owenmorgan 24 Mar 2013 / #1Hey guys, just a quick question about what case 'music' is in here.czasmi uczę studentów muzykiI know studentów is genitive plural but I notice that muzyki is both nominative plural and genitive singular. In this case is it agreeing with the fact that 'students' is plural, or the fact that 'students' is genitive?I am thinking it is genetive singular, so its like 'sometimes I teach students of music', but please let me know if I am wrong ;)Thanks!
Kerwyn - | 3 25 Mar 2013 / #2Hey,in this case studentów is accusative plural of student (for male persons accusative plural = genetive plural) and muzyki is genitive singular of muzyka, i.e. what do you teach -> music (needs to be genetive) and whom do you teach -> students (needs to be in accusative)but it could also mean 'students of music', I am not sure, but I think that it would depend on the context.Regards,Matthias
Ziemowit 14 | 4035 25 Mar 2013 / #3It is in true fact ambigous (as you say), but the first thought of the native speaker would be "uczę studentów określonego przedmiotu -> muzyki, geografii, astronomii, pływania" rather than "nauczam/uczę studentów muzyki = uczę studentów kierunku 'muzyka' ". This ambiguity will disappear when you say: "uczę studentów muzyki pływania/podstaw informatyki".
OP owenmorgan 26 Mar 2013 / #4Thanks guys, ok the intention was to say 'I teach students of music', with the fact that I teach them music hopefully taken as a given.So uczę studentów muzyki means 'I teach students of music.... something', how would I make it clear I teach them music?Also, I don't want neccessarily to say I teach just male students, so how would I modify my original text to be non gender specific?
Ziemowit 14 | 4035 26 Mar 2013 / #5"Uczę muzyki studentów" (different word order) will clear this ambiguity in full.Saying "Uczę muzyki studentów muzyki" would be correct, clear and precise even if "muzyki" is said twice here."Students" is a noun in plural that means both male and female students when you refer to a mixed or gender-unspecified group of students. If you refer only to female students, you may also say "Uczę muzyki studentki muzyki". The noun "student" denotes a male student as well as a student in the general sense of the word, though when speaking of a female student, we will usually say: "Ona jest studentką muzyki/medycyny/archeologi/filologii angielskiej".