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- Topic: Polish >
- "On też lubi wino."
22 Comments
Does this mean "He likes wine (as well as something else - maybe vodka)" or "He (as well as someone else - maybe Magda) likes wine" or is it impossible to tell from the context?
1867
So, rather surprisingly ;-), the meaning changes, depending on the word order, much like it would change in English... Refreshing! :-)
Is it really correct in English? I mean... your name looks like a name of an English language native, but the sentence sounds really strange to me... The very same phrase in Google gives only 8 results, some of which should be disregarded anyway. I tried to use something more popular than wine: music - 10 results, books - 6 results...
Yes, it's grammatically correct (e.g. "Why are we getting him wine, doesn't he usually drink beer?" "He also likes wine.")
Adverbs/adverb phrases can be placed in the beginning, middle (mainly with an auxiliary verb), or end of a clause in English. While it may sound strange on the tongue, you could potentially say "He, too, likes wine" or "He likes wine also." My sentence was perfectly fine colloquially.
However, I'm not entirely sure why such a supercilious response was needed, as this is just a fun learning site and not the final product of my thesis. I asked this particular question in fluent English on a Polish for English speakers page. So aside from the fact that my last name is actually Porębski, using basic cognitive reasoning skills, it is safe to assume that I probably speak English. I'm also very sorry you couldn't find books that say "He also drinks wine," but that's a rather pointless deviation from the topic at hand, considering the rather amusing sentences Duolingo is known for creating in the first place. If you're genuinely asking as someone who is ESL whether my question was grammatically correct in English and I misread your intentions due to a sarcasm font not being existing yet, then I apologize for my overly snarky retort. Either way, aside from whatever solecisms you may find in my response that you want to highlight, my main question is rather simple: can też not be translated as either "also" or "too" as the translation says, or was it an error?
My question was a real question, not anything sarcastic. I try not to use sarcasm with strangers, at least unless they write something that is definitely very stupid.
The Polish sentence with this word order, as immery stated earlier, goes rather towards "He likes wine, just as someone else who also likes wine" than "He likes beer, but he also likes wine". But if you still claim that your version is okay in such context, then I have no intention to quarrel and oppose further.
On just a little bit sarcastic note, I think that my English is quite fluent as well - but that doesn't guarantee that my grammar will always be perfect ;)
"He also likes wine" is definitely how i would say that he likes wine as well as another drink, and "He too likes wine" would be grammatically correct for someone who, as well as someone else, likes wine. But I would be unlikely to say that sentence. I would say "he likes wine too" in both scenarios.
I have been using "also" interchangeably with "too" when using "też" so i know when to use "też" or "zbyt" in a given context. Helps my mind remember which words to use
- 245
Yes...that's a perfect English response. So is he likes wine also. It should be accepted.
I would guess not. The meaning of the English "He likes wine too" is alternatively "He likes wine also".
"Zbyt", to my mind, has the different meaning of "too much" or "excessive" so doesn't really equal "też".
Or does it? I'm prepared to be corrected!!
Ah I see, OK great. So whereas in English we have one word (too) which can mean excessive or also, in Polish there are two different words. Dzieki!
How does the meaning change if we construct the sentence as "Też on lubi wino"?
I'm going to take a guess and suggest that it could mean that "also he likes wine" where "he" is somebody standing next to somebody else who is known to like wine.
What we are dealing with here is the American English lexicon, there are so many differing ways we make a statement that all have the same meaning. We tend to have a mish mash of words that are thrown in that the natives grasp the meaning of but leave non natives scrathcing their heads. Language lessons are a learning lesson for both sides at times. Polish can at times be as confusing as in English we use the same word for different meanings, where as in Polish, we use a totally diffrerent word. The anomalies of language.
