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- Topic: Polish >
- "Nie noszę koszuli."
52 Comments
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 twelve 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.
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Just out of curiosity, are these determinate/indeterminate verbs connected to niedokonane/dokonane? Thanks :)
If you're looking for a simple answer, it's permissible to assume that those are two entirely separate and independent categories.
If you want to go a bit into detail, then I could add the following:
The combination determinate + perfective does not necessarily denote a completed action, but that the action has already started.
On popłynął - He started to swim (in a specific direction).
The combination indeterminate + perfective does not necessarily denote a completed action, but that an action is meant to last for a short period:
Jeszcze trochę popływam - I'm going to swim around some more (for a little while).
I am confused. I thought "koszuli" was plural, but here it is considered singular. Any explanation?
lol It's rather absurd! "There's a "no" in this sentence. Let's entirely change the endings of everything and make a plural word a singular one!"
I'm convinced Polish people didn't want anyone else to learn their language so they made their secret code really hard to crack.
I really like your ideas. Kudos! giving you a lingot. I look at your (I mean people learning Polish in general) struggle and I am thinking "I'm so glad I don't have to go through this".
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".
come on duo...sort this out please !!! i do not wear a shirt is present simple and cannot stand alone without additional info....i do not wear a shirt on saturdays, for example...i am not commenting on the translation into polish (which is a different matter entirely), but, in english it can either be, im not wearing a shirt (at this particular moment) or i dont wear shirts (ever)
"nosić" takes Accusative. Every time when a verb needing Accusative is negated, it needs Genitive then.
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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.
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'nieść' is only 'to be carrying'. And then 'nosić' may be either 'to carry' or 'to wear'.
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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.
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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.
I'm not wearing a shirt is how English is spoken in North America. I do not wear a shirt sounds like you migrated here yesterday... I'm Polish and I'm not wearing a shirt is the correct answer.
I appreciate the difficulty in creating this algorithm but it is frustrating when I type and obviously wrong response "Nie noscę kośuli" and it is accepted...
Yes, sometimes it's way too lenient, although at least your typos are real typos and not other existent forms of those words...
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
99% of Polish verbs do not show any difference between Present Simple and Present Continuous, but this one does. And unfortunately the course creators didn't teach the way to say "I am wearing", which is "mam na sobie" (literally "I have on me").
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Again your tutor doesn't accept the Present Continuous but only the Present Simple. It doesn't make sense!
This link is pasted a few times under every sentence with this verb: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/27628688
Like everyone else, in English, irrespective of the literal meaning of this phrase from Polish, I'm frustrated that the idiomatic "I'm not wearing a shirt" is refused as a perfectly acceptable translation. "I do not wear a shirt" requires further qualification: 'I do not wear a shirt on the beach" "I do not wear a shirt in the shower" etc etc. "I'm not wearing a shirt" means not now, eg I'm wearing a pullover, a t-shirt etc etc. Come one Duo, we're dealing with usage, idiom and comprehensibility here.
'I'm not wearing a shirt' is indeed perfectly idiomatic but it's a translation of 'Nie mam na sobie koszuli' not 'Nie noszę koszuli.'
This course is primarily teaching Polish (and secondarily teaching English to Polish speakers) so conveying and testing for the literal meaning of the Polish is what matters. Accepting 'I am not wearing a shirt' would mislead many people into believing that 'Nie noszę koszuli' can mean 'I'm not wearing a/the shirt right now,' regardless of what I may wear in general, and it doesn't mean that.
I agree that many sentences that use the Present Simple would feel more complete with some context but it's not essential and we can assume where Present Simple is used that the context was given elsewhere in the imaginary conversation/piece of writing.
'Do you wear at shirt at the office?'
'I don't wear a shirt, I wear a t-shirt.'
If I want to emphasize hear '' I dont wear a shİRT, I wear a sweatshirt'', how would I say it? Koszuli, nie noszę; Noszę bluzę'' is that correct or sound nonsense
You said it just right, I would just change some interpuction "Koszuli nie noszę, noszę bluzę!''
This surely is possible, but I'd go simply with "Nie noszę koszuli, noszę bluzę!" ;)
It should either be, 'I don't wear shirts" or "I'm not wearing a shirt." Since the hints made it clear that this verb tense means wear (in general), not "am wearing (right now)", it should be I don't wear shirts. I don't wear a shirt is a very weird syntactical phrase that I can't imagine a native English speaker using in this stand-alone context. Maybe as part of a dependent clause, but not like that. My translation of I don't wear shirts was marked incorrect. I understand that the Polish is singular not plural, but saying it that way in English is weird
You're right. Luckily the available at this stage words can say "Nie noszę tej koszuli", i.e. "I do not wear this shirt". I'll create such a sentence and remove this one.
