"I am eating a tasty tomato."

Translation: Jem smacznego pomidora.

[klaxonn]

I don't understand why the genitive is used here instead of the accusative.

[immery]

accordinng to http://sjp.pwn.pl/slowniki/pomidora.html "pomidor" can have both pomidor and pomidora as Accusative (so it may be animated or not) but pomidora is more colloquial.

So "jem smaczny pomidor" should be accepted as it is a more "correct" but both are commonly used by native speakers

[Euhan1]

Why are we discussing the possible genetive forms? Isn't pomidora in this sentence accusative?

This is very confusative...

[immery]

When I first wrote the comment I mixed up English names of cases. I was talking about Accusative of course.

[ETBubs]

In either case, I am still confused about why we're using genitive to begin with.

Isn't jeść a transitive verb normally taking the accusative? When we're declining the adjective, are we declining smacznego to be accusative (i.e. for people/animals) or we're declining it in the genitive, and neither case makes sense to me as a language learner who thinks that pomidor is a tomato (and not a person/animal) and jeść is a verb that takes the accusative.

I get as a language learner that some stuff is just weird, but there's got to be a rule here, or at least some record of what the exceptions are, right?

[immery]

pomidor, and many more food related words are exceptions. They are treated as grammatically "animated".

[ETBubs]

That's interesting. Is there an article where I can read up on this?

[magpie_gir]

m1 - masculine personal
m2 - masculine animate
m3 - masculine non-animate

Masculine animate [m2] = animals, plants, some food: fruits, vegetables, countable dish; names of sport games.

e.g. kot a cat, pies a dog, storczyk a orchid, ananas a pineapple, orzech a nut, kotlet a cutlet, naleśnik a pancake, tenis a tennis

Sports: It works like that: Gram w +D. (ending: -a (m2)) but “Uprawiam +D. (without ending (m3))
Gram w hokeja - I play hockey; Gram w golfa - I play golf, but Uprawiam (zawodowo) hokej - I play (professionally) hockey; Uprawiam sport - I play sports.
Yes, there are subcases – they differ depending on the preposition with which the verb connects. So when you learn a new verb – look what combinations this verb makes (with/without preposition) with masculine impersonal nouns. Learn sentences not just words.
I think that not alive things that we mostly throw in this category are things that we can easly (and often) carry. They are ‘born’ when we say – Podaj mi jednego ‘give me one’:

Mam smartfona (m2) – I have a smartphone, but Mam telefon (m3) – I have a phone (besause first phones were stationary)

Mam laptopa (m2) – I have a laptop, but Mam computer (m3) – I have a computer (because first computers were stationary) [But: Mam tablet - I have a tablet. ]

Daj mi papierosa (m2) – Give me a cigarette, but Daj mi długopis (m3) – Give me a pen (because there is more than one cigarette in one package)

You must know that subgrammatical gender (m1, m2, m3) isn’t ‘born’ because of grammatical rules, but from our habits.
Grammatical endings are not from some linguists but are prefered endings by people. If linguist or some "experts" don't aprove the ending than often are two forms.
The same is with pomidor. Mostly 99% of Poles say: Mam pomidora, Mam buraka, Mam banana, Mam ziemniaka etc.

[zagadka314]

Well, its not accepted :(

[Jellei]

Added now.

Still, I don't know if in my whole life I've heard anyone say that, even if technically that's the correct version...

[Euhan1]

I would say that this IS the accusative (because of poles view of tomatoes as being "animated"). I would very much like someone who knows Polish better than I do clearly confirm this conjecture.

[Jellei]

Confirmed.

[magpie_gir]

m1 - masculine personal

m2 - masculine animate

m3 - masculine non-animate

Masculine animate [m2] = animals, plants, some food: fruits, vegetables, countable dishes; names of sport games.

e.g. kot a cat, pies a dog, storczyk a orchid, ananas a pineapple, orzech a nut, kotlet a cutlet, naleśnik a pancake, tenis a tennis

Sports: It works like that: Gram w +A. (ending: -a (m2)) but “Uprawiam +A. (without ending (m3))
Gram w hokeja - I play hockey; Gram w golfa - I play golf, but Uprawiam (zawodowo) hokej - I play (professionally) hockey; Uprawiam sport - I play sports.
Yes, there are subcases – they differ depending on the preposition with which the verb connects. So when you learn a new verb – look what combinations this verb makes (with/without preposition) with masculine impersonal nouns. Learn sentences not just words.

I think that not alive things that we mostly throw in this category are things that we can easly (and often) carry. They are ‘born’ when we say – Podaj mi jednego ‘give me one’:

Mam smartfona (m2) – I have a smartphone, but Mam telefon (m3) – I have a phone (besause first phones were stationary)

Mam laptopa (m2) – I have a laptop, but Mam computer (m3) – I have a computer (because first computers were stationary) [But: Mam tablet - I have a tablet. ]

Daj mi papierosa (m2) – Give me a cigarette, but Daj mi długopis (m3) – Give me a pen (because there is more than one cigarette in one package)

You must know that subgrammatical gender (m1, m2, m3) isn’t ‘born’ because of grammatical rules, but from our habits.
Grammatical endings are not from some linguists but are prefered endings by people. If linguist or some "experts" don't aprove the ending than often are two forms.
The same is with pomidor. Probably 99% of Poles say: Mam pomidora, Mam buraka, Mam banana, Mam ziemniaka etc.

I don't agree with people that say that Poles use both forms - there are prefered forms: mnie = mię, but Poles don't use second, you can use dwu as dwóch, dwom or dwoma but we don't do it either.

[Eleanor756858]

So is tomato masculine or feminine? Or does the 'a' at the end of pomidor signify case?

[mizinamo]

does the 'a' at the end of pomidor signify case?

That's right.