"I am not a dog, I am a cat."

Translation: Nie jestem psem, jestem kotem.

[ania7273]

i think doulingo is really just teaching you how to read and write and not speak

[AlexWolffe]

I wouldn't say that. I started Dutch in Duolingo for fun in Jun, 2015. Finished the course in a few months which helped me with much of the basics so then I started watching dutch youtube videos and now (Nov., 2017) I can understand Dutch nearly as well English (my first language).

I don't get much practice speaking it so that needs work still, but that's me. I would say duolingo is great. And it's free, but still better than things I've paid more than $40 for.

[Miepjee]

I am confused, I thought I was human

[sammalammawamma]

I don't understand when to use pies or psem or others or kot or kotem or others, could someone help?

[Jellei]

"pies", "kot" - the basic, Nominative forms. Nominative is mostly used for the subject of the sentence.

"psem", "kotem" - the Instrumental forms. Instrumental is mostly used for "Y" in sentences built as "X is Y", when Y is a noun phrase. So basically "I am a doctor" or "A cat is an animal".

[asamarix]

hello, i'm french
please
* what is meaning the 3forms : psem pies psa ? kotem kotka kot ?
(is it only for the nouns communs ? femelle/male/solo/plurial ?

• like what other languages ? latino ? thank you :)

[Jellei]

Cases. Those are two words with forms dependent on their function in the sentence.

"pies" and "kot" are Nominative - the basic forms, used mostly for the subject of the sentence.

"psa" and "kota" (I assume that's what you mean, "kotka" is the Nominative of 'female cat') are Accusative, used for the direct object. Accusative is needed for most of the verbs you learn in the beginning of the course.

"psem" and "kotem" are Instrumental. They are needed for example in sentences like "X is Y" (when both X and Y are noun phrases).

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16296174 - you may take a look here and search for topics on cases.

[asamarix]

merci pour votre réponse.

'kota' and 'kokta' thank u for the precision 'female cat'

i will try to understand the grammar with some example :) and to memorize the declinations for the differents forms
thank you Jellei

[Jellei]

That's "kotka", you made a typo :) So in Nominative you have "kot" and "kotka".

[idanlipin]

"Ja to nie pies, ja to kot" goes too, or not?

[immery]

we do not use "to" with ja/ty/my/wy (I you we you ).

[stackpoole]

Why is "jestem nie psem, jestem kotem" incorrect?

[EinarSig]

Because 'nie' comes before the verb it's negating so it would have to be 'nie jestem'.

[immery]

we do not split nie + verb.

[sethmalory]

So do we use the instrumental when dealing with predicate adjectives and predicate nominatives?

[MountainAsh2]

Is there an equivalent in Polish of "I am not a dog, BUT a cat?" The sentence provided just seems rather awkward and redundant to me.

[Jellei]

"Nie jestem psem, ale kotem" or maybe better "Nie jestem psem, tylko kotem".

[MountainAsh2]

Thanks so much! What's the difference between those two?

[Jellei]

It's hard for me to say. But "tylko" seems a lot better to me here.

[Wladyszewska]

I agree. "Ale" meants "but", and "tylko" means "only". In this context both sentences make sense but the second one sounds better. There probably is some logical reasoning behind it but i am unaware of it

[Anna511260]

Also "Nie jestem psem, lecz kotem". Duo should accept these forms, they are a lot better than the sequence provided.

[Jellei]

This is still the part of the course with very basic sentences. Your sentence does sound better, true, but it also adds an additional word, which would be equivalent to "but" (I am not a dog, but a cat). Basically your answer is just too different.

[AlNzY5]

Jestem nie psem, jestem kotem (This is what i would of said without the multichoice) would this be ok also?

[Jellei]

No, you need to negate the whole idea of 'being a dog' rather than just 'dog'.