Nominative (Mianownik) vs Accusative (Biernik)?

As you may or may not know, I just got my results of my GCSE Polish. For my writing part, I got a ghastly E grade. Yep, I know, not good ... ahem, anyway, onwards and upwards...

I had a thought today that I may have lost four simple marks. The first question read

'Imagine you are in your bathroom - write down four objects you see'.

Luckily, for me I could use my dictionary (that's right!), and gave the following four answers:

Lustra
Toaleta
Kąpiel
Szczoteczka do zębów

... but, should these have been given in the Nominative (straight from the dictionary), or the Accusative? I think nominative, but it's bugging me. Do you use Accusative only when the noun is in a sentence?

I went to the toilet - Poszedłem do toalety (toaleta in accusative case), or Byłem do toalety.

Thanks folks

It should be lustro and wanna instead of kąpiel.

Yes they should be in nominative because if it is a simple list.

Poszedłem do toalety (toaleta in accusative case), or Byłem do toalety.
After "do" you use genitive. I don't know if the rest of the sentance is correct, you cannot really directly translate from Polish to English, it is a risky business. You can't trust dictionaries either!

Byłem w toalecie w ruskim pociągu.
tubylem.fotowyprawy.com/contest/314/

W toalecie(locative)

Poszedłem do toalety.
This looks ok to me from what I have seen on the internet.
fabrykamemow.pl/memy/44615

By searching google you can sometimes get an idea if what you have written is correct or the internet really isn't 100% reliable either.

By searching google and reading a little of where you found the words or phrase will help with your Polish also. Sometimes you can find interesting stuff.

Good advice. When in doubt, statistics wins.
"Nasi chłopcy szczelą gola." Szczelą: 8780 google entries. Strzelą: 185,000.

I would go with accusative (they asked what you see in your bathroom), so that would be: lustro, muszlę klozetową, wannę (kabinę prysznicową?) and szczoteczkę do zębów.

catsoldier
Thanks for your replies catsoldier ... much appreciated.

chrzaszczbrzmi

Hi emiwis...

Does seeing things (nouns/objects) alter the case to which they belong? I'm a tad confused....but here I still plod on....

yes, word widzieć goes with accusative

kąpiel is an action not object

but using some of reverse engineering and my dictionary software

here are results: kąpiel -> bath -> wanna -> bathtub

I really recommend that you get the Hurra Po Polsku 1 textbook and exercise book.

You can buy them on amazon too but usually they are more expensive.
You could also get a few lessons from Kamila.
She says the first lesson is free. Go to her webpage, click on contact her etc. send her an e mail and you can arrange the first lesson which is free.

polishforums.com/general-language-17/want-impress-colleagues-monday-tell-weekend-polish-61741

The Hurra Series books won't teach you all you need to know but both contain exercises( with answers at the back) which would help you a lot. I don't think that it is possible to learn Polish grammar from the internet alone, without a book you are making the challenge of learning Polish cases/grammar extremely difficult if not impossible for yourself.

I will have to give up on you if you don't get yourself some book to help with your cases. :-( ...............(I am not claiming to know much but I would try to help if I could but you need to help yourself too, buy some books, this would be a giant step forward, getting lessons would be second only to living in Poland)

Best of luck.

They ask you to simply ennumerate four objects, so I'd go with the Nominative.
Alternatively, you could write a full sentence: widzę lustro, wannę, szczoteczkę do zębów - and then the nouns need to be declined.


How many points did you get for this part? Kąpiel is wrong, toaleta is doubtful at best, but szczoteczka do zębów is correct and lustra could also be ok if you have got more than one in your bathroom (Nom. pl.)

Why is kąpiel wrong?

I did absolutely shocking in this writing part. All I know, I got a grade E for this Writing part. I know it's the worse section, but trying to improve for next June!

Why can't I just copy (the nominative) from the dictionary?!

Because it's "taking a bath", the name of the activity.
Siedzę w kąpieli - I'm sitting in a bathtub full of water.
Kąpiel gotowa - the bath is ready.
"Kąpiel" basically means getting wet.
The thing that you have in your bathroom is called wanna. Kąpiel w wannie - taking a bath in a bathtub. But kąpiel w jeziorze means swimming in a lake.


You can, but the dictionary doesn't know which meaning of a word you need. You looked up "bath" and got "kąpiel". If you had checked "bathtub", you'd have got "wanna". Best to get a dictionary which gives examples of usage in sentences, this helps a lot.

I'm sure you'll do better next year :)

oh dear oh dear!

There's still a lot, and I mean a lot of work still to do....

At least I have approx 9 months to get ready. Thanks all so much for your marvelous help. ...

I do infact have a great Polish dictionary - I think it must be my eyes.....or nerves!

Merged: Accusative or nominative?

Quick question....if I were to say something like...'myślę że...' would it be nominative or accusative that follows? For example 'Myślę że Polacy są mili' or 'Myślę że Polaków są mili'? My instincts are telling me the former is right but I am unsure. Thank-you!

Neither, że is followed by a sentence and not a noun (occasionally the sentence is reduced to a word but the case comes from the sentence that's being reduced, not from że)

Remember the basic rules is that verbs and prepositions assign cases (that is thy cause a noun to be in a particular case) że is not a verb or preposition so it doesn't.

First think the thought Polacy są mili (an odd sentence but... whatever)

Then add "Myślę, że" to the front of it without changing anything in th sentence.

An example from that - a dialogue.

- Kto jest miły?
- Myślę, że Polacy. (you mean: "Myślę, że Polacy są mili", but it's no point of repeating the whole clause from the question)

Or...

- Kogo nie lubi Ania?
- Myślę, że Czechów. (an abbreviation of "Myslę, że Ania nie lubi Czechów.")

Exactly.