"Ona ma kawę."

Translation: She has coffee.

[henryljw]

can someone explain the change in the ending for kawa?

[Jellei]

"kawa" is feminine. All feminine nouns that end in -a in Nominative (so almost all of them) get the -ę ending when used in Accusative. The verb "mieć" (to have) needs Accusative.

[cosmo-pedant]

Do you mean that "The verb "miec" ([TO HAVE]) needs Accusative." ?

[Jellei]

Woah, that was a weird mistake! Yes, of course. Thanks, fixed now.

[Diabolus89]

I translated this as 'She is having coffee' - which makes sense in English. Like when you're at a cafe.

'What are you having? I'm having coffee'.

The only thing I can think is that the Polish don't use 'to have' in this circumstance, and rather use 'to order' or 'to drink'.

Can anyone confirm this?

[filipinojalapeno]

im pretty sure saying youre "having something" to mean eating or drinking it is specifically an english thing

[Jellei]

Yes, one shouldn't assume that such a second, non-literal meaning will translate well to other languages. It surely doesn't translate well to Polish.