"Gdybyś był bardziej miły, dostałbyś pozwolenie."
Translation:If you were nicer, you would get permission.
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pozwolenie vs pozwolenia .... I'm having grammar trouble here ... I thought that the 'would get' would make 'pozwolenie' into 'pozwolenia' ....... (help!! >_< )
simple "get", or "would get" takes Accusative; when negated, it will change into Genitive.
Theoretically, "byłbyś dostał" or other similar form depending on whom exactly you are talking to.
Practically, plusquamperfectum is almost not used in Polish at all. Ergo, it would rather be said the same as in this sentence. Added now.
Thanks ... Intuitively, would you expect the Polish sentence to refer to a past event ('would have got') or a possibility ('would get') or either with equal probability?
BTW the 'the' in the translation above is unnatural.
Oh yeah, I remember discussions about "permission". Changed now.
Frankly... I think it can only refer to the past here. Does that mean that the translation is wrong now? The conditionals in English have always been a nightmare to me.
Good, that's what I thought, and I'll put it down to my heritage Polish intuition. But in that case, yes - the translation implies 'Try being nicer and you might get permission' (in the future).
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Why the present/future form isn't correct, e.i.: "if you are nicer, you would get the permission"?
That's just not how English conditionals work. This is some complicated stuff... a bit illogical to a Polish learner.
As far as I know, that's rather unusual, at least in a sentence like this...
It's not unusual, it's actually pretty common in USA to say if you were more nice.
"More nice" is not correct. It's used because the educational system is bad.
I am completely confused now ^^, "If you would have been nicer, you would get permission", was, as of yet, not accepted. Jellei, you mentioned it was added and should be correct, or Alik, was your reply to me the version that should be used? Please enlighten a confused mudkipz °=°
In my opinion, those are the six acceptable conditional clauses:
- Zero conditional: If + present simple, present simple.
- Conditional I: If + present simple, future simple.
- Conditional II: If + past simple, would + infinitive
- Conditional III: If + past perfect, would + present perfect
- (Mixed conditional: I-II: If + present simple, would + infinitve)
- Mixed conditional II-III: If + past perfect, would + infinitive
Everything else is either wrong, or non-standard.
(disputed/not generally applicable)
Can you give an example of this one? - Mixed conditional: I-II: If + present simple, would + infinitve I can't think of one, except maybe a subjunctive, like 'If I were you, I would eat cake.'
Why 'friendly', though? I see this sentence as something that a father could say to his son, and I really don't see "more friendly" there...
Why not friendly? I mean, friendly and nice are pretty synonymous. If you want to use the father and son scenario then said father might want the son to be more friendly to company...or a employer could want a customer service employee to be more friendly to customers. I can think of many instances. Also if you insist that this is incorrect then what would be the more accurate Polish translation of friendly? Thanks
After a second thought and a +1 for your opinion from one of our moderators... OK, I guess it can work indeed, I will add it.
The literal translation of "friendly" is "przyjacielski", which I guess is not as common word as its English equivalent.
Thanks! I'll have to find a way to incorporate 'przyjacielski' into a conversation :)
I was feeling a bit more confident that I had a handle on Perfective/Imperfective, and this Conditional lesson has upended that. How do you know when to use one or the other?
Could you share what made you confused despite the fact that you thought you had a grasp on that already?
Generally the rule should still be similar: perfective refers rather to completing something (once) and imperfective either implies doing something more times, or that we don't know/care about whether it's completed, we care about the process. Usually. Of course sometimes it's more complicated.
Thank you for being such a kind teacher. Makes me look forward to my Duolingo lessons. I think that my confusion stems from thinking that conditional is something that might happen, hasn't happened yet and whether it happens once or repeatedly is not obvious all the time. I would like to go to the opera. I would like to once, or get a subscription? Perfective or imperfective? I guess I was just looking to see if there was a guideline as to when to use one or the other.
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I must now lodge the unusual complaint that my answer, "If you were nicer, you would get a permission" was accepted, but shouldn't have been. "Permission" is one of those unquantifiable words that can never get an indefinite article attached. (I typed this answer accidentally: I started out typing "a permit" but then changed my mind and wrote "permission" but forgot to delete "a".)
OK, the option to write "a permission" is now removed (not by me, but Alik didn't comment :D).
