"Wierzysz mu?"
Translation:Do you believe him?
17 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
It is dative. See the expandable table here: Polish pronouns / Third-person pronouns https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Polish_pronouns#Third-person_pronouns
or here in Polish: Język polski - zaimki / Zaimki rzeczowne https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Aneks:Język_polski_-_zaimki#Zaimki_rzeczowne
1172
Are you able to explain why? It seems comparable to "Lubisz go", just replacing "like" with "believe".
In Polish language there is a phenomenon of case government: each verb governs the case of objects in a phrase. For verbs that may have direct and indirect object, there is a different case for each. Some verbs may govern 2 or more different cases, but then the meaning is also different, thus the verb may reply to different questions. When a preposition is also used - then the preposiston "takes over" the case government.
With WIERZYĆ
Question | Prep. | Case | Sample |
---|---|---|---|
czemu? (a thing) | - | Dat. | Sędziowie wierzyli dowodom zbrodni |
komu? (a person) | - | Dat. | Ja zawsze wierzę rodzicom |
w co? (in something) | w | Acc. | Wierzę w sprawiedliwość |
w kogo? (in someone) | w | Acc. | Ta rodzina wierzy w Boga |
With LUBIĆ:
Question | Prep. | Case | Sample |
---|---|---|---|
co? (a thing) | - | Acc. | Ona lubi matematykę |
kogo? (a person) | - | Acc. | Lubię tego kolegę |
za co? (for what) | za | Acc. | Lubię mojego profesora za jego serdeczność |
More about that:
- Cases after Verbs: https://courseofpolish.com/grammar/cases/cases-after-verbs
- Everything You Need to Know about Polish Prepositions: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-prepositions/
But frankly, if you think seriously about learning Polish, I would advise you to buy a dedicated dictionary, that describes cases for given most popular verbs - it may be bought e.g. here as a PDF: http://www.koobe.pl/2758702,ebook,praktyczny-slownik-laczliwosci-skladniowej-czasownikow-polskich.htm , you may also check the preview of the first ~70 pages there.
1172
Thanks for the advice! Looks like ive got a lot of reading up to do before i can advance much further.
183
I wrote it out earlier in the lesson and it was accepted. I don't understand why not this time?
Well... it's generally possible for some "it" that is grammatically either masculine or neuter in Polish, but for this sentence... in what context would you say "Do you believe it?"?
Because for a simple "Do you believe in what was just said?", which seems to me is definitely the most probable context, that's "Wierzysz w to?".