"Mój prawnik nie pracuje z policją."
Translation:My lawyer does not work with the police.
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Would "My lawyer does not work FOR the police" be okay, or is there a different article besides "z" that you would use?
Why is policja in instr.? Do nouns always take instrumental after z? Thanks in advance!
To be precise: if "z" means "with", because there's also "z" meaning "from" or "out of", and that takes Genitive.
Yes it is; take a look at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/policja#Polish and 'show' the declension to see all the forms of this noun.
"Współpracuje z policją" perhaps sounds just a bit better, but the word "współpracować" in some aspects has a broader meaning (it means voluntary and productive cooperation) than just "pracować", so it is not the same, particularly in a phrase with negation.
If you say "Mój prawnik nie współpracuje z policją" , the first meaning of this phrase is that he may be doing something with the police - because he is forced to - but he does his best to sabotage the advancement of investigation or to block the prosecution.
In the contrary, the phrase "Mój prawnik nie pracuje z policją" means that he plainly refuses to cooperate with the police.
I listened to the recording of the word „z” and it sounded like the man was saying „zet”. Is that correct or a mistake?
The speech system treats the single letter words as single letters which are read as letters of the alphabet. You'll hear elsewhere that "w" is strange too
That was because "in the police" isn't the greatest translation, but here "z policją" is more about cooperating with them.
I think that's slightly different. An "advocate" is somebody who can speak on somebody's behalf in a court, which not all lawyers do. My dictionary gives "rzecznik" for "advocate".
If 'policja' is always treated as a singular noun, why does the plural exist as policje and when would be an example of using it?
I think this is something that 'technically exists' but is almost not used. But I can imagine, let's say, "Policje z Warszawy i Krakowa", so literally "the polices of Warsaw and Kraków"... but that would still most probably be said as "Policja z Warszawy i Krakowa", so "the police from Warsaw and Kraków", singular. Which brings us back to "almost not used".