"Książka o zwierzętach"
Translation:A book about animals
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If it was easy, it wouldn't be so satisfying when you get it right.
When I tap on the word "zwierzętach" in this sentence, I really wish Duolingo would generally not only show the translation but also in which case this word is written and also what the nominative of this word is. I often see a declined noun and have no clue what the "original" word is and why it is declined in this way...kind of frustrating...
Thank you for your suggestion, we will try to implement it. The tip field is limited to 15 characters. We often struggle with this restriction as Polish is more wordy than English.
It's 25 ;) But it's still a very small limit. 15 would make creating many hints almost impossible.
You may use http://sgjp.pl/ to find the base word by serching for the declined form, and yould find it together with the whole table of declension or conjugation.
a book about "something" ...is locative case?? Could somebody explain me the purpose of locative then :)
Do not get misguided by the name of the case. This is exactly what locative in Polish is used for (not only, though). In many declension tables of Polish words it is even predefined with the preposition "o".
In Polish you use locative every time when the phrase means "in the subject of". It is not only to express a physical location, but also so to say, "location of interest". It is used when you can answer to questions:
w kim? - in/with/from who/whom?
w czym? - in/inside what?
o kim? - on/about/of who/whom?
o czym? - on/about/of what?
- Książka o zwierzętach (Loc.) - A book about animals
- Konferencja o zagrożeniach (Loc.) - A conference on threats
- Myślę o tobie (Loc.) - I think about you
- On mówi o tej książce (Loc. x2) - He is talking about that book
But also:
- Jestem w domu (Loc.) - I am at home
- Kot jest w pudełku (Loc.) - The cat is in the box
- Zakochałem się w tobie (Loc.) - I have fallen in love with you
- Mam w moim synu (Loc. x2) podporę - "I have support in my son", my son is my support
- W Bogu (Loc.) (jest) nasze zaufanie - In God we trust
Dear Friends, to get clear sense of what and why Locative case is used in polish, please read a wikipedia page here: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Polish/Locative_case
There's no one rule, everything depends on what preposition it is. Different prepositions need different cases. Here "o", when it means "about", needs Locative.
I wanted to write "an animal book," but believed it would not be accepted. What say you.
Does not accept "A book of animals." although this would be perfectly acceptable English grammar.
It's not you who missed a lesson, it's us who didn't create a proper introduction to the locative case. But we're currently working on that.
You guys are great :-)
Will we get anything similar for Vocative - or is that part of Polish that we can get away without knowing too much about?
There is a plan to teach it, don't worry :) It's pretty simple though, and with first names (when you're on the first name basis with someone) the Vocative is dying, you'd mostly just use Nominative.