50 Comments
It's terrible. It's not just their malice but the energy with which they spread it!
In fact, it would be a better translation. The bad, naughty child is usually niegrzeczne or niedobre. Złe dziecko sounds like that child wanted to take control of the world, or something.
Maybe this sentence is about Hitler when he was young :3
It's funny, the ":3" really doesn't look like a cat face in the Duolingo font.
My 4 year old asked me "How do you usurp the power in a country?". She was bored because of a long drive and her mind was wandering...
The imagery of this sentence is funny, if you imagine an evil child's face while drinking coffee. :-D
could not save the word "zły" in my head ... until this sentence! a toast to the contributors!
see as a non native you do not really know what sounds better. for me as german first one sounds more natural if i would translate it word for word in german.
Ya what about "the wrong child is drinking coffee." shouldn't that work because złe could also mean the wrong one/child. Well maybe they would say "nie to dziecko pije kawę" see now I'm confused.
In english if you said "the wrong child is drinking coffee" It would be thought that the coffee was meant for a different child.
411
Polish wiktionary has:
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(1.1) agresywny, zdenerwowany (w danej chwili)
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(1.2) niemiły, nieprzyjemny (z charakteru)
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(1.3) niepasujący, nieodpowiedni
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(1.4) niewygodny, nieprzyjemny, nieudany
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(1.5) niegrzeczny, nieposłuszny
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(1.6) niesmaczny
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(1.7) kiepski, nieznający się
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(1.8) o zdrowiu, zmysłach słaby
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(1.9) niekorzystny
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(1.10) błędny, niepoprawny
Fairly versatile adjective, this one. ;-)
So, I have a question...are there more distinct words for evil and wrong that we can use?
I'm going to take the control of the word with the caffeine, muahahahahaha
Sound too harsh.. evil boy doesnt sound good in my ear. Bad is better.
Shouldn't "an angry child" be a more correct translation? (Or does it only seem like this to me as for a Russian speaker? "zloy=angry" in russian and sounds very alike "zły")
No, it's missing an article (in English). Polish doesn't have articles, so it's not missing anything in Polish.
I told this sentence to the native Polish speaker. If I got him right, he understood "złe" as "bad", not "evil". Also he offered another example: "Złe dziecko pali papierosa."
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If "złe dziecko pije kawę" means "THE evil boy is drinking coffee" would it ve different if I wanted to say "AN evil boy is drinking coffee"?
Generally, not. Polish doesn't normally make the distinction between definite and indefinite nouns. Sometimes we can clarify that aspect by using words such as „ten” or „jakiś” (and their inflected words), but it's not required in normal sentences.
For example, if you want to avoid being asked "what child", you can say „Jakieś złe dziecko pije kawę”.
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very interesting discussion for this small word! I am French and so I can say : this sentence could be found in a book of La comtesse de Ségur " The good little evil" !
