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- "The woman and the man are ea…
"The woman and the man are eating."
Translation:Kobieta i mężczyzna jedzą.
18 Comments
I used "a" instead of "i" here as I wanted to see if it would be accepted. Because apparently, "a" also means "and" but it's only to be used when talking about opposite things, am I right? If so, why was it rejected? Just because I haven't yet gone through the lesson that teaches us what "a" means? Cheers
Yes, "a" is the "and" that shows contrast. "A man and a woman" are just two subject combined, there's no contrast between them.
"The man is eating and the woman is drinking" is contrasting them, thus "a" would be needed for such sentence.
Hmmm. I think you could say that. Although not always it will be "happening".
"Paryż jest stolicą Francji, a nie Anglii" (Paris is the capital of France, (and) not England)
Well, but surely it won't show you just a contrast between subjects, there has to be something more. So okay, usually actions. Even if they are similar:
"Ona czyta gazetę, a ja książkę" (She is reading a newspaper, and I (am reading) a book".
Ah, okay, I see. Would I be safe to use "a" at all times even when talking about contrasting actions? Just for simplicity's sake until the point when I will start worrying about being completely fluent, or would it be a good idea to make sure I learn it now so that I know it and don't have to worry about it?
Well, contrasting actions do need "a", so yeah, that is safe ;)
"Ona czyta książkę i ja czytam książkę" (She is reading a book and I am reading a book) - this doesn't show contrast, the subjects are doing the same thing.
Forgive me, just realised my typo; I meant: Would I be safe to use "i" at all times, even when talking about contrasting actions?
No. You should carefully choose between i and a. Sometimes both are possible, but it's hard to put an example just out of my head.
Sure. "ten kobieta" makes no grammatical sense. "kobieta" is feminine (obviously), so the right form of "this" is "ta".
"ta kobieta i ten mężczyzna".
Those are anyway just 'interpretations' of the article "the", because it doesn't really have any translation. It's just that often we can understand "the" as "this", and your version is such an interpretation.
There needs to be a button to hear what the sentence is in polish. Great to be able to read it, better to pair the words to actually speaking it.
It's the subject here, so it must be in the nominative case. What you propose would be instrumental.
