23 Comments
I don't know if this is the best place for my comment since it does not have much to do with food, but I always come up with word "morze" (sea) in my mind, when I hear "może" ;) they are pronounced the same way, I think. Makes me want to try to make sentence of these. Może morze może mówić : "mąż" ( maybe the sea can say: "husband") ;) please correct me if there's mistakes :)
yes they are pronounced exactly the same way, and are the most "famous" Polish homophones And your sentence is 100% correct :)
I'm not a native speaker, but I don't think the suggested answer "Maybe she is hungry?" is a grammatically correct question in English.
It sounds very natural. E.g. if a baby was crying you would say "maybe she is hungry" either with or without a question intonation.
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Niestety nie zawsze. Niemowlę nie mówi, ono krzyczy!
– Może jest głodna? – ...Nie.
– Może jest mokra? – Nie.
– Może musi tylko spać? – Może.
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I don't see the translation to English like a question, but in Polish, it seems yes.
'maybe she is hungry' to me is barely a question. I would describe it more as a statement of ones opinion which can if one chooses be rebuffed, accepted or ignored. I agree somewhat with LestonBuell 'Might she be hungry' creates the sentence as a question
Well, not everything ending with a question mark is a real question. To me this sentence is someone's guess, a presumption, said with a question intonation because they are not sure.
Anyway, I guess your version works. Added now.
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Perhaps is she hungry? was not accepted as the correct answer. Can anyone explain why?
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The word order is wrong. "Is she hungry" works as a question, but when you're using it as a statement like this, it needs to be "she is hungry". That stays true when we put the word "perhaps" in front of it.
Colloquially at least.. i would say as a question.. about a crying baby Perhaps she is hungry?
It may be about word order. Ona jest głodna - She is hungry. Może ona jest głodna - Maybe/Perhaps she is hungry.
In polish language, am I not supposed to use normal verb infinitive when combining it with modal verb?
Also, could I omit "ona" in this sentence?
It's not "może" as a modal verb here, it's "maybe". So actually it's like a difference between "maybe" and "(she) may be" :)
It's just not a correct question in English. You can ask "Is she hungry", but with "maybe" it's less of a question and more of a presumption.
