"Zegarki potrzebują baterii."

Translation: Watches need batteries.

[Yola448704]

In Polish, people and animals have needs, and... objects... do not.
The sentence "Zegarki potrzebują baterii" is a copy from English.

Zegarki wymagają baterii - Watches need/require batteries
Zegarki muszą mieć baterie - Watches need to have batteries

[SaraWie]

Doesn't 'zegar' also just means 'clock'? :/

[immery]

Zegar is big clock

zegarek is small clock for example a wristwatch.

[hivemindx]

Out of interest are there other cases where words ending in -ek are smaller versions of things?

[immery]

-ek, is a dimininutive ending for masculine nouns.

diminutives in Polish are very common. Usually they mean "small sth", but sometimes they are more literally small thing, and sometimes they are affectionate.

some examples of different things :
szafa- wardrobe, szafka -cabinet
sznur- cord, line, sznurek- string
lustro - mirror ( large), lusterko - mirror (small- pocket mirror, car mirror)
torba- bag (large), torebka- women's handbag, or small paperbag

talerz- plate, talerzyk- small plate (ex for cake, or under a cup)
łyżka spoon (for soup)- łyżeczka - spoon (for tea )

trouble with diminutives:- the pairs usually translate to the same English word. they also have different suddixes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diminutives_by_language#Polish
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zdrobnienie

[Yola448704]

"Zegar is a big clock"
"Zegarek is a small clock..."

[alik1989]

Why do you answer questions that have already been answered?

[Jellei]

That was correcting immery's grammar.

[rslife]

Does this mean that this verb always takes the genitive in its objects?

[immery]

yes it means direct objects of this verb always take genitive,

[Tuman88]

I just want to point out for other learners that this sentence can also mean "watches need a battery" because genitive plural and singular of "bateria" is in Polish the same so this sentence is ambiguous.

[kaluko1]

What is the difference in use between baterii and baterie?

[alik1989]

Grammatical case and/or number. Take a look at this table:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bateria#Declension

[Walkinthedog]

Watches also require batteries.

[JerryMcCarthy99]

True, but "also" doesn't occur in the Polish sentence....

[RedViperMartell]

Do you pronounce both "i"'s separately at the end of "baterii", or do you pronounce them as one long "i" sound? Like "baht-eh-RI-i" or "baht-EH-ri"?

[immery]

Poles would write Ba-ter-ji,
it's long i or maybe "yi"

[RedViperMartell]

Ah okay. So it's pronounced the same as "baterji"?

[immery]

Correct spelling is "baterii", but it sounds like "ji", (to a Polish person)

ji/ii/i is a very common spelling mistake like rz/ż u/ó ch/h

[DankNohr]

potrzebuja (potrzebować) does not also mean to require?

[Jellei]

Could be. Added.