PolishForums LIVE  /  Archives [3]    
   
Archives - 2010-2019 / Language  % width 8

Do twoja kieszeni odkładaj koki! - am I saying it right?


whitopian1  8 | 3  
16 Sep 2012 /  #1
okay, so i am trying to say: "put the coke in your pocket!" (don't worry i don't use coke)

Do twoja kieszeni odkładaj koki!

i used odkładać for the verb "put" and i just guessed on what the imperative is.
i also changed the sentence around, becuase i commonly see location first, then action in polish.

please tell me if i got this right, and please correct if i got this wrong!
rybnik  18 | 1444  
16 Sep 2012 /  #2
please tell me if i got this right, and please correct if i got this wrong!

if you want to know how a natve would say it, you got it wrong.
Schowaj kok do kiesieni might be an alternative.
Yaskier  
16 Sep 2012 /  #3
Schowaj koke do kieszeni
boletus  30 | 1356  
16 Sep 2012 /  #4
Do twoja kieszeni odkładaj koki!

Rybnik is almost right and Yaskier is 99% right.

But I am going to tell you why your version was wrong.
The sentence is in imperative, so it should start with a verb. Your reordering was unusual to say the least; location in Polish is usually put at the end of a sentence, as in "Idę do szkoły", and not "Do szkoły idę". There is nothing particularly wrong with the latter though, as Polish is flexible in this respect - as Latin is. So the first correction would lead to:

"Odkladaj koki do twoja kieszenia"

The next big change: You would normally use the perfective form of a verb if your 'command' stresses the completion of the action, and the imperfective form if the command stresses the actual activity. So here you should use perfective "odłóż" (from odłożyć) rather than imperfective "odkładaj" (from odkładać):

"Odłóż koki do twoja kieszenia".

The noun "koka" should be used here in accusative case "kokę", rather than genetive "koki".
"Odłóż kokę do twoja kieszenia".

The noun "kieszeń" has a feminine form; the locative case is therefore "kieszeni" (not masculine "kieszenia"). Similarly the pronoun "twój" should agree with "kieszeń" declension-wise - "twojej kieszeni", not "twoja kieszenia":

"Odłóż kokę do twojej kieszeni".

One more tiny correction: it is better to use "swój" rather than "twój" here. See the thread Use of swoj.

"Odłóż kokę do swojej kieszeni".

Now we get a grammatically correct sentence, but still not quite perfect.
The pronoun "swojej" is redundant here, as there is clear from the context whose pocket we have in mind.
"Odłóż kokę do kieszeni".

The verb "odłożyć" implicates putting something aside rather than inside. "Odłóż to na chwilę (na potem)"; "odłóż to na bok". The correct version of this verb here is "włóż".

"Włóż kokę do kieszeni".

Finally, Rybnik and Yaskier correctly used another verb "schowaj" (rather than "włóż), which means "to hide".
"Schowaj kokę do kieszeni".

You could emphasize this sentence a bit, depending on your intent.

"Schowaj tę swoją kokę do kieszeni" - in a sense "go away, I do not need it, I do not want anything to do with it"
Vincent  8 | 796  
16 Sep 2012 /  #5
Excellent post and one of the best explanations I've seen on here. I think I've worked out that "kokę" is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the sentence :)
rybnik  18 | 1444  
16 Sep 2012 /  #6
Excellent post and one of the best explanations I've seen on here

+1
OP whitopian1  8 | 3  
16 Sep 2012 /  #7
you are amazing :)

i swear to god, you helped a lot. most people just correct the sentence for me and i have to figure out why i got it wrong, but you actually got in depth with it, and it makes much more sense to me.

again, thankyou so much!
brzmi  - | 1  
17 Sep 2012 /  #8
fantastic reply - good on ya

Archives - 2010-2019 / Language / Do twoja kieszeni odkładaj koki! - am I saying it right?Archived