"That bed is too small for her."

Translation: Ta postel je pro ni příliš malá.

[indyczech]

neakceptuje "ta postel je prilis mala pro ni
"

[svrsheque]

i added it, but it is a rather unlikely reading of the english sentence, with a strong emphasis on the last word: That bed is too small for HER. (And not for somebody else.)

[deactivated user]

It still doesn't.

[Mike307783]

Hi
Sorry for the basic question. i thought "pro" was only used with animate and in the accusative but i cant quite see how this sentence is accusative. Doh i thought i had cracked accusative a while ago!

[BoneheadBass]

The preposition pro can be used with a noun/pronoun of any gender and it is followed by the accusative case of the noun/pronoun. Here it is followed by ni, the accusative of ona. You may find this link helpful, as it addresses prepositions' meanings and case associations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_declension#Prepositions_with_certain_cases. (Kind of scary-looking at first, maybe...)

[Mike307783]

Thanks for your reply, it helped me realise what has happened, i am not going mad afterall:-) Duolingo have recently changed the definition and moved it from the tips in the waiting section (Prepositions for the accusative case) and added it to the tips in the Food section. It used to say it was used only with the accusative case. Clearly after your confirmation this is incorrect but may i ask if the bit about using it only with animate objects is correct please. Thanks for your help and thanks for the link :-)

[BoneheadBass]

To avoid (I hope) misleading you or anyone else, since I am a Fellow Learner, I wanted to check some additional resources before responding.

The preposition pro is used only with the accusative case, but it is not used exclusively with animate nouns or pronouns, because it has several meanings.

When used as meaning "for the sake of/benefit of someone," it does need to be followed by an animate noun/pronoun, no doubt because any "someone" is animate. :-)

But when it is used differently -- e.g., meaning to “fetch/pick up" (like going to the store for bread), or "in favor of" (like voting for something) -- the "only followed by an animate noun or pronoun" restriction does not apply.

I hope this is helpful, and perhaps one of the Czech natives on the course team will weigh in with more.

[Mike307783]

Thanks for your research Bass! Hopefully no-one will contradict this as i now understand it's use according to your explanation :-) Cheers