"Chłopiec ma jabłko."
Translation:A boy has an apple.
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You should use mam only when you want to say I have ( ja mam). ,,Ma" you should use with 3rd person (he, she, it - on, ona, ono/to), for example She has got - ona ma. So mam is like English have, but used only with the 1st person (I- ja) and ma is like has used in 3 rd person. Remember- i explained only about singular, not plural.
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Mieć infinitive
Mam I have
Masz you have
On/ona/ono ma he/she/it has
Mamy we have
Macie you (plural) have
Mają they have
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Polish has noun cases. When the noun is the subject, it uses the nominative case.
Chłopiec ma jabłko.
When the noun follows the verb "to be" (am/is/are), it uses the instrumental case.
Aktor jest chłopcem. = The actor is a boy.
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I know there are no articles in Polish, but does anyone else feel like the suggested translation should be "The boy is eating the/an apple" rather than "A boy is eating an apple", because the sentence presupposes a specific boy and possibly a specific apple? Obviously grammatically either is right, but I am just struggling to think of a context where "a boy" would work. I just feel that although the Slavic languages don't have articles, that doesn't mean anything goes when translating into English, and that would only be possible if there were some articles presumed within the other languages. (I'm a Russian-English bilingual speaker, so bringing those biases along.)