<\/p>\n
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th<\/sup> (<\/span>pi\u0105tek<\/span><\/strong>, trzynastego<\/strong>) but instead of writing about superstitions (<\/span>przes\u0105dy<\/span><\/strong>), I thought we should take another look at liczebniki<\/strong> (numbers) instead. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n A number (no pun intended) of you had questions about numbers, and since they are all very valid questions, it’s more convenient to answer them in a separate blog post, instead of diddling in the comments section.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n So, let\u2019s take it from the top:<\/span><\/p>\n Pinolona wanted to know how to order food and specify the quantity. She already knows how it works with drinks: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It all comes down to cases, really. When you ask for something, in Polish you ask for kogo? co?<\/strong> These questions answer to only one specific case, and that is the accusative case. <\/span><\/p>\n UPDATE<\/span>:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n REVISED GRAMMAR EXPLANATION BELOW!<\/strong><\/p>\n After I posted it yesterday, I’ve been thinking all night about pretzels, and finally got up to consult my brand new “S\u0142ownik poprawnej polszczyzny<\/strong>” and wouldn’t you know it, precel<\/strong> is one of those evil nouns that has not one, but TWO<\/span> correct accusative forms. So, Pinolona was right and my original explanation was correct, too.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n So, if you ask for precle<\/strong> (pretzels), you say this: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Just a reminder – precel<\/strong> is a non-personal masculine noun. And a totally confusing noun, because in the accusative form you can say either:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n But if you say \u201cjednego precla<\/strong>\u201d you might also be using the genitive case of this horrible noun. That one answers to questions: kogo? czego?<\/strong> In casual speech you will hear plenty of people asking for \u201cjednego precla<\/strong>\u201d or “jeden precel<\/strong>“, and as it turns out – both are correct. Just be careful! When asking for stuff, you use the accusative case, when talking about stuff you don’t have – the genitivie case. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead of precel<\/strong>, let’s try to buy rower<\/strong> (a bicycle, also a non-personal, non-animate masculine noun) and see what happens. Not that you’d ever try to buy more than one bike, but who knows, you might be buying for a whole family, ok?<\/p>\n \n \n <\/span><\/p>\n You can see the difference super clearly when you start asking for feminine nouns, for example \u2013 <\/span>r\u00f3\u017ce<\/span><\/strong> (roses). Prosz<\/span>\u0119<\/span> o (kogo? co?): <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n So far, so good\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Now, take a look at those roses in the genitive case (kogo? czego?<\/strong>):<\/span><\/p>\n jednej r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span>y, dw<\/span>\u00f3<\/span>ch r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span>, trzech r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span>, czterech r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span>, pi<\/span>\u0119<\/span>ciu r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span><\/strong>,<\/strong> etc.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n You wouldn\u2019t ask for \u201cpi<\/span>\u0119<\/span>ciu r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span>\u201d at the florist, now would you? You\u2019d ask for (kogo? co?<\/strong>) pi<\/strong><\/span>\u0119\u0107<\/span> r<\/span>\u00f3\u017c<\/span><\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n So, if you are still in doubt when it comes to numbers, try to quickly check how those numbers behave when attached to a noun of a different gender. Just avoid those nouns that have two correct accusative forms and you should be fine. <\/span><\/p>\n This ties in nicely with Russ\u2019s comment about the accusative\/genitive confusion. Here\u2019s a copy of my reply to him (with additional information added for everyone’s benefit):<\/span><\/p>\n If you are just talking about straight plurals, without any numerals, then you have psy, kobiety<\/strong>, (dogs, women) etc\u2026 THEN their accusative case is psy, kobiety<\/strong>. That’s just simple plurals. Things get really strange if you add a number to the noun.<\/p>\n If you say “pi\u0119\u0107 ps\u00f3w<\/strong>” (five dogs), that answers both to: kto? co?<\/strong> (nominative) and kogo? co?<\/strong> (accusative). In the genitive case, it would answer to kogo? czego? – pi\u0119ciu ps\u00f3w<\/strong>.<\/p>\n So, for example:<\/p>\n Now the difference is very clear.<\/p>\n I thought reposting this comment here would be a good idea, since those numbers are indeed funky and make the nouns behave differently than they would otherwise normally do.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n And finally, Barb had a real killer. She wanted to know how to translate the following sentence: \u201cLucas and two of his friends got lost.\u201d<\/em> Ouch! How closely translated do you need it?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n This would be how it should look in Polish. If you say \u201c<\/span>\u0141<\/span><\/strong>ukasz i dwaj koledzy<\/strong>\u201d, that appears to be correct, but sounds goofy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n So, just to show you that even native Poles would mess this one up, I decided to conduct a little poll and ask what the masses on the street would say. Or rather, the masses in my living room, as I had a house full of people at that time. The masses were more or less equally divided between \u201c<\/em><\/span>\u0141<\/span>ukasz i jego dwaj koledzy zab<\/span>\u0142\u0105<\/span><\/em>dzili\u201d<\/em> and \u201c<\/em><\/span>\u0141<\/span>ukasz i <\/span>dw\u00f3ch<\/span> jego koleg<\/span>\u00f3<\/span>w zab<\/span>\u0142\u0105<\/span><\/em>dzili.\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Which one is correct? I consulted my brand new \u201cS<\/strong><\/span>\u0142<\/span><\/strong>ownik poprawnej polszczyzny<\/strong>\u201d and according to the explanations there it\u2019s \u201ckto<\/strong> (who) zab<\/strong><\/span>\u0142\u0105<\/span>dzi<\/span>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n