"Cel tej fundacji to pomaganie zwierzętom."
Translation:The purpose of this foundation is helping animals.
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Is this type of formulation very common in polish ? Because it sure feels weird in english, for instance with this specific sentence, it would be more natural to say "...is to help animals".
We discussed this and we think that it's possible to use a verb in infinitive in Polish as well.
But just the fact that we needed to discuss it means that a noun is more probable.
What I don't get in this part is why it is radically different from "pomoc zwierzętom" ? Or do they want to point out that "-ing" in English is automatically translated by an "-anie" noun in Polish ?
IMHO:
Whilst using "pomaganie" ("helping") the activity volunteers do is being focused and whilst using "pomoc" ("help") the goal (pomoc -> help) is being focused.
Having said that, to me following sentences have slightly, but still, different meaning: - "Cel tej fundacji to pomaganie zwierzętom" ("The purpose of this foundation is helping animals") -> the goal is to perform the activity of helping - "Cel tej fundacji to pomoc zwierzętom" ("The purpose of this foundation is to help animals") -> the goal is to cure animals' diseases, no matter how
Feel free to correct me
I love the times when the whole answer is filled in so you don't need to do anything. Not sure how much you learn from it, though!
Cel (Nominative) tej fundacji (Genitive) to pomaganie (Nominative) zwierzętom (Dative).
In a previous sentence, the gerund was followed by genitive. Why is it dative here?
It is like that in most sentences because most verbs take a direct object (either in Accusative or Genitive), and then the gerund based on that verb takes Genitive (pisać książki -> pisanie książek; szukać książek -> szukanie książek).
But for other cases, the case needed by the gerund does not change. It also doesn't change if a preposition is involved.
So here, "pomagać" takes Dative, and "pomaganie" still needs Dative.