"I love you like a brother."

Translation: Kocham cię jak brata.

[deactivated user]

Duolingo just friendzoned me. Or more like brotherzoned

[SaraWie]

Why can it be both brat and brata? What case comes after jak? Just nominative right?

[mihxal]

There is crucial difference:

"Kocham cię jak brata [Accusative]" = "Kocham cię, jak (kocham) brata" = "I love you like (I love) a brother"

"Kocham cię jak brat [Nominative]" = "Kocham cię, jak (kocha cię) brat" = "I love you like a/the brother loves you"

[MichaelKor436367]

Wow, neat.

[deactivated user]

Some Lannisters and plenty of Targaryens applaud)))

[two.dots]

Welcome to the Brozone!

[mishemplushem]

please please, where can I find the explanation of "jak" versus "jako" and the whole family (jaka etc). I think I am beginning to feel which is which, but would love to see some theory. My first language is Russian, but, surprisingly, it doesn't help here (although it does in many other tricky cases)

[Jellei]

Well, unless I'm wrong, most of it translates quite directly between Polish and Russian.

"jak" is equivalent to "как" , and forms of "jaki" are equivalent to forms of "какой". Or does something seem to be different here?

"jako" is used relatively rarely, the most important usage is probably "pracować jako X" (to work as X).

[mishemplushem]

yes, thank you! I think I was confused by that unexpected "jako"

[AlexPhysique]

why Jak instead of Jako?

[alik1989]

The pwn dictionary lists 4 definitions of "jako".

1) referring to a function or role of a person (jako gospodarz, jako policjant)

2) referring to a period in life (jako dziecko, jako dorosły)

3) used with an adjective to mean that something as defined or regarded as something.

4) referring to the order of human action (jako pierwszy).

https://sjp.pwn.pl/sjp/jako-I;2467293.html

[Jellei]

I thought of an example for the "role" thing, which includes "jako brat".

"Jako twój brat, kocham cię, ale jako twój szef... obawiam się, że muszę cię zwolnić." = "As your brother, I love you, but as your boss... I'm afraid I have to fire you".

[Jellei]

"jako" is the rarest of all those jak/jaki/etc. words.

I think nowadays it's used mostly in sentences like "I work as a policeman".