"The girl is evil."
Translation:Dziewczynka jest zła.
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'Niedobra' (written together) though literally translated means 'not good', would rather be 'nasty' or 'naughty' in English if reffered to a person. As well as 'niegrzeczna' - the words can be intercheable.
When reffering to an object it would rather mean malfunction or bad taste, rather than evilness.
No. If you just have an adjective after "jest", it stays in Nominative. If you have a noun phrase ("zła kobieta" -> "Dziewczynka jest złą kobietą"), then it takes Instrumental.
That's mostly true, but I have seen exceptions, for example "Chcę być szczęśliwym".
There may be such sentences even in this course, but I think that is technically wrong. In fact I asked some language experts about that and that's the answer that I got, that if it's just an adjective, it stays in Nominative.
Although personally I wouldn't bat an eye if I heard "Chcę być szczęśliwym", it really sounds okay to my ear.
So why is 'chcę być szczęśliwym' correct but not 'dziewczynka jest złą'? Is it because 'być' is the infinitive? Could you say 'ona nie lubi być złą'?
Maybe you could, treating "zła" more like "the evil one"? For sure "tą złą" would sound like that.
I'd keep to the notion that Instrumental shouldn't be used and probably "Chcę być szczęśliwym" should be removed.
I didn't see 'chcę być szczęśliwym' on duolingo. I just meant that I've seen or heard that type of sentence (with an adjective in the instrumental without an accompanying noun after 'być') elsewhere.
Well, the natives make all kinds of mistakes. This one really seems like a small one to me, but it appears it's a mistake nonetheless.
Also, it sounds poetic to me. Maybe it's more acceptable in poetry/songs.