"Co osiągnąłeś w swoim życiu?"
Translation:What have you achieved in your life?
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I forgot to report - this sentence has an error, it should say "Co osiągnąłeś w swoim życiu, Pan Lebowski?" ;)
But this sentence is incorrect. It should be "Co osiągnąłeś w swoim życiu, Panie Lebowski?" or more polite "Co Pan osiągnął w swoim życiu, Panie Lebowski?".
Thanks for clarifying! I'm still learning for sure... I just really like that movie!
Perfective. Imperfective would be "osiągałeś", but it wouldn't make much sense in this sentence.
1284
"accomplish" yes, but not "did", I think. This suggests that your life is over and you're on your deathbed, or at the Pearly Gates.
- 805
Ben is right: The past tense given in the original sentence already indicates that the recipient seems to approach his last days on Earth, so that the interrogative “did” is compulsory.
"did you accomplish" instead of "have you accomplished"? Nothing here suggests to me the deathbed scenario, that's literally a sentence that my father could ask me ;)
- 805
I think that for a scenario matching your father asking you this sentence would require the addition of a word that would indicate a recapitulation of your milestones in life, something like ever (już), and perhaps—even most likely—a reshuffled word order, at least in English. “Did you ever accomplish something in life?”—This I could imagine better to be asked at the height of your life, rather than at the end.
But sentence: "I finally reached success" is correct and means " W końcu osiągnąłem sukces." Reach doesn't means only "sięgać" in physical sens.
OK, I asked a native and: 1. you're right, generally, but 2. apparently, this wouldn't seem very natural in this sentence.
- 1284
Of course "reach" can be in a used non-physical meaning, "to reach agreement", for example. And "reach success" does seem to exist, but sounds a bit strange to me, and I would suggest that the natural collocation would be "achieve".
But if you asked a native speaker "What have you reached in your life?", I think the most likely answer would be, "Sorry, what do you mean? I don't follow you"
What have you accomplished in your life is questioning what goals have you reached up to this point in your existence. There is no implication that you have reached the end of your string, a little colloqialism tossed in for relief. thrown in to demonstrate the point.
Although not literally the same, 'with your life' sounds better than 'in your life'
Could just be the religious nature of the upbringing I had, all the sentences where 'with' is better are things like "what have you achieved with these tools?", we were brought up considering life as a tool towards the eternal. Even though the religious thought behind it fades, the language influence will still be there. Could be too niche to add?
Is swoim redundant in the Polish sentence? Whose life but your own... it's not really needed in the English sentence either.
I think it feels fairly natural, but it's definitely not needed. We accept the answer without it.
I know that in many sentences a possessive so obvious as this one could even be considered wrong, but somehow 'w swoim życiu' seems like it can really use it.
