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- "Dziś jest najkrótszy dzień w…
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73
Funny that I am doing this exercise on Dec 23, just a couple of days after the winter solstice.
646
Hmmmm, two questions...
Compare the three Polish sentences:
"Lato jest suchą porą roku."
"Sierpień jest miesiącem roku."
"Dziś jest najkrótszy dzień w roku."
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Why are "pora" and "miesiąc" instrumental, but "dzień" is not?
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Why is it "pora roku" and "miesiąc roku" for "season (of the year)" and "month of the year", but it's "dzień w roku" (day in the year), rather than "dzień roku" (day of the year)?
726
I don't think 2. can be too much of a surprise. Idiomatic usage of prepositions almost never matches between languages.
Ad. 1: That's because "lato" and "sierpień" are nouns, but "dziś" is an adverb. "X + jest + noun in Instrumental" can only be used if X is either a noun phrase or a personal pronoun.
To see it better, let's use "Dziś jest poniedziałek" (Today is Monday). Trying to say "Dziś jest poniedziałkiem" firstly would sound like "Today is a Monday" (ok, not sure if it's wrong in English), and secondly it would sound as if I tried to define "today" by saying that it is "a Monday". But "today" isn't really "Monday", because it's relative, today just happens to be Monday right now.
Ad. 2: "pora roku" is basically one term that translates into English "season", so this shouldn't be changed. But "miesiąc roku" and "miesiąc w roku" both sound fine to me. So do "dzień w roku" and "dzień roku". Both are accepted here.