"In winter you should wear a cap."

Translation: Zimą powinieneś nosić czapkę.

[PierreMDL]

So the instrumental case is used on "zima" to translate "in winter". Does it apply for the other seasons as well?

"jesienią" = "in autumn" (corrected)

"latem" = "in summer"

"wiosną" = "in spring"

Is that correct?

[immery]

wiosną, latem, jesienią, zimą

[Jellei]

Jesień is feminine, even if it doesn't strike you as such. That's why, as immery wrote, it's 'jesienią'.

[PierreMDL]

Thank you both for the correction!

[IvesAB]

Building up on this question, do we use instrumental when talking about seasons or any other time period? I recall from other lessons constructions like "W środę nie gotuję"

[Kristine466318]

Take a look at Jellei reply below, the big one.

[IvesAB]

I hadn't noticed that. Thanks for pointing it out, as it does indeed answer my question.

[No46]

"powinnyście" and "powinniście": What is the difference between those two?

[Jellei]

First one: when you address a group consisting of women only. Second one: for men only or a mixed group.

[MarkKulka]

In mine it corrected "powinieneś" to "powinnaś." I have not seen that spelling before. Is it the preferred spelling?

[Jellei]

This verb is a so-called defective verb, it doesn't even really have an infinitive form. It's also the only, I think, verb that shows the subject's gender in the Present Tense.

Both versions are correct. "powinieneś" is used when you're talking to a man, and "powinnaś" when you're talking to a woman. Perhaps you had a typo somewhere and got corrected to another answer.

[CatherineJ480062]

I just got that same correction.

[Popo-lsku]

My answer was: "W zimą powinieneś nosić czapkę."
Is it wrong because of the W at the beginning?

[alik1989]

It's either "w zimie" or "zimą". The preposition "w" is never followed by the instrumental case.

[decadenct]

I wrote "powinienaś", and it says "You have a typo in your answer" and suggests that the correct variant is masculine, omg

[Jellei]

I believe that the algorithm checks your answer from the very beginning, and suggests (usually, at least) the answer that has the longest part identical, starting from the beginning. And if it's like that, "powinieneś" is closer to your wrong answer than "powinnaś".

[pdamerval]

So here I have another dark area: When to use w and when not to.

(according to google)

In the morning: rano (nominative case?)
in the afternoon: po południu
In the evening: wieczorem
At night: w nocy
in January: w styczniu
in Spring: na Wiosnę
in Summer : Latem
in Autumn: Jesienią
In winter: Zimą

I had written "W Zimą" and was marked wrong, my question is, is it just a matter of memorizing and practicing or is there a rule which Duolingo has not made clear?
As always, thank you for the time spent helping us.

[Jellei]

The four seasons work in mysterious ways ;) Although I'm afraid that "w zimą" is definitely wrong, "w" usually takes Locative, sometimes Accusative. You used Instrumental.

To say "in spring/summer/autumn/winter" there are two correct variants per season: First is using the Instrumental form of a noun and no preposition at all - we can treat it as an adverb meaning 'in '. So we have: wiosną/latem/jesienią/zimą.

The second form uses a preposition and I guess it's better to just memorize them: "na wiosnę" (Accusative), "w lecie" (Locative), "na jesieni" (Locative), "w zimie" (Locative).

Months, like January, just take "w" + Locative.

"rano" (in the morning) is technically an adverb. You can also say "rankiem", which is the Instrumental form of the noun "ranek", but here it would also be an adverb.

"po południu" literally means "after the noon". The two words can be glued together to make the noun "afternoon": "popołudnie".

"wieczorem" is again the Instrumental form of the noun "wieczór" used as an adverb. And I don't think that's something that happens often apart from the words we discussed here.

"w nocy" is simply "in the night", Locative.

[JanKLinde]

To complete this collection, the days of the week take "w" + accusative: "w poniedziałek", "we wtorek", "w środę" etc.

And so does the weekend: "w weekend"

[Kristine466318]

And one month takes "we" + Locative : we wrześniu, the rest of them take "w".

[JanKLinde]

Does the starred translation "Zimą powinniście nosić czapkę" really sound natural in Polish? I would expect "czapki" after the plural verb. Apart from this, it's more likely that the English sentence is addressed to a single person because it's only "a cap".

[Jellei]

Yeah, I think you're right, the plural interpretation is at least weird, if not just wrong. I removed them.

[MarcjinSzn]

Dobra uwaga, ale tak się mowi

[gsdobek]

Is there a reason why "zimą" can't be placed at the end of this sentence?

[Jellei]

Well, it means "You should wear a cap in winter" (answers "when should one wear a cap"), but we started adding such word orders, so let's add this as well.

[janhemel]

This powinn... stuff drives me mad. Is there a complete overview of all its forms, at least in the present tense?

[Jellei]

Sure, you can always find such things on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/powinien#Conjugation

Yes, it is a complicated one, being the only (I think) verb that shows gender in the Present Tense...

[janhemel]

Thanks Jellei! I enjoy your comments and answers. They are always to-the-look point.