"Komu ona by pomogła?"

Translation: Who would she help?

[immerweiter]

whom would she help

[Jellei]

Works.

[Walkinthedog]

My greatest problems ate twofold, understanding what the voice says, hard of hearing 1500 hertz range and sloppy typing. Self taught when I got my first computer at 68.

[Walkinthedog]

Thanks for clearing that up, you can see why I am confused, my polish language training was not too good. Hadn't spoken it in about sixty years therefore I had a lot confusion in what is or isn't correct. Thanks for clearing this up for me.

[Jellei]

Well, clearly you still remember a lot :)

[achipa19]

Could we use "kto" instead of "komu"?

[Jellei]

No. "pomagać" takes Dative, so you should use the Dative form of "kto".

[DMR680865]

But we could not say: Komu pomogłaby? Why is the "by" separate?

[Jellei]

I believe that "by", "bym" etc. should not end up at the end of the sentence, if only that's possible.

[Simon777143]

Surely this is the same as "Who did she help".....but this answer tells me I am incorrect.

[Jellei]

No, it's not. The sentence is kinda strange, but in it's strangness it indeed means "who WOULD she help". Conditional. There's nothing about her helping anyone in the past.

[PeggyKraus1]

The hint also has "has helped", what in the sentence let's you know that it's WOULD?

[Jellei]

If you hover over 'by', you see "by pomogła" = "(she) would help".

The conditional is built upon the past tense form.

[PeggyKraus1]

So the 'by' makes it "would". Thank you.

[Walkinthedog]

OK. I'll accept that. I have a question about the word for chicken since I was raised on a farm by Polish parents and we raised chickens by the hundreds. My mother always used the term kura for chicken and kogut for rooster, was that correct

[Jellei]

Kogut - yes.

Kura... well, kura is a hen. Although if we treat "chicken" more scientifically, as a species, then true, it translates to "kura domowa". But normally rooster = kogut, hen = kura, chicken = kurczak.

[Walkinthedog]

A take on the word fowl? Rather than denoting the individual species of fowl. Along with that there was another word I wondered about, Rabbit, Krolik, we also raised them during meat rationong day of WW2 but they were referred to as zajac. Would that be a rabbit or a hare.

[Jellei]

Królik is a rabbit, zając is a hare. The question is whether people actually distinguish them instead of just calling both rabbits ;)

"fowl", as a noun for all kinds of birds one can raise in the countryside, is "drób". Just as the word for the meat of those birds.

[WellingtonCatnip]

When do you use Komu for who? when do you use Kto?

[DorotaJarosz]

Komu is the Dative case: for whom, kto is Nominative.

Nominative: Kto to? = Who is it?

Genitive: Dla kogo? = For whom?, Na kogo patrzysz? = Who(m) do you look at?

Dative: Komu daję? = Who(m) do I give to?, I give to whom?

Accusative: Kogo widzę? = Whom do I see?

Instrumental: Z kim rozmawiam? = Who(m) do I speak with?

Locative: O kim rozmawiam? = Who(m) do I talk about?

Vocative: not used