- Forum >
- Topic: Polish >
- "I have new underpants."
"I have new underpants."
Translation:Mam nowe majtki.
26 Comments
Adding this to my list of indespensible phrases for my trip to Poland.
What gender are majtki, please? Also, I think 'spodnie' were treated as plural in an earlier exercise. Are 'majtki' also plural? Thanks.
Yes, both these words are plurale tantum. Just like in English, actually.
And just like in English, you can say "a pair of" (para + Genitive) to denote just one pair :)
'not masculine-personal plural'. I don't know if there's any plurale tantum word that denotes people, so I guess either all or almost all such words are not masculine-personal plural.
Thanks very much. I hadn't previously understood what you meant by 'plurale tantum' but have now got it from Wikipoedia, so I understand your reply.
1448
Please, I still don't understand whether majtki is feminine or neuter. I'm guessing feminine but can't verify that on online dictionaries, where is just says "plural"
And frankly, that's the answer. In plural, there isn't really a distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter, as there are only two plurals: masculine personal (groups with at least one man) and not masculine-personal (everything else). Obviously, with almost any plural noun, you can talk about its gender in singular. But only 'almost any'. As plurale tantum nouns simply do not have a singular version, they're neither masculine, feminine nor neuter, they're 'not masculine-personal plural'.
Why is it nowe and not nowę please or even nowa (please answer in idiot language and not redirect me to a lit of incomprehensibles" ta muchly x
Ok, let me try.
'Nowę' is not a word.
'Nowa' is singular (one of something), whereas 'nowe' is plural (more than one of something) nonvirile (everything that's not a group of people containing men).
And "majtki", just as English "underpants" (or "pants"), is always a plural noun even if you refer to one pair.
Interesting. In Russian, majka means "undershirt" which used to be a common part of underwear. But it can also mean "tank top" or similar to a basketball jersey.
I have literally never heard that word, although apparently it's a thing, but it seems more like a sports thing, sold in sport shops. Would it really be translated to "underpants", though? I mean, the words look very alike, but wouldn't English have a different word for "podspodenki"?
Apparently you can also just say spodenki but yes it seems like it's a bit different from regular underpants as such.
