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- "What books do you read?"
"What books do you read?"
Translation:Jakie książki czytasz?
34 Comments
it refused my czytasz for czytacie, but here I see it prefers czytasz. How can one know if is it pl. you or sing. you?(not only for this question, but in general). The question could be either.
You don't know whether the speaker is speaking to one person or more than one person if it's not deduced from context. Report it if it's marking either czytasz or czytacie wrong.
With a question like this, though, I imagine I am asking one person, czytasz, because I am expecting an answer to the question. If I am asking a group of people this question, I wouldn't expect them to all start telling me their answer at the same time.
In fact, both "czytasz" or "czytacie" are accepted. However, if you make some other error in your answer, Duo will show you the first answer in its list of good answers, which is the version with "czytacie" - this does not mean that "czytasz" is wrong.
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There is a lot of just memorizing and very many light bulb moments when I finally think I get it.
Why does it not start with "które"? I thought 'Jakie' was more similar to meaning "how" in English.
You probably meant jak (=how). Usually, które = which. You could use it here if you meant "which of these/those". If you want to ask in general you use jaki (= what in this meaning; what kind of books in general).
Exactly. You would use "które" if you had a finite set of choices, for example if the only books that existed were: a) Harry Potter series, b) LOTR series, c) Twilight series.
Well... I'd say, that "what" kinda functions as an adjective here - as it means "what kind". So "co" is out of the question here, it wouldn't make any sense.
"Które" would be used if you were selecting from a given range of books; please see other, more complete, answers to your question elsewhere in this forum thread.
Ok, thanks. As I see, Polish "który" is identical to the Ukrainian "котрий". Then everything is clear.
"jakie książki" are in biernik indeed. But as it's 'not masculine-personal' plural, it's identical to Nominative.
I can agree with "genre" (added), but we'd still prefer to keep "what" and not "which" as a direct translation of "jakie".
Using the wrong kind of "you" strikes again! I wrote "Jakie książki czytasz?" and it was marked wrong. The correct answer it gave me was "Jakie książki czytacie?" I am never going to get this right if I keep on using the singular "you." Shame on me.
In fact, both "czytasz" or "czytacie" are accepted. However, if you make some other error in your answer, Duo will show you the first answer in its list of good answers, which is the version with "czytacie" - this does not mean that "czytasz" is wrong.
Jakie książki czytasz is the exact answer I see above, at this very moment.
As with all these examples, the English construction using just "what..." instead of "what kind of, which kind of, what type of, what sort of" makes it ambiguous, because that same construction could also simply mean "which books do you read" (of the selection in front of us). People may actually say "What books do you read", but without context, using either "jakie" or "które" is valid.
This construction "What books do you read?" means exactly "Jakie książki czytasz?" and not które. We are certainly not talking about which 2 books from the ones on the table you are reading again and again. You don't need to add "what (kind of books)", because the meaning of brackets is implied, as long as you use present simple and what.
In a very strict sense of grammar, I agree that your reply is the best way to teach the difference, but this course also uses colloquial forms. Coming from the Polish, "czytasz" can be read as "do you read" or "are you reading". I think it would be hard to argue that "What books are you reading" always means "what kind of books are you reading" - I'm sure it is commonly used to mean "Which books are you reading" in colloquial speech.
We can agree that the meaning is close, but we decided a long time ago to be strict about those, people already have enough problems with them without us allowing mixing those.
In england, "what fish" would be considered slang. "Which" is the correct form here.
https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/vs/when-to-use-what-vs-which-for-correct-grammar.html
"Use “what” when there are lots of possible options or when you don’t know how many options there are". Seems to work perfectly fine for this sentence...
