"Komu ona by pomogła?"

Translation: Who would she help?

[immerweiter]

whom would she help

[Jellei]

Works.

[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 :)

[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.

[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.

[F4yY9kZj]

Could 'by' be attached to 'komu' ("Komuby ona pomogła?")? If not, is there a reason why not?

[DorotaJarosz]

It cannot be attached (spelled together) but it can be in this position:

Komu by ona pomogła?

The particle by can be attached only to personal forms of verbs, i.e. ja, ty, on, ona, ono, my, wy, oni.

Non-personal form, such as można or trzeba are spelled separately.

[achipa19]

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

[Jellei]

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

[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