"Potrzebuję nożyczek."
Translation:I need scissors.
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I'm Irish & I keep getting this wrong because it's just instinctual to say "a scissors".
Does this words genitive form decline unusually ? from nożyczki. Genitive plurals usually end in -ow, -i, y, or no ending ?
it's the "no ending".
http://popolskupopolsce.edu.pl/pogotowie-jezykowe
Uwaga: Jeżeli w rzeczowniku liczby mnogiej rodzaju żeńskiego lub nijakiego w zakończeniu tematu występują dwie spółgłoski, to między nimi wstawiamy samogłoskę - e np.: jajko - jajek, sukienka - sukienek, jabłko - jabłek, gruszka - gruszek. Rzeczowniki te mają w dopełniaczu tzw. końcówkę zero (brak końcówki). Końcówka zero występuje też w rzeczownikach, które w mianowniku mają końcówkę -o, -e, -a lub -i. Np. jajko - jajek, spotkanie - spotkań, cytryna - cytryn, pani - pań.
If in the ending of a feminine or neuter nouns have two consonants , we put vovel "e" between them for example. jajko - jajek, sukienka - sukienek, jabłko - jabłek, gruszka - gruszek. Those nouns have in Genitive so called ending zero(no ending ). Zero ending is also in nouns that end in nominative with -a, -o -a and -i. For example jajko - jajek, spotkanie - spotkań, cytryna - cytryn, pani - pań.
In the last part of this explanation, the last few example words do not have the "e" inserted in the Genitive form as described, but instead have the vowel endings trimmed, and if the resulting final letter is "n" then that letter is (often) accented ("n" --> "ń"). The explanation shows this, but doesn't draw attention to it or explain it.
This is relevant in the previous exercise, in which "czasopismo" is changed to "czasopism."
spotkania -> spotkań, you mean? I think its because "ni" and "ń" make the same sound/are the same, but "ni" of only used if followed by a vowel (similarly to "si", "ci", and "dzi"). By removing the vowel at the end to form the genitive, you revert it back to its 'original' form: "ń"
is there a grammatical term for a word like scissors? Something thats always plural
I'm from the midwest. I've seen contradictory statements some say 'a pair of scissors' refer to two scissors others say it refers to one. In my personal experience I hear and say 'a scissors' although one can say 'a pair of scissors' and it would be acceptable. I was very surprised to find that only 'a pair of scissors' is correct here. One must admit that calling a single object 'a pair' seems odd.
And what's weird about "a pair of jeans" or "a pair of glasses"?
If you look at the top, you will find that I need scissors is the main translation. Pairing the indefinite article with a plural noun is simply ungrammatical.
Of course it's possible that some speakers reinterpret 'scissors' as a singular noun, but that doesn't appear to be common usage. Here are some results from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (link below):
| query | number of results |
|---|---|
| VERB scissors . | 31 |
| VERB a pair of scissors . | 18 |
| VERB a scissors . | 1 |
I've only searched for sentences containing a full stop right after scissors to guarantee that it's not used as an adjective. The fact that the second line has half as many results as the first one, indicates that the phrase 'a pair of scissors' denotes one single object, as scissors usually don't come in pairs, like gloves or socks.
Without some more context, that's an emphasis for which we just don't see any reason.
If the sentence was "Tak, potrzebuję nożyczek", then putting "do" in there would make sense.