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- "Я не їм ковбасу."
13 Comments
562
So Ukrainian also uses accusative for object of a negated sentence, like Russian and unlike Polish? Would genitive always be incorrect?
452
Genitive is usually used when you speak about something in general (all fruit, all people), and accusative when you speak about particular person, particular sausage that is front of you on the table. But it seems to me that this course doesn't follow that..
In English it is correct to say "I don't eat sausage" when meaning sausage in general. One would also say "I don't eat pizza" meaning pizza in general. One wouldn't say "I don't eat pizzas."
If one does not eat a specific kind of sausage, then one would say "I don't eat this (kind of/particular) sausage" meaning that one sausage in particular and is most correct when including "kind of" or "particular."
In referring to a singular sausage on one's plate that one does not eat, for example, due to dislike of that exact sausage, one would say "I won't eat this sausage" or "I don't like this sausage" or "I don't want to eat this sausage" which is an entirely different sentence in both languages from "I don't eat sausage."