"Fish are small animals."

Translation: Ryby to małe zwierzęta.

[MacIomhair]

Why not "są"?

[immery]

You can say
Ryby to są małe zwierzęta
or
Ryby są małymi zwierzętami

[AlexeyPshek]

why is "Kaczki są smaczne." correct then? is it because that there is no noun after the adjective "smaczne"? am i correct?

[Jellei]

Yes. These are examples of "X is Y" sentences. If both X and Y are noun phrases, Y takes Instrumental. If Y is just an adjective, it takes Nominative.

[Tea_mkay]

This makes so much sense explained this way. Thank you

[AlexeyPshek]

tnx

[L-Rell]

Is "Ryby to są małe zwierzęta" correct? If I put that as an answer, it is counted wrong. Can you say "to są"?

[Jellei]

This is not the most common construction and personally I think it sounds a bit clumsy, but technically it's fine and we did accept it in many sentences. Added here.

Still, I do not recommend it.

[MacIomhair]

Thanks

[ShehryarFa1]

Can someone please explain clearly why not "Ryby są małe zwierzęta"

[Jellei]

I believe this topic can: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16373167 (see Part 1).

[Simeon1969]

I must have written this one at least a hundred times and each time I get it wrong I read the above comments... and yet I still put są half the time! Sigh! One day it will click....

[WCVTNestan]

Kinda confused with the "to"

[Jellei]

One of the meanings of "to" is something a bit like an "=" sign in sentences built as "[noun phrase] is/are [noun phrase]".

[tczek]

So for 'Fish are small' would it be 'Ryby są małe?'

[Lt_Serebryakov]

I would think so?

[Norman_Rockwell]

Why not 'mała', seeing as 'Ryba' is feminine? :(

[Jellei]

But we have "small animals" here. Not "small fish". "small fish" would indeed be "mała ryba".

"small animals" is "małe zwierzęta", and as this sentence needs Instrumental, the right form is "małymi zwierzętami".

[iamsuhaani.17]

Sa should come instead of to !!!??

[alik1989]

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/12759781?comment_id=12760212

[matthewfisher59]

Some Einstien figured that out...

[Karolex33]

Tymczasem rekiny

[Loushkin]

Ryba is Fish but Ryby is fishes so why is it not Ryba?

[alik1989]

Ryba is singular, ryby is plural. The English verb 'are' indicates that it's plural.

[deactivated user]

I understand why małymi zwierzętami is correct, but why małe zwierzęta is too?

[Jellei]

Because there are two different constructions that are correct here: "są" + Instrumental (Ryby są małymi zwierzętami) and "to" + Nominative (Ryby to małe zwierzęta).

More info here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16373167

[Linus599673]

Is 'Ryby są małimy zwierzętami.' incorrect?

[alik1989]

-łi- is a phonotactically impossible combination, it should be 'małymi'.

[Musicoli011]

So, no matter what gender the word is in the plural the adjective is neuter? Like "ryba" is feminine but in this sentence we use "małe" instead of "mała.

[Jellei]

I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated, because "małe" here isn't neuter.

There are two plurals: virile (masculine personal plural = groups with at least one man) and nonvirile (not masculine-personal plural = everything else). The nonvirile form of the adjective (in Nominative) is identical to the neuter singular form.

[Doniyor_Borohov]

My są kobietami?

[Jellei]

"My jesteśmy kobietami".

[Bibyte]

A yes, the return of the mala i zle rybe

[C19isalie]

When I type "małym", it gives me right answer but accuses a typo as if it was supposed to be "małymi". When I type "małymi" it gives me wrong answer altogether and it says it's supposed to be "Ryby to małe zwierzęta". I checked and "Ryby są małymi zwerziętami" should be correct.

[Jellei]

Both "Ryby to małe zwierzęta" and "Ryby są małymi zwierzętami" are correct.

The algorithm's correction is not necessarily the closest correct answer to what you tried to answer, so often it confuses people.