"On nie ma niebieskich butów."
Translation:He does not have blue shoes.
24 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Why this particular ending for "blue"? Is it because of how "shoes" is ended, or simply that "shoes" is in the Plural?
1838
The Polish word "niebieski" for "blue" sounds very nice. As if it is named after the sky :)
Speaking as an Irish person, I would more naturally say "He doesn't have blue shoes." Would this be right?
That's the main answer. Well, "does not" is, but that's basically the same thing.
- 1838
Why couldn't "he hasn't" be? Has it different meaning? "He hasn't blue shoes"? Thanks a lot.
- 1331
I'm also puzzled. Bevore when I translated: I have no books, he has no pants... it always was counted as wrong. It should be: I do not have, he hasn't.... Here I wrote "He hasn't blue shoes" and ist again was counted as wrong. I know this is English grammar, but when du I use: "I have no..." and when do I use "I do not have..."?
You would need to add "got" to this sentence to make it sound right. "He hasn't got blue shoes"
While it still sounds strange to me, it appears that in English (one of the varieties, at least) it is possible to say it without 'got'... Duolingo comments and discussions with natives have taught me that several things that sound completely wrong to me aren't actually wrong.
I had to think on this a bit. "Does not have" is acceptable in any circumstance. "Has no" or "hasn't got/any" is usually only used when someone has requested that item from someone who lacks it. For example: "May I borrow your sister's blue shoes?" "But, my sister has no [hasn't any] blue shoes!" In those situations, "any" is better than "got", as the latter sounds lazy and colloquial. "Hasn't got any" is probably more common than "hasn't any" or "hasn't got". Regardless of which "has" phrase is used, these forms are only used when there is an expectation that someone does have them, and "doesn't have" works just as well.
Declarative sentence, "He has blue shoes": "On ma niebieskie buty" ("mieć" = to have takes Accusative).
Now, if you negate a verb that normally takes Accusative, it takes Genitive instead: "On nie ma niebieskich butów".
Remember that only Accusative changes case when negated, other cases stay unchanged.
I am trying very hard to understand polish grammar, but as a native dutch speaker I do not understand words like "Accusative" do you know if these words get explained somewhere?
I quickly checked, and Dutch used to have cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_Dutch_declension#Accusative - just a fun fact ;)
I'd go here to read about cases: https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/#cases
I am seeing that there are three comments here but then it says no one has commented when I try to see what they are. I cannot report this as a problem, as they do not give me the option to report it. Harrumph.
Anyway, I am hoping to see how niebieskich is a plural ending and butòw as well. Perhaps I will find out in future exercises?
- 1331
I have this problem too sometimes. Someone answerd a question as I was told per e-mail, but I can't see it in the discussion.
- 1136
Should the "ch" in niebieskich be heard?
At both fast and slow I didn't hear it. Maybe it's just my ears..
If you don't hear some sound, for 99% it's either "bad audio", or "you're not used to some Polish sounds". There are very, very few 'silent letters' in Polish. An example could be "pięćdziesiąt" (50), in which you rather don't pronounce 'ć' at all.
I can hear "ch" here quite well.
I have a spelling question. I would have guessed the spelling of blue (gen, fem and plural) to niebieskych. Does the y become an i because it follows a k?
Polish phonology doesn't allow -ky- or -gy-, there has to be an /i/ after it. Spelling reflects that.
Oy vey, now I finally understand why it is wysoki and not wysoky and drogi not drogy... I have been wondering about this for months.