"Nie jestem mądra."

Translation: I am not smart.

[Paragonium]

Ah, that reminds me of a word I learned a while back - "Mądrala" (smartarse)

[LydiaKelle1]

I entered clever instead of smart. Does madra not mean clever too?

[Jellei]

I think it's an even better translation. Added, of course.

[ARF-X]

I would say smart is more sprytna

[NicoleTurn8]

Clever means more sprytny then mądry

[OpalFeciat]

You okay duolingo?

[Ollyfer]

Maybe Duo said it tongue-in-cheek, in a sense of self-irony. :-)

[JerryMcCarthy99]

British English uses "smart" to mean "well-dressed". I'm guessing that you wouldn't use "mądry" to compliment someone on their nice new suit!

[OmegaPiSquared]

smart means clever too

[NicoleTurn8]

Nope

[JanKLinde]

I didn't know that, and it really surprises me. We use "smart" in German in a similar way, but at school they taught us not to do it in English, even though they always pretended to teach us British English.

[JerryMcCarthy99]

Well, to be honest, the use of "smart" to mean "clever"/"intelligent" is creeping into use in Br. E.

[JanKLinde]

Fun fact: the Spanish comic series "Mortadelo y Filemón" (in English "Mort & Phil") is called "Clever & Smart" in German.

[Jellei]

Interesting name... "Mortadela" here is a type of cheap, low quality ham :D

EDIT: OK, seems that it's "Mortadella" in other languages, so it's less funny.

[JanKLinde]

Yes, I know that, too, although it's rather sausage than ham... But the original Mortadella from Italy is a high quality product :-)

[TwinTip]

When would I use "mądrą"?

[Jellei]

If you added some noun, thus creating a noun phrase ("smart woman", for example), then it would go into Instrumental and be "Nie jestem mądrą kobietą".

[michmo]

Do you know a woman who says it?

[Mrs.Mop]

Don't know what nicole means by Nope. Eg. He is top of his class. Yes he's very smart. Meaning clever.

[Jellei]

Yeah, but that was about the 'smart' = 'elegant' meaning. Doesn't work in Polish.

[EdwardKeat3]

It seems funny to me to have Duolingo use the male voice but then the feminine adjective mądra. I would think it would be preferable if they tied their voices' genders to their adjectives. Presumably, a male in Poland would say Nie jestem mądry

[Jellei]

Yes, he would.

I would also prefer having the right voice with the right sentence, but at least for now it is impossible to ensure that.

[Reinier330882]

I do know someone with the name Mądra (pan i pani mądry/a )
When we are at their house en open the door, can my wife use this sentence to tell the person in front of me that "Nie jestem Mądra" (but a guest). Or should she use : "Nie jestem pani Mądra "

[Jellei]

I'd go with "Nie nazywam się Mądra", but I guess "Nie jestem Mądra" works as well, although something sounds colloquial about it, plus of course it has the joking layer of "I am not smart". I think that your other version, which introduces a noun phrase "pani Mądra" should take Instrumental (Nie jestem panią Mądrą). Not that it sounds like a likely thing to say, to my ears...

[Ubeogesh]

So if mądry is the best translation for clever, what is the best translation for wise? Or there is no distinction?

[Ollyfer]

As per the translator I am using, it is in fact the same word. But it may be wrong as its corpus of words is rather meagre, so this is up to debate.

[Ubeogesh]

To jest barzo ważne pytanie! Nie chciałbym błędno nazywać Dartha Plaguiesa.

[Jellei]

"bardzo" (typo), "błędnie" :)

I think like there isn't exact equivalence. The closest meaning of "mądry" seems to be "wise" in my opinion, but in fact "mądry" tends to be used whenever English would use "smart" or "clever".

[Ubeogesh]

what about "sprytny"?

[alik1989]

The Proto-Slavic *mǫdrъ used to have the meaning 'wise', but I suspect that through inflationary use of the term, its meaning eventually became indistinguishable from 'smart/clever'.

But yeah, there are alternatives such as sprytny, bystry, inteligentny, which don't have this shade of meaning.

[MarkKulka]

Jestem osłem.

[Jellei]

Lepiej niż posłem.