can say "You need a cup of coffee", "a glass of coffee", "a bottle of coffee", "a carton of coffee", "a mouthful of coffee", but NEVER "a coffee".

[tadjanow]

Coffee can be countable or uncountable. 'A coffee' is synomymous with 'a cup of coffee'

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/countable-nouns

[AstroVulpes]

I was unaware of that, I did not learn it like that, does it work for others too, like milk or flour?

[tadjanow]

You'll just have to look it up in the dictionary. For example 'milk' is both countable and uncountable

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/milk

But flour is uncountable

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flour

[Yola448704]

It works like that when you order it as one unit or one portion having a price per unit or per portion, usually in a restaurant, a coffee shop or a bar:

A coffee (a cup/one portion of coffee) for me and
a beer (a bottle/one portion of beer) for my friend, a soup (a bowl/one portion of soup) for my mom, and a gin (a glass/one portion of gin) for my dad.

[LearninLis]

Why is this genitive not accusative, isn't it the direct object?

[tadjanow]

Some verbs connect with genitive rather than accusative and 'potrzebować' is one of them.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/potrzebować#Verb

[LearninLis]

thanks, good to know. Any other common verbs like that or that are in the course?

[tadjanow]

I don't know about the course, but I found a list of most popular such verbs (source : http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/140223,,,,dopelniacz,haslo.html ) and translated them for your convenience:

bać się - to be afraid

brakować/ braknąć - to be missing, to be insufficient

chcieć - to want

dokonywać/ dokonać - to achieve

domagać się - to demand

dotyczyć - to apply to

dotykać/ dotknąć - to be touching/ to touch

doznawać/ doznać - to experience, to feel

lękać się, obawiać się - to be afraid

oczekiwać - to wait for

odmawiać/ odmówić - to refuse

pilnować - to guard

potrzebować - to need

pragnąć - to desire

próbować/ spróbować - to be trying/ to try

słuchać - to listen

spodziewać się - to expect

szukać/ poszukać - to look for

uczyć się/ nauczyć się - to study/to learn

udzielać/ udzielić - to grant

unikać/ uniknąć - to avoid

używać/ użyć - to be using/ to use

wymagać - to demand

wstydzić się - to be embarrassed

wystarczać/ wystarczyć - to be sufficient

zabraniać/ zabronić, zakazywać/ zakazać - to forbid

zapominać/ zapomnieć - to forget

zazdrościć - to envy

żałować - to regret

życzyć - to wish

[Oliver536732]

Thanks that's very helpful!

[dudeski123]

You know me too well, Duo

[Nately_Nate]

You know me too well duo

[tryingveryhard]

Amen

[ArmanAldan1]

You're damn right!

[RP29]

It seems arbitrary. I need a coffee is used. So is ...a beer, ... a gin, ...a whisky, but not ... a rum or ... wine or ... a tea or ...a milk or ... a water.

[tryingveryhard]

Yeah, that's English for you... for every rule there's at least 10 words/phrases that break it.

[GaeniiBee]

They aren't countable still, we just shorten things in English because we are lazy. "a tea" is short for a cup of tea. If you go to a bar and ask for "a beer" what you are actually asking for is "a bottle of beer" or "a pint of beer". But beer itself is uncountable: "where's the beer?"

[EdgySushiL]

~i can make you feel alIiIiIve, i know, but do i need you to surviiiiiive~