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- Topic: Polish >
- "Dostaję od niego ubrania."
18 Comments
I will try to explain it using an analogy to Russian, as during my Russian course I've seen such an explanation many times, although I would never think about it myself. You probably know that "his" is jego in Polish, and его in Russian, "her" is jej/её, "their" is ich/их. We have "niego" instead of "jego" here. I've never thought about them even as similar words, but what I learned in Russian course is as follows: if the pronoun is preceded by a preposition, you add "н" at its beginning, thus making него, неё, них. And it clearly works similarly in Polish: 'jego' changes into 'od niego', 'jej' into 'do niej', 'ich' into 'dla nich' - whenever you have a preposition before. Seems like quite a good way to remember it.
Sentence order Dostaję ubranie od niego also ok? Because in my logic I think it is better to put what you are getting after the verb to get. Or is it just how polish works? LIke in Twoja mama mnie lubi? :P
Your sentence is alright (and it is accepted in the ENG->PL version of this exercise), it just changes the focus. The sentence here shows WHAT you get from him, your sentence shows FROM WHOM you get clothes.
It is the same- dostaję ubrania od niego - dostaję od niego ubrania.In first the most important- are clothes ,in second- from him
Yes, and it works. The 'new information' is usually at the end, so in your sentence "from him" is the most important part, while "Dostaję od niego ubrania" answers "what are you getting from him".
Od is shown as meaning for or from which could change meaning of sentence to - I am getting clothes for him..... how can you tell difference ?
That's definitely 'from'. As 'for' is concerned... I guess there's some situation when Polish would use 'od' and English would use 'for', but it doesn't come to my mind.
I am getting clothes for him - well, that would be 'dla niego', but I don't know about the verb, it depends what exactly would 'getting' here mean. Collecting them from your house? Buying them? Actually 'getting them' from some 3rd person?
In English, you could readily use the verb getting in either sentence using for or from to change the meaning. So I was confused when my choice was considered wrong.
'get' can have several meanings which would be translated differently into Polish. This here is more like 'receive' (otrzymać -> otrzymuję).
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Due to the rules I read before I wrote I am getting from him clothes. But it's wrong...
