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- "I am sad, even though I have…
"I am sad, even though I have wine."
Translation:Jestem smutna, choć mam wino.
27 Comments
Does anybody else want to hug whoever makes the sentences for Duolingo?
Jestem smutny bo uczę się polskiego na Duolingo...
no difference, or at least small enough that there is no difference for a native speaker at a first look.
Przyjmijcie jakiegoś optymistę do układania zdań w DuoLingo, bo większość z nich jest smutna!
If you are a woman , you say "jestem smutna".
If you are a man, you say "jestem smutny".
(If you consider yourself "none of the above", you still have to choose which grammatical gender you use)
usually people use feminine or masculine grammar. Using neuter grammar forms when talking about yourself is very uncommon. It may happen in literature, with personifications (sun, summer).
271
Thanks for addressing this, I have friends who are non-binary (not male or female) and I always wonder what the best way to talk about them in other languages is! I guess the only way to know for sure is to ask them which they prefer.
It doesn't end though. Who is one to presume that another feels female that day (for example) when they look female but are wearing trousers. It is also privileging some baseline as normal. I think we will have to ask everyone everyday to be fair and not prejudiced. It will take a lot of work, like when ordering coffee. ;-) (What kind, which milk, how large, what extras, paper or plastic...)
- 732
We have in Poland a whole debate about "minister", "architekt", "prezydent" because there are job names without proper feminine counterparts.
- 792
I've wondered about this a lot. (Being non-binary myself.) Now that a lot more non-binary people are out around the world, I keep hearing about linguistic innovations in various gendered languages. It's so exciting.
E.g. Hebrew only has two grammatical genders, which are frequently applied to verbs, including in the present tense (unlike in Polish). The most common workaround for Hebrew-speaking enbies has been to frequently alternate masculine & feminine forms. Though now there are also new word endings being created (e.g. www.nonbinaryhebrew.com).
So I was wondering what was being innovated by/for Polish enbies. Do we alternate male & female voice? Popularise using the neuter voice for people, including creating first & second person forms? (Which would be, grammatically speaking, super easy. I've done it.) Do we just always speak in the present tense? :)
I live abroad now, and rarely use my Polish. (Maybe once a week, at a store?) And for short, businessy conversations, I do have workarounds. But not for deep, personal ones.
I think you live in Poland, immery? Where would you suggest looking for information on this?
immery hasn't been active for a long time, she won't answer this. I haven't encountered any ideas how a non-binary person is supposed to talk about... themselves? I don't even know how to say it in English ;)
Who knows, maybe using neuter will come into usage some day. Personally I'd consider it super offensive, as if you didn't even treat your interlocutor like a person, but that's just my subjective view. Maybe people who are actually non-binary use it, I have no clue.
- 792
The correct English singular form is "themself".
Thank you for your feedback as a person living in Poland.
I do not have a problem with using the neuter form for myself (and Polish is my first language), but I'm just one person. I think it's probably only if/when a lot of people start using it for themselves that it'll lose the stigma of being associated with small children/animals/inanimate objects.
PS. Is there a way to access a specific forum discussion when using the Duolingo app on a phone? I pretty much exclusively use it on my phone, and haven't found a way to come back to specific discussions except, like now, when Duolingo gives me the exact same sentence to translate again.
I don't believe there is, other than turning on notifications for answers, so if someone answers to your comment (or, well, writes any other comment in the same discussion) you will get an e-mail notification with the link.
- 792
Ah. I haven't seen that option on my phone version either. I'm guessing turning on notifications is something that I can do only on the web version?
Yes, I believe so. Well, you can always open it on your phone in a browser. In fact, I'd recommend it, as the browser version is simply better, it poses a bigger challenge than the app.
In Finnish, there is practically no gender differences in language. "He" and "she" translate both to "hän". Makes everything way easier. Meanwhile Sweden is having a huge debate about their hon/han/hen pronouns... It seems so silly. Instead of introducing more words, just use one and stick to it. I also don't see why Poles want to further divide themselves between genders. Funny how these go.
Ale alkohol nie jest rozwiązaniem na smutek, lecz w większości przypadków pogorszy go.
It did not accept chociaz, I did misspell it but usually it accepts and mentions "typo".
