"Kupujesz coś na obiad?"
Translation:Are you buying anything for lunch?
14 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
In such a sentence both are accepted and both naturally translate to "coś".
"anything" also could be translated using "cokolwiek", but I feel it's stronger, like "anything at all".
What is the difference between "coś" and "czymś" which was mentioned earlier this lesson?
Cases. "coś" is either Nominative or Accusative, "czymś" is Instrumental. So, let's say "Kanapka z czymś" (a sandwich with something).
Why do sometimes "dla" is used to mean "for", while other times, like this sentence, uses "na"?
It's rather "dla" when it's for someone, like buying a gift for someone. Or making lunch for someone.
Here we just have a different meaning of the word 'for', and 'dla' wouldn't make any sense here.
So coś can mean both something and/or anything, depending on the context... good to know
I'd say that it means "something", it's just that English uses "anything" in its translation sometimes.
FYI (another very minor point, but in case you are interested):"Are you buying something for lunch?" is the common and unmarked way to pose this question (the inference being that items will be bought, in contract the the inference with "anything" is that nothing will be bought.) The difference is subtle, but real, and despite the misleading information on the Internet, "any" is not the default choice between "any" vs. "some" in questions.
188
Wait a second! A couple pages ago the same sentence was used, but lunch was translated as obiadu (and lunchu and another I don't remember). Is it interchangeable?
Hi - just a learner here, the moderators can help you more, but obiadu is the genitive form, used it negated sentences such as: I do not eat lunch-genitive: nie jem obiadu. It is inanimate, masculine noun so in a context requiring the accusative, its form is identical to the nominative: obiad. Jem obiad. (I eat lunch-accusative), Jem jajka na obiad (I eat eggs for lunch-accusative), etc.