36 Comments
I am confused. I thought "koszuli" was plural, but here it is considered singular. Any explanation?
I said this (or something similar) to my gf who is a native polish speaker and she said it sounded weird. Like it means more in practice "I don't wear shirts". Is that right? Would this be a weird way to say "I'm not wearing a shirt (right now)" in polish?
That's quite right. "I'm not wearing a shirt" would be rather "Nie mam na sobie koszuli". "Nie noszę koszul", using plural, would indeed make more sense.
Wouldn't "nie mam na sobie koszuli" be "I don't have a shirt on" Which is also a common saying in English. But the verb that is being used here is Nosić. So it should be to wear or to carry. So why wouldn't "I am not wearing a shirt." work? It's even the imperfective form. So it should be able to take the "ing". If I'm wrong, can you tell me how?
Verbs of movement (there are less than ten of those in Polish) show a distinction between habitual and current action. Nosić is habitual (indeterminate), whereas nieść is non-habitual (determinate). So, theoretically you would use nieść here, but unfortunately, unlike its counterpart nosić, it doesn't mean wear, only carry. That's why mieć na sobie is used instead.
Hi, Polish person here. "Koszuli" can be read singular or plural but in this case plural is actually more likely because it sounds like Present Simple in English - I (generally speaking) don't wear shirts. If you want to say "I am not wearing a shirt" you'd say something more akin to "Nie mam na sobie koszuli" or "Nie mam ubranej koszuli", which translate respectively to "I don't have a shirt on me" and "I am not dressed in a shirt". (Also worth mentioning that "koszula" is a button up shirt, not just any shirt.)
In this case it cannot be plural, because "Nie noszę" takes Genitive and Genitive plural is "koszul".
I'm a little lost with why "I am not wearing" isn't accepted as an answer. I was discussing this with my polish friend, and they agreed with me that "ja noszę" should be accepted as "I am wearing".
"nosić" takes Accusative. Every time when a verb needing Accusative is negated, it needs Genitive then.
338
This is typical of slavic languages ( russian in particular) Don't ask me why Tips or notes would have been helpful here
I thought nieść was used for the progressive while nosić was used for wearing/carrying something in general. Hence I translated this sentence as "I don't wear shirts" but then it was marked wrong.
You're thinking in the right direction, but not exactly.
-
'nieść' is only 'to be carrying'. And then 'nosić' may be either 'to carry' or 'to wear'.
-
The real translation of 'to be wearing', which is 'mieć na sobie', was clearly forgotten by the creators of this course. So we are unable to offer the proper Polish answer as the default sentence.
-
This doesn't mean "I do not wear shirts", it does mean "I do not wear a shirt"... which is not the most perfect sentence.
That's a very broad topic, so I'd suggest to take a look here and search for posts about cases: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16296174
Is it just me or does the recording sound like she's saying "Nie noszę koszulu"? I definitely can't hear an "i" sound at the end.
"I'm not wearing" means "at this moment". "I don't wear" means "in general".
You could say "I wear a suit" if you wear a suit to work, even if it's night and you don't have a suit on at the moment. But "I'm wearing a suit" means you have one on when you're saying it.
I disagree. No one has said WHY "I am not wearing a shirt" is not okay.
Thanks for the downvote, very nice of you.
Jacob.q.toone asks:
So why wouldn't "I am not wearing a shirt." work? It's even the imperfective form. So it should be able to take the "ing". If I'm wrong, can you tell me how?
I respond with:
Verbs of movement (there are less than ten of those in Polish) show a distinction between habitual and current action. Nosić is habitual (indeterminate), whereas nieść is non-habitual (determinate). So, theoretically you would use nieść here, but unfortunately, unlike its counterpart nosić, it doesn't mean wear, only carry. That's why mieć na sobie is used instead.
ich möchte keine englische Grammatik lernen.
We want to make sure that you understood Polish grammar. This would be impossible to determine if we allowed you to type anything you want in English.
I answered " I do not wear a shirt" and it was marked wrong. Why? It says that the meaning is "I do not wear a shirt" and that's what I put down but was marked wrong
