38 Comments
It can be either literally 'to my mother' or the version that I see above "to my mother's", as it implies "to my mother's place". Obviously not plural mothers'.
118
Literally yes, but this is about visiting her, and we are more likely to say "I go to my mother's every week", or "I go to see my mother every week".
"I go to my mother every week" sounds a bit strange to my (BrE) ears.
- 406
It's a short-cut for 'my mother's place' used by some native English speakers, apparently, so yeah.
Actually "Jeżdżę do mojej mamy co tydzień" can mean "I go to a (any) place where my mom stays presently", i.e. it may mean as well visiting her in a hospital, sanatorium, holiday camp, residential care, or even a cemetery.
- 118
Just to be clear, the English expression "my mother's" is only used to talk about her permanent home.
And permanent though her final resting place may be, I go to "(visit) my mother's grave", I don't go to "my mother's" or "to my mother".
Incidentally, if she was somewhere temporarily or we didn't want to use the possessive, we'd probably say "I go to see my mother every week". "I go to my mother every week" doesn't sound very natural to me.
By the way, for Polish speakers, we also use the possessive "'s" for some uses of "u", e.g. "u Anny" = "Anne's", "u fryzjera" = "the hairdresser's", etc.
(Comment amended)
No, I mean the Polish phrase "Jeżdżę do mojej mamy co tydzień".
Thank you however for clarifying the English meaning, that would be useful for back translation.
- 118
Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were replying to Emwue's point about the English. I've altered my original comment a bit.
I also edited mine to make it clear. Now, after a year, I can see that what I wrote was a bit ambiguous on what I comented on.
- 377
Oh, dear: Duo claims I 'have a typo' in "I go to my Mum's every week" (the UK spelling), instead suggesting the US American spelling Mom's.
Strange, because "mum" and "mother" are accepted automatically every time when "mom" is. Looks like the algorithm can't deal with the 's part. Added manually, then.
"Mom's" is American. In Australia we say "mum's" so it should not come up as a typo
No, you don't say that. When speaking about repetitive actions in time, preposition "w" is used with days (names of days, but can be also used with numbers of days of a month):
- w każdy czwartek = each Thursday
- w każdy pierwszy piątek miesiąca = each first Friday of the month
- w każdy pierwszy dzień miesiąca = each first day of the month
The last case is however more used with another construction, that uses the unit in Genitive (instead of Nominative):
- każdego dnia = every day
- każdego pierwszego dnia miesiąca = each first day of the month
- każdej środy = each Wednesday
- każdej pierwszej niedzieli miesiąca = each first Sunday of the month
The above structure is used also with other units of time:
- każdego tygodnia = every week
- każdego pierwszego tygodnia (roku) = each first week (of the year)
- każdego miesiąca = every month
- każdego pierwszego miesiąca roku = each first month (of the year)
- każdego roku swego urzędowania = each year on his (/her) work (position in the office)
There is also another, emphatic construction using preposition "w" + noun in Accusative, meaning e.g. irritation, or just opposite - admiration, that can be used with nouns meaning various units of time (frankly, I cannot imagine it being used with seconds, centuries or epochs, but probably with all between them it is correct):
- minuta w minutę = each and every minute
- godzina w godzinę = each and every hour
- dzień w dzień = each and every day (probably the most used case)
- tydzień w tydzień = each and every week
- miesiąc w miesiąc = each and every month
- rok w rok = each and every year (probably second most used)
Thank you, very thorough and helpful. I knew the genitive had to be used for using każdy and months (e.g. "Każdego sierpnia") but I wasn't sure about what other units of time were encompassed by that rule.
Do you use "każdego" for seasons as well? For example, would "every summer" be "każdego lata?"
Yes - or rather the appropriate form. każdego lata, but każdej wiosny/zimy/jesieni.
Yes, as a native English speaker I had 'to my mother' rejected. I think we assume that we go weekly to my mother, taking precedence over the place where my mother happens to be. Oh well...what a lot of discussion here!
Maybe easier to understand here, in English. (Just click the "declension" link.)
