"Możesz wyłączyć komputer?"
Translation:Can you turn off the computer?
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I know it's not a literal translation but in british english we would probably say
Could you turn the computer off.
And to be totally pedantic and knowing that ..
Can you turn off the computer is nowadays sometimes used....
Can you turn off the computer is a question.
Could you is also wrong but more likely to be used as could you is also a question
The most correct form would be
Would you turn of the computer
I know that you will probably say that would is the past tense of will
But would and could are not so simple in use. They are also used as a polite way of requesting something not as overly polite as for instance
Czy mógłbyś....
Just everyday normal polite like możesz
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I couldn't agree more, American usage is the same. Many have forgotten how to speak their own language. Sad really
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My experience of American usage veers more towards: "Hey! Djou wanna turn off the computer?" :-) .
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Can't I assume that the recipient was asked to turn off his/her own computer? I'm asking as I was rejected with writing »Can you turn off your computer?«, which does not make sense to me after having read many times that possessive pronouns were only used fewer times than, say, in English or German, but still were understood to be existent in a sentence, but omitted when it can be presumed naturally, out of context. To now be rejected in such a sentence where it too could be assumed that the recipient was asked to turn off his/her own computer strikes me as illogical.
Why not: "Could you switch off the computer"? It's not asking whether you are capable of doing this.
Is it like the "- Can I go to the bathroom? - I don't know, can you?" joke? Besides, you could interpret the Polish sentence as 'being capable' as well.
We reserve "could" ,as the more polite conditional mood, for "mógłbyś/mogłabyś/moglibyście/mogłybyście".