"Jego siostra ma nożyczki."
Translation:His sister has the scissors.
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Does "nożyczki" have a more literal translation, such as "little knives," or something else to this effect?
"Nożyczki" obviously has the word for knife in it, so I was just curious if "scissors" are actually called by another name in Polish! Thanks!
No, it's a basic word. But you're right that they have knives in it, I never though about it.
Although the basic diminutive from "nóż" would be "nożyk", so plural "nożyki". Very close, though.
It's pluralia tantum, so there's no way to guess it, can be either one or many.
scissors are always plural both in English and in Polish, so there can't be "a scissors"
Are nożyczki masculine or feminine?
Are they the plural of a hypothetical *nożyczka or of *nożyczek?
Would I say Nie mam nożyczek or Nie mam nożyczków?
Does Polish have special numbers for counting such pluralia tanta, like Slovak jedny nožnice, dwoje nožníc, troje nožníc, štvoro nožníc "one, two, three, four pairs of scissors"?
You'd say "Nie mam nożyczek". Hypothetically... well, this proves that hypothetically they could be feminine, I've never thought about it.
Yes, we do have collective numerals. jedne nożyczki, dwoje nożyczek, troje nożyczek, czworo nożyczek... but this sounds very weird, 'dwie pary nożyczek' (two pairs of scissors) feels a lot more natural to me. Although obviously 'dwoje nożyczek' is perfectly correct.
Because I'm not perfect. ;) I added "some" to the list of translations but accidentally left off a rather necessary /. facepalm It should be fixed now.
I don't understand what is the difference between saying "his sister has a scissors" and "his sister has the scissors." Shouldn't both be correct?
No - "scissors" is plural and so "a scissors" is not (usually) used in English. A bit like "trousers / pants" or "spectacles / glasses": we don't say "I am wearing a pants" or "she wears a glasses".
this suggests a precise pair of scissors, by the use of the definite article. Why can it not be 'his sister has some scissors'?
Polish doesn't use articles, so it could be either a precise pair or a generic pair. Added "some".