"Uważasz, że on jest dobry?"
Translation:Do you consider him to be good?
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2738
This could also be "Do you consider it good", talking about a grammatically masculine object, right?
If "że" starts a new clause (and it usually does), it has to be preceded with a comma.
Uważasz, że jest dobry? - Do you think he is good?/ Do you think
it is good/correct/right/appropriate?/ Do you think it is tasty?
To others: note that the sentence above doesn't use "on", which is pretty unlikely to be used to refer to something else than a person.
The point is that the adjective "dobry" indicates masculine gender,
so "on" is redundant and may be omitted. The other thing is that
"on", even if implied, can refer not only to a male (he) but also to
a masculine noun, eg. "dobry nauczyciel/dobry pies/
dobry film/
dobry krok/dobry dowcip/dobry kierunek/dobry obiad" (a good teacher/dog/movie/step/joke/direction/dinner, respectively).
Would you say "To jest stół. On jest wysoki"? Yes, technically it's not wrong, but I doubt that people actually use it that way.
Similarly, can the sentence "Uważasz, że on jest dobry?" be used about a kebab? I highly doubt it.
- 255
please explain why. Also, are you saying that as a native English speaker? (Or are you a non-native English speaker?) And if so, would it also not make sense in any different English contexts, like American English vs. British English? I am a non-native English speaker, by the way (I am German). Please also note my other comment here, about constructions of "to + infinitive" and "infinitive + -ing".
- 145
I am a native speaker. "Do you consider him being good" is an incorrect translation of this sentence. If "Do you consider him being good" means anything it's "do you think about him being good", which is not the same as the Polish sentence and the English translation "Do you consider him to be good", which means "Is your opinion of him that he is good". Those two meanings are clearly different aren't they.
Well, 'kind' is not such an exact translation of 'dobry', but in this context I guess it works, so we added your version.
Are you considering, that he is good?
and the 2nd questions - why is there a him in your translation as the version in polish is on?
You could also say "Czy uważasz go za dobrego człowieka?" = "Do you consider him a good person?"
I really don't think any English native would use continous form "considering" in such a context. You consider something generally, not at the moment.
Different ways of conveying the same message.
"Do you consider that he is good?" works as well, with "he" being a very direct equivalent of "on".
Polish, as you know, has a lot of cases, English almost doesn't, but he->him is a reminiscence of the times when it had cases as well. But usually you won't find such situations with different English cases, so nothing will make you wonder about it. I understand that it's a little confusing here, but both versions in English are correct, both versions in Polish are correct, it's just the matter of which one is a bit more natural and probable in usage.
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why is "do you consider him being good" wrong? What is the difference between the English sentence constructions of "to + infinitive" and "infinitive + -ing" ? i thought they were kind of interchangeable. And even if there is a difference and it would end up in a differerent meaning - would that make the other version grammatically wrong? (Don't forget - no context given here)
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addition: a change in meaning could be whether to always and continuously/generally consider or to consider in a single and special moment or situation
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Generally they are not interchangeable. Sometimes you can use both, sometimes only one and not the other. It generally depends on what the verb was that came before which form you use. This sentence is a little different with the verb "to be" and is best thought of as a unique case.