"Widzę mężczyznę."

Translation: I see a man.

[e28144]

Why is "man" highlighted as a new word??? I learnt that a while ago!

[immery]

I would assume it's the first time you encounter "mężczyznę". ( accusative)

[AlexeyPshek]

what difference between "mężczyzną" and "mężczyznę"?

[Jellei]

Cases. "mężczyzną" is Instrumental (Jestem mężczyzną = I am a man), "mężczyznę" is Accusative (Widzę mężczyznę = I see a man).

[KristineKruszer]

Why is I am a different case from I see? What marks the cause for the case and since each verb is different now can i know which is which and why?

[alik1989]

The verb "to be" (być) is an exception. Most other verbs require the accusative.

[AlexeyPshek]

tnx

[Jrgen605050]

Thanks, that helped! But I'd prefer that Duolingo explained automatically, why something is different...

[Kit22576]

Could this translate as "the", as well as "a", man?

[Jellei]

Yes.

[NicklasKul]

Why does "mężczyzna" take the feminine -ę ending in the accusative? Is it because it "looks" better?

[Jellei]

Well, it doesn't look 'better', it's the only correct form ;) Well, the word is masculine, but it 'looks feminine' and has a declension of a feminine noun. All masculine nouns ending with -a (there is a bunch of them) do.

[Adam_cph]

I have read the other comments, and I am still confused. Mężczyzna is a male noun according to the tips for Animals 1 (and Wiktionary), but now we are changing the ending to ą and ę - indicating it is feminine

[Jellei]

-a ending, which changes to -ą in Instrumental and -ę in Accusative is indeed a feminine ending... but can you imagine Polish without exceptions? There are some masculine nouns which end like this, and somehow among them you have such basic fords for male people as "mężczyzna" (a man) himself, or "tata" (dad).

[Heather944381]

Besides being spelled differently, do mezczyzne and mezczyzna (I dont have the accents on my keyboard im sorry!) Sound the same?

[alik1989]

No, different vowels make different sounds.

[ifapel]

What would happen if I said "Widzę mężczyzna" in a day to day conversation? Would it not mean "I see a man"? Or how would Polish-speaking people understand it?

[alik1989]

Mężczyzna is nominative, so it's marked as the subject of the sentence. That's what English does through word order (the subject comes first).

So I'd compare this to "A man see I". With context, this would still be understandable.

However, there are some other nouns which will definitely cause confusion:

Widzę Gabrielę. - I see Gabriela.
Widzę Gabriela. - I see Gabriel.