"You do not know that man."

Translation: Nie znasz tamtego mężczyzny.

[immerweiter]

why don´t they use mężczyznę insted of mężczyzny

[immery]

When the sentence is negative , accusative changes to Genitive.

[findlilyhere]

What's the difference between "tego"and "tamtego"?

[Jellei]

The first one is a form of "this", and the second one of "that".

Also those words work a bit differently between English and Polish, so it's basically like [this/that/that] vs [tego/tego/tamtego] (and forms). So "tamtego" is really more like "that one over there".

[Marks797148]

Hmm, I got this wrong...but it was accepted. I shouldn't admit it I suppose. :)

[Kekkonen]

Would like to report a typo in multiple choice: "Nle znasz..."

[JulesBear1]

Masculine personal singular genitive case nouns sometimes end in a but sometimes end in y, right? Is there a way to tell the difference or is that just a thing I should remember individually?

[immery]

masculine personal/animate? that is easy -a for consonant ending, -y for -a ending.

masculine not animate is not easy -a/-u feel rather random to Polish native speakers, I can link a set of general rules, but the bottom line (of advice to Polish people)- for rarely used nouns check dictionary

http://www.ekorekta24.pl/dopelniacz-liczby-pojedynczej-rzeczownikow-rodzaju-meskiego-koncowka-a-czy-u/

genitive endings :

"-i"

some feminine nouns (pani-pani, kąpiel-kąpieli) (it depends on the last consonant)

"-y"

• feminine nouns (kobieta-kobiety)
• "a" ending masculine nouns (mężczyzna-mężczyzny)

"-a"

• all neuter nouns

• masculine nouns that describe people and animals

• masculine nouns that describe tools vessels (garnek-garnka=pot), weight (kilogram-kilograma), measures (metr-metra), numbers (milion-miliona) and months (maj-maja)

• masculine nouns that describe fruits (banan-banana), vegetables (pomidor-pomidora),mushrooms (borowik-borowika) brands(Opel-Opla) , dances (walc-walca) and games (poker-pokera)

"-u"

• abstract, collective and material nouns ( humor-humoru, tłum-tłumu=crowd, bursztyn-bursztynu=amber)

-acronyms (GPS-u)

[JulesBear1]

How would you pronounce "GPS-u"

[immery]

dżipiesu.

[Jellei]

I'd go with "dżi-pi-esu", not to pronounce the word "pies" in it ;)

[Jellei]

Well, "mężczyzna" looks like a feminine word, and so it undergoes declension like one.

I think the problem (and yes, you rather just need to remember) will be rather between -a and -u.

[ptti386680]

Why tamtego, and not tamtej?
I thaught that it's tamtej when it is negative..

[Jellei]

But there are also genders involved. "tamtej" is a Genitive (so correct) case, but it's also a feminine form. "a man" is obviously masculine, and it needs the form "tamtego".

Read more about it here: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-demonstrative-pronouns/

[BillMair40]

Pan nie zna tamtego mężczyzny

[Jellei]

Added now.

[Auste552290]

jaka jest roznica czy nie wiesz czy nie znasz?

[deactivated user]

wiesz - masz wiedzę, masz świadomość prawdziwości czegoś

• wiesz gdzie jest ..., wiesz kiedy jest ..., wiesz o której godzinie jest ...
• wiesz jak on się nazywa

znasz - masz z tym do czynienia w przeszłości

• znasz kogoś, znasz Renatę, znasz język polski
• znasz drogę (byłem tu wcześniej)

[BasiaNowak3]

It's the same kind of distinction as in French, I think, mostly.

Nie wiesz = tu ne sais pas, nie znasz = tu ne connais pas

I like to think of the second one as "being familiar with."

[Yola448704]

You do not know that man - Nie znasz/Nie znacie tego/tamtego człowieka

[Ubeogesh]

sometimes 2nd z in mężczyzny is plain z, sometimes it's ź. What gives?

[Jellei]

Different grammatical cases, some forms are softened. See here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/m%C4%99%C5%BCczyzna#Declension