"Pracuję razem z moją ciocią."
Translation:I work together with my aunt.
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Well, which word order you would use as a translation is just a matter of emphasis.
More natural or not, it really is quite far from the Polish sentence, too far.
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So we have a situation where the recommended English translation is a little unnatural. I wonder if there is an alternative English translation that works better or if this is just one case where the Polish doesn't translate well.
That's what I said and was marked incorrect. I thou ght the idea was to translate it as we'd express it in good, conversational English.
We try to be somewhere between "being close to the source sentence in terms of the syntax" and "being natural in English", provided of course that the 'close syntax' version isn't some complete nonsense in English. We particularly dislike changing the grammatical subject of the sentence.
However, I look at "My aunt and I work together" and I think about translating it into Polish. That's literally "Moja ciocia i ja pracujemy razem". Nothing is wrong there, but I just don't think we'd say that. And I know that "My aunt and I..." is common and natural. So basically... OK, let's add it.
The together really is not necessary in my opinion, when you work with your aunt, you are working together. It sounds redudant.
This sentence sounds very odd in English, like I would only say it if I'd got my words muddled up halfway through the sentence.
Does "razem" have the sense of "at the same time"? I am thinking of "teraz", which looks like "this time" = "now".
Not really, although perhaps in a context specific enough, it could be used for a situation where both you and your aunt work 'separately but at the same time'.
If the context makes it clear that you're talking about your aunt, then "moją" can be omitted here, right?
What is the thing with "Swoją"? Why is this applicable to my or his or her? Is it like a magic word that can pinch hit for all except when you need to be polite with a Pan or Pani?
It always refers to the subject of the sentence. If only it is correct in a given sentence, it always is better than the 'normal' possessive.
This course has introduced it too late and therefore there are many sentences which would be a lot better if they used it instead of the 'normal' possessive.
"pan" and "pani" also work perfectly well with "swój".
There are people in the UK who would say 'I work together with my aunt'. It's a sure fire way to spot a Pole.
Not sure if that's a joke about whole families of Polish immigrants or a comment about grammar...
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I think it's both: That Polish immigrants, who seem to be frequently spot in Southern England (regarding the earliest news coverage of the Brexit and how violent Brexiters started rushing for Polish immigrants) translate such sentences literally from their mother tongue, while native English people would formulate the sentence differently.