Language /
Masculine Accusitive / Genitive - fruit, vegetables... [7]
Every grammar book says that the verb
jeść governs the accusative case, e.g.
Jem (kogo? co?) gruszkę/zupę/cebulę.
The problem here is that the accusative form of masculine nouns does not have its own ending. It equals either the genetive or the nominative.
There are ANIMATE nouns like
człowiek, strażak, Murzyn, Chińczyk, koń, pies. They all have Acc.Sg. = Gen.Sg. (E.g.
Widzę człowieka/Murzyna/konia.)
There are also INANIMATE nouns like
stół, młotek, kamień, drzewo. They have Acc.Sg. = Nom.Sg. (E.g.
Widzę stół/kamień/drzewo.)
Unfortunately there is a large group of nouns that are inanimate by the meaning but decline like animate nouns. The most frequent examples of these are: names of dances (
walc, mazurek), names of money (
dolar, rubel), names of cars, cigarettes, alcohols (
mercedes, opel, pilzner). They have Acc.Sg. = Gen.Sg. (E.g.
Tańczę walca. Mam dolara. Kupiłem mercedesa. Wypiłem pilznera.)
The problem is even bigger that as the language changes there are more and more nouns that fall into the third group. Sometimes both forms are correct but in many cases the Acc. = Nom. form is preferred in formal and careful language. Besides exceptions are numerous - this is Polish :)
If an adjective is used it should be in the same case like the noun:
Nom.Sg. wysoki człowiek, twardy kamień
Gen.Sg. wysokiego człowieka, twardego kamienia
Acc.Sg. wysokiego człowieka, twardy kamień
