"This man says that he loves you."

Translation: Ten mężczyzna mówi, że cię kocha.

[GreatDouble]

As I understood from previous lessons, "pan" and "pani" is formal "you". So can it be "że panią kocha"?

[Jellei]

Yes, that's correct. Added formal options.

[tommyb13]

Could you not use 'Ten mężczyzna mówi, że on kocha ciebie'?

[Jellei]

Not really. "On" is so redundant here that it actually suggests "John says that Matthew loves you" (or at least looks strange), and "kocha ciebie" seems like you vere stressing 'you, and not Susan'.

[tommyb13]

Okay. Thanks

[khristinna17]

Is the word order so important in Polish? Why is not "ten mężczyzna mowi że kocha cię" accepted?

[Jellei]

If only you are able to avoid putting a pronoun at the end of the sentence, you should indeed avoid it. You have another place to put "cię" (że cię kocha), so you should use it.

[Hereandthere715]

I realize that we are supposed to avoid putting pronouns at the end of the sentence. However, I have not yet been able to figure out which words make it okay to put the pronoun before. Do you know of a place that I could find a more detailed explanation of pronoun usage? (Actually, I'd love a detailed description of sentence structure in general, if you know where I could find that.)

[DorothyRoholt]

Is there a rule about when one uses cie and ciebie? Is "on cie kocha" the same as "kocham ciebie?"

[Jellei]

Well, it's definitely not the same, because the first one is "He loves you" and the second is "I love you".

"cię" is the basic form, the neutral one. "ciebie" is emphatic. So "Kocham cię" is the most common way to say "I love you", and "Kocham ciebie" is like "I don't love John! I love YOU!".

"ciebie" shows some contrast. So for example a short dialogue between a couple can look like: "- Kocham cię. - Ja ciebie też" (I love you too, although you omit the verb and say something like "I you too") or "- Kocham cię. - A ja kocham ciebie." (And I love you).

[DorothyRoholt]

Thanks very much, Jellei! I have never seen the comparison written in such a clear, colloquial way. The subtleties are so important in every language. I had heard previously that cie and ciebie are pretty interchangeable, and your explanation definitely says otherwise.

[Popo-lsku]

"Ten pan mówi, że cię kocha." <--- Please U 2 add.

[Jellei]

Okay, added.

[Jan.K.M]

"Ten mężczyzna mówi że on cię kocha" Apparently Duo didn't like the on. I'm certain it's valid, just adds a bit of emphasis.

[alik1989]

Sounds like 'ten mężczyzna' and 'on' are different people. Kind of ambiguous...

[s.c.reardon]

I’m just stopping by to vent about the fact that I frequently use the verb lubić when the correct
verb is kochać. The reason for this obnoxious habit is that I studied Russian for many years and the Russian verb meaning ‘to love’ is a cognate with lubić. There are lots of ‘faux amis’ with Polish and Russian, but lubić vs. kochać gets me almost every time. Can anyone relate?

[Jellei]

All the Russian speakers here definitely do relate ;)