"Biegam szybciej niż ona."
Translation:I run faster than she does.
20 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1610
This is crazy. Nobody English would say "she" in this sentence. Strict grammar rules differ from reality here.
Exactly. It should be either "I run faster than her" or "I run faster than she does."
It's 'I run faster than her'...you wouldn't say I run faster than she in English it's not correct.
An English person would never say "than she." They would however say "than she does"
I wouldn't write or say "I run faster than she", but wasn't convinced it was actually wrong. Anyway, it prompted me to read this discussion which I enjoyed. Thank you to all who contributed!
I think it would be okay to say "I run faster than she does" (tak trochę "Biegam szybciej niż ona to robi"), but "I run faster than her" is definitely more natural.
Spot on. Could you explain why ona doesn't change case? I would have assumed ją (jej is the passive her, right?).
"Ona" is kind of like a subject of a second clause that is not really written. It's Nominative. Biegam szybciej, niż ona (biega). Biegam szybciej, niż gepard (biega).
"Biegam szybciej od niej" is an alternative (using Genitive).
It's the exact same in English. "She" is correct, and for most grammarians, it is the preferred pronoun. Some of us get grumpy when "than" is used as a preposition. Personally I think it's sloppy.
This writer is in the other camp, but see for example https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/than-what-follows-it-and-why
That makes sense. I noticed Polish usually uses commas to separate clauses .
I think you have hit the point here. I would much rather say "she" than "her", but having a comparison between verbs in mind, not one between pronouns. The "does" doesn't have to be expressed but would be understood implicitly.
For the same reason that Ona is nominative in Polish as the subject of the understood verb ran, "she" would be preferred in English of my youth but used with much less frequency in American English. As an English teacher, I would have marked "her" as the incorrect case of the pronoun in this sentence.
Why would you mark it as incorrect? Do you teach the language people actually use or "proper English" from decades or centuries ago? I'd mark "than she" as wrong and explain why it is wrong at this point in time.
- 191
There's a difference between something being wrong and being uncommon. Declaring something "wrong" requires an actual reason.
