"A duck is an animal."
Translation:Kaczka to zwierzę.
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How do you know when to use Ciem and when to use em...sorry just a bit confused on this
Well... it looks like a good rule, although sometimes the length will be the same, e.g. with (most? all?) feminine nouns.
In a lot of cases, they're completely interchangeable. Have a look here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16373167
If "Kaczka jest zwierzęciem" was available, and I guess it was, then everything is fine. Well, could be better (see here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/27952965), but it's fine.
The explanation Tadjanow and MariZahariev gave is interesting, but I don't find it very helpful. Why do we use the instrumental case when we categorize things?
Often there's no better answer than "we just do". At least unless someone is educated in the history of language...
This one is hard to explain in English, since it has no idea of nouns declination/cases. Try to think of the question not like "what the cat IS" - an animal, but "what the cat is being" (or even "being of") - then it makes more sense to not use just a simple nominative case (an animal), but instrumental.
I understand kacza to zwierze being right but how is "kaczka jest zwierzeciem" also right? Isn't that 'a duck is animals'?
I said kaczka jest zwierzę. Why is that wrong? Why is zwierzęciem now the only accepted answer?? I'm sure we used that sentence form for "zwierzę" a short while back!
Kaczka to zwierzę (to + nominative).
Kaczka jest zwierzęciem (jest + instrumental).
Kaczka to jest zwierzę I was told by a native polish speaker that the above, though not common, is technucally correct to say. What are your thoughts?
We agree. We don't love it, we don't teach it, but we try to accept it. Added here.
