23 Comments
that are Polish numerals and quantifiers for you. It is plural instrumental.
My guess is that when you use "jest" after quantifier or numeral , you use plural instrumental adjective or noun. When you use "są" , you use plural nominative adjective. (rules for jest /są in links above) But it is what my Polish brain tells me and I cannot find a source to confirm.
You are right. It is Instrumental and starych is genitive here. Because of wielu.
546
Starych is also accusative. Is it not simply the accusative here, as we'd expect?
wiele, wielu and so go with genitiv/dopełniacz. same goes with dużo and many others. Also all numbers from 5 require genitiv plural, and the forms like dwóch, trzech...
RE: immery's quantifier, this will take people to the direct page: http://www.placedauphine.net/random/PolishGrammar.pdf#page=47
Deep link syntax for PDFs is {url}#page=[page-number]
more literally "a lot out of us", I think... anyway, without it it wouldn't really make sense.
It's not actually, it just looks like Genitive. It's the 'masculine personal' form of Nominative. It shows that there is some man among 'us'. Alternatively, it can be "Wiele z nas jest starych", which would mean that 'we' are only women.
Why is it not "jesteśmy" here? Because of "nas" us/we is in first person pl. not third person sing.
The subject of the sentence is in fact "wielu", and as other quantifiers like that it is grammatically singular.
- 433
I keep seeing these expressions in which you call old people 'starzy (old)'. In polish it's rude. Instead, you use a comparative term 'starszy' (older). So, politely, you would say, 'Wielu z nas jest starszych.'
I wouldn't say that it's rude... it's just a statement of a fact. It's a very basic adjective. "old" seems to be similar in English, with "elderly" being an equivalent of "starszy".
But sure, why not, we can accept "starszych". Added now.
I think this should be "Most of us..." I have always used it like that and nobody corrected me in 15 years
Well, "most of us" is surely a correct phrase, but not what the Polish sentence means.
If 49 out of 100 people are old, that's "a lot" (okay, that's subjective, but still), but it's not "most".
