"Potrzebujemy jego kota."

Translation: We need his cat.

[Draugtaur]

I need your clothes, your cat and your bike

[.BlanketHermit]

And maybe your wallet

[DanielDabrowski]

You made my day thanks

[Tine175312]

Another great example of how wonderfully mysterious Duolingo's exercise texts can be. ... "We need his cat." ... Who is we? Who is he? Most importantly what is so special about his cat???

[Wr.Catington]

The Chinese are starting their invasion maybe? (Don't upvote this pls

[Yola448704]

The sentence is awkward. The only scenario where it could make sense is:

You've just realized that you have mice at home. Your know your neighbor
has a cat... So, you give your wife an idea: "We need his cat" -
Potrzebujemy jego kota (genitive)/ (Potrzebny nam jego kot (nominative)

Actually, if the sentence was ever used outside of Duolingo, it would be in passive voice (the second option). Otherwise, the verb "potrzebować" is
used with quite small number of nouns associated with basic biological or spiritual needs (not "wants"). In that sense genitive (Dopełniacz) fulfills all
the most essential human needs:

We need bread/water/money/air/love/peace/time/God (to live) -
Potrzebujemy chleba/wody/pieniędzy/powietrza/czasu/Boga (by żyć)

We need ("want") other things and... people to make our lives easier, but...
they are not essential, so the verb "potrzebować" is used in passive form:

We need his cat/his car/his help/him/you - Potrzebny nam jego kot/
jego samochód/jego pomoc/(On) Jest nam potrzebny/(Ty) Jesteś nam potrzebny

[kacper1]

Ya you are right

[cjschopen]

"Why are some words that are so short in English SO LONG IN POLISH?" - me, earlier today

[Tine175312]

Because as a general rule of thumb the allocation of words to meanings is fairly arbitrary. It works the other way around as well though ... For example: "o" in Polish = "about" in English, making the English word a whopping five times as long as the Polish, shock horror!!! :O ;)

I know you probably weren't looking for an answer. You're not alone though. I get frustrated with long words too... Polish word grammar is frustratingly specific =D

[ChrisFlynn12]

Is Kota in the genitive here because it is 'his' cat or because it is the indirect object? Still struggling with cases even after reading so much about them :(

[Emwue]

It's because „potrzebować” is one of those verbs that need direct object in genitive.

If it helps, think of it like that – you rarely state the need of something you already possess, so on conceptual level, this verb negates your possession and therefore follows the normal rule of genitive with negations. ;)

[96314081311257]

Is jego kota actually considered to be a (direct) object by native speakers? :O To tell the truth, I've been thinking about this particular verb as if the sentence was "We have need of his cat."

[Emwue]

If that helps you, there is no reason why you shouldn't, but from the grammar point of view, it is indeed a direct object… and in fact, so is 'sugar' in a sentence like this:

• I need sugar

So… It's also English language that works like that. :P

[grey236]

How do I learn the infinitives of the verbs on this course? Are there rules to what the stem becomes (e.g. potrzebować becoming potrzebuj-)? The best resource I have requires the infinitive in order to conjugate.

[Neo15161]

ować and awać is the most easy ending
it is always uję for ować and aję for awać
ujesz and ajesz
uje and aje
ujemy and ajemy
ujecie and ajecie
ują and ają

I have a whole tabel which includes I think 80 / 90 % of all the grammar and different cases that can occur, including nouns, conjugation, all kind of prounouns , imperativ forms, tenses. as soon as it is done i will upload it here and a native speaker can look through it.

[EricMartin266385]

Please!

[Euhan1]

I think this pattern is common to all verbs that end in -ować. In general I would look it up if I wasn't sure. As has been said wiktionary (English or Polish) can often provide an answer.

[Jellei]

I don't know about rules, but English Wiktionary quite often (usually, even?) has entries for forms of verbs. For example, I searched for "potrzebujemy" and it said that it's first-person plural present of potrzebować.

[fred149559]

Is kota in accusative or genetive here ? I know the declension for kot is the same for both cases, but i just want to understand which case should be used here.

[Jellei]

Genitive. "potrzebować" is one of those verbs that just needs Genitive.

If it makes it easier, you can think of it as "to have the need of", and 'of' needs Genitive.